Almost 300 people came together in Albuquerque’s downtown on Aug. 20 to mobilize against a referendum that would ban abortions in the city after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Such a ban would affect the whole state, as all three clinics that provide abortions are located in Albuquerque.
The terrorist anti-abortion group Operation Rescue as well as “Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust,” a spin-off group headed by one of OR’s former leaders, Jeff White, sent groups of individuals into Albuquerque this month, to collect petition signatures. If 12,000 signatures are validated, the City Council would then be required to place the question on an election ballot. The petitioners reportedly collected 27,000 signatures.
Hijacking holocaust rhetoric
SAH claims that anyone born after 1973 — the year Roe v. Wade was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court — is a survivor of a holocaust. Its founder Jeff White was a leader in Operation Rescue, an organization that has advocated violence and the murder of doctors providing abortions.
The “survivors” group held a protest at the city’s Holocaust Memorial Museum, demanding that an exhibit on the “abortion holocaust” be held there.
The anti-abortion organizations’ rhetoric equating abortion with mass murder is similar to the campaign of terror waged in Kansas in 2009. Dr. George Tiller, who braved months of death threats and protests by Operation Rescue, was shot to death at his church on May 31, 2009. The killer, Scott Roeder, was a contributor to OR and was regularly advised on where Tiller would be.
Dr. Tiller’s colleague in Kansas, a medical doctor who today provides abortions in Albuquerque, is now being directly targeted by OR and SAH. They held a protest last week at his home.
Bernalillo county, where Albuquerque is located, will consider an ordinance banning protests at or near an individual’s home, in response.
Meanwhile, the City Clerk’s office, which oversees elections, did not qualify the signatures of the anti-abortion petition in time to be placed on the Oct. 8 general-election ballot, so a special election may have to be called in November, if the 12,000 required signatures are certified valid. About 27,000 signatures were collected.
Mass action in Albuquerque
In New Mexico, a state with many progressive struggles in its history, community organizations are mobilizing to protest Operation Rescue and similar groups and the terror they represent. The rally on Monday was indicative of the determination of many to stop the fascists. Women’s rights, Jewish, mid-wives, medical and other organizations and individuals across New Mexico are mobilizing, and protesting. The American Civil Liberties Union has declared that the proposed referendum would be a constitutional violation. Planned Parenthood, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD) and others rallied, handed out petitions and flyers, and promised to fight to defend women’s reproductive rights. “We’re here in support of women’s lives,” Jessica Gonzales-Rojas, executive director at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
