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Opposing Abortion Rallies Flood San Francisco with 9,000
By
Shannon Snow
January 27, 2005
An estimated 9,000 people took to the streets of downtown San
Francisco on Saturday to attend either a pro-life or a pro-choice
rally on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the Roe
v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. No violence
was reported and police made no arrests.
Pro-life protesters from across Northern California attended
the Walk for Life, a gathering sponsored by 12 organizations
and churches from Sacramento, San Jose and Marin. Beginning at
11 a.m. in Justin Herman Plaza on Market Street, the event featured
speakers, songs and prayers, followed by a two-mile march.
A few blocks away, the March to Defend Women's Health and Rights
began at the intersection of Powell and Market. Spearheaded by
the San Francisco Area Pro-Choice Coalition, organizers blasted
hip-hop music, chants and speeches from a large truck to thousands
of people. The truck later lead the dense crowd of participants,
stretching more than three blocks, to meet the opposing protestors.
"It is time for the debate to be over," pro-life Walk
for Life organizer Dolores Meehan told the crowd around the time
when the two opposing groups converged. Pro-choice advocates
surrounded the edges of the plaza where the pro-life demonstration
was held.
The two groups were easily distinguished. The majority of pro-lifers
carried black signs reading "Women Deserve Better," and
many wore bright orange t-shirts. Pro-choice advocates were less
homogenous. They carried a myriad of signs with messages ranging
from the personal to the political, including "What's left
of Roe is vanishing," "Keep your God off my body," and "Moron
with a war on."
Pro-choice participants David and P.J. Jamison, a married couple
from the Castro district, said the demonstration was their first
political protest.
"If Bush was to say all men should have to have a vasectomy,
that’s one thing. But this is all about women's rights," P.J.
Jamison said. "We have a 15-year-old granddaughter, and
her body is hers."
Ms. Jamison also said that she felt compelled to attend because
the right-wing coalition organizing the pro-life protest was
busing people into the neighborhood that she felt did not represent
the opinions of most San Francisco residents. Others in the pro-choice
camp expressed this view as they heckled pro-lifers with the
chant "Whose city? Our city!"
But San Francisco resident and pro-life supporter Mary De La
Cruz said that many in the Bay Area support life.
"Abortion hurts women and it hurts society," said
De La Cruz, who attended the march with her mother and son. "I'm
here to stand up for women's rights."
Others in the anti-abortion camp rejected the notion that their
views are in the minority.
Speaker Reverend Clenard Childress, regional director of the
Life Education and Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.), told pro-life
supporters, "Last November 2, the media couldn't figure
out what was going on. They didn't want to talk about moral values.
But your voices prevailed."
He added, "The civil rights movement used to be black and
Baptist. Now it's white and Catholic."
Beginning at noon, the Walk for Life participants marched in
the streets while the pro-choice advocates protested from the
sidewalk. Police officers blockaded Market, Embarcadero, and
Jefferson streets with motorcycles, stopping traffic for hours
as the two groups processed.
Police formed a line with their bodies to separate the opposing
groups. Both groups registered their protests with the city,
allowing the police department to be organized and prepared.
Some officers carried crowd control sticks, but did not use them.
A police officer on the scene did not know the number of officers
dispatched for the protest.
"A lot," said the officer, who did not wish to be
identified. "But not as many as for the war demonstration.
This will be an easy day for us."
During the nearly six hours of rallying, there were no serious
altercations between the two sets of protestors. The pro-choice
demonstrators did make a few attempts to infiltrate the pro-life
crowd, and made ironic shouts from within the group. Among them: "Stop
Menstruation!" and "More babies to kill Iraqis, now!"
Police also had to disperse of approximately 30 pro-choice protestors
who blocked the parade route by sitting down at the intersection
of Jefferson and Leavenworth streets. The disruption and resulting
bottleneck caused a delay and eventual detour in front of the
Hooters restaurant on 353 Jefferson. During the delay an enterprising
young Hooters waitress began passing out free sample chicken
wings to protestors on the street, some of which grabbed the
wings as they took the detour.
Many pro-choice activists got wind of the detour via text messages
sent to their cellular phones. Those registering on the web site http://jan22action.riseup.net received
almost 20 text updates throughout the day on the protest events.
Both demonstrations ended peacefully in Aquatic Park at 2:45 p.m.
Contact Shannon Snow at ssnow@stanford.edu
