Madison, WI
March 2, 2019

Text by Dayna Long – Madison Abortion Defense

Today at the Wisconsin State Capitol, organizations and activists who support abortion rights participated in Save Abortion Together: A Rally for Choice. The rally, organized by Madison Abortion Defense (MAD), was to demonstrate the overwhelming support for Planned Parenthood and expanding abortion rights and access to abortion. It was also a call for an end to clinic harassment by abortion opponents.

Every spring and fall, the national anti-abortion campaign, 40 Days for Life, encourages anti-abortion demonstrators to show up outside of abortion clinics, leading to widespread harassment and intimidation of both patients and clinic staff. In addition, a local group called Vigil for Life attempts to organize a year-round presence outside a Madison Planned Parenthood clinic that provides abortion care: this clinic is one of just four that provides abortion care in the whole state of Wisconsin. While their views are marginal in the Madison community, they draw support from local churches and religious organizations. They are rarely held accountable for their actions and inappropriate behavior.

“No one would think it was acceptable for people to stand outside of any other doctor’s office to hassle patients like that,” says MAD Member Jamie Beam. “They say that they’re just out there to pray but what they’re really doing is harassing people and playing into the history of threats, intimidation, and violence that characterizes the anti-abortion movement. The fact that people are doing this in Madison and that there are churches supporting them is shameful. It’s high time the whole community stood up and told them to stop.”

Furthermore, today’s rally gained a greater importance in light of the Trump administration’s announced “domestic gag rule” which would block providers receiving Title X funding from referring patients for abortion care, as well as forcing abortion providers who receive funding to physically separate their abortion services from other family planning services they provide. The change is a clear and unprecedented attack on abortion, and yet another on Planned Parenthood.

In addition to MAD, other sponsors included: #Fight4Her, the Madison chapter of the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, Democratic Socialists of America, International Socialist Organization, Socialist Alternative, Party for Socialism and Liberation, IWW General Defense Committee, Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement, and from UW Madison, Students for Reproductive Justice, Young Democratic Socialists of America, and Sex Out Loud.

Save Abortion Together: A Rally for Choice kicks off several weeks of resistance to anti-abortion clinic harassment in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit Madison Abortion Defense on Facebook for event days, times and location.