JOIN US! PRESS CONFERENCE MONDAY 7/14 @ 9AM
PRESS CONFERENCE: SisterSong, SisterLove and SPARK defend Women of Color’s Right to Abortion
Atlanta, GA – Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, SisterLove and SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW will stand with leaders from the Atlanta community to denounce Operation Rescue/Operation Save America at Sistersong’s national headquarters, MONDAY, July 14, 2008 at 9:00am. Sistersong, SisterLove and SPARK will stand with women of the civil rights community, religious leaders, and medical professionals to affirm women of color’s right to abortion and the need for reproductive justice for everyone.
Operation Save America (OSA), a radical right to life (anti-choice) organization, is hosting a National event from July 12-19 in Atlanta to protest abortion clinics and target Black women and their families as perpetrators of black genocide”. Their racially charged outreach, including a mailer reaching 8,000 people in the metro Atlanta area, strategically invokes and misuses words and ideas from the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to affirm the rights of individuals, not deprive individuals of rights.
Janis Mathis of Rainbow PUSH, Helen Butler of Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and Dr. C.T. Vivian, longtime Civil Rights leader are scheduled to speak.
WHAT: Press Conference denouncing Operation Save America
WHEN: MONDAY, July 14, 2008, 9:00 a.m.
WHERE: Sistersong National Headquarters, 1237 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., SW, Atlanta, GA 30312 (404-756-2680)
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WEEK’S CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Posted by mia
Repro Health Heroes of the Week: SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!
July 11th, 2008
Or cut and paste into your browser: http://reprohealthhub.nirhealth.org/2008/07/11/repro-health-heroes-of-the-week-spark-reproductive-justice-now/
“OSA/OR’s week of protests comes hot on the heels of their protest of Atlanta’s Gay Pride—a parade the OSA/OR website describes was “put on by the devil” for “those enslaved by homosexuality.” The coming week’s festivities of fear represent the continuation of what OSA/OR calls the “Battle for Atlanta.” (read more)
Posted by mia
Women of Color Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America
July 11th, 2008
Women of Color Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America
By SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective
The week of July 12-19 2008, Operation Save America, a violent anti-choice and racist organization, will fill the city of Atlanta with their message of hate and terror.
During this time we call on women of color, our allies and reproductive justice and social justice activists to Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America.
As leaders, mothers, partners, students, and beyond women of color are faced with intricate realities that shape our lives. For all of us that reality includes making decisions about our bodies, our lives, and our communities. For some of us that means we choose abortion. We unapologetically support women of color as creators of their own futures and, in creating our paths of autonomy support women’s access to safe and legal abortion. Our struggle for abortion access is anchored in our belief in reproductive justice or the complete economic, physical, social, and political well-being and power to make the best decision for our bodies, our families, and our communities.
Abortion has always been a part of our lives. As healers, midwives, enslaved, free, colonized, and imprisoned people, women of color have and continue to create a story of resilience and resistance in which abortion, parenting, adoption, foster care and beyond have all played a part. We will not allow Operation Save America to reduce our lives into a simplistic sound bite that points the finger solely at abortion and not at the impact of war, poor education and healthcare to name a few. We resist our stories and our legacies being co-opted by this group. We denounce images of our children used as tokens by a mostly White group to justify their cause.
Operation Save America continues to play on a history of shaming and blaming women of color. As reproductive justice advocates and activists, we recognize our choices are dictated by our circumstances; and the discussion regarding abortion requires that we talk honestly about racism, health care, education, sexuality, and poverty. OSA’s presence is just another overt reign of terror felt by women of color and our communities by an organization whose membership and message aim only to point the finger without addressing the real issues that impact the lives of women of color and our families.
For this week and beyond, women of color and our allies unite to say NO to OSA. Calling on the prophetic traditions of the Black church, civil rights movement, and our women of color’s historical commitment to freedom and liberation, we have a firm understanding that fight for our bodily autonomy, the safety of our communities, and the demise of oppression and exploitation requires that everyone Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America.
For more info and a calendar of events for the week, please visit www.sparkrj.org.
Posted by paris
Official Statement from Providers
July 8th, 2008
This is an official statement from Atlanta Providers in reference to Operation Save America week.
From July 12 – 19th, an extremist anti-abortion group, Operation Save America, will be in Atlanta in an attempt to disrupt our community with shocking imagery and misleading rhetoric. The actions of this extremist anti-choice group do not distract us from our primary concern, which is always the health and safety of our clients.
Everyday the health, safety and security of our clients remain our primary concern. That is why each of our health care facilities has a strict non-engagement policy with protestors. It is our hope to keep the level of disruption surrounding our health centers to a minimum, and as such, we never encourage or invite any counter-protests at any of our facilities.
We remind our supporters that OSA’s annual event will be over soon and we can focus our efforts on the things that are truly important like reducing unintended pregnancies with real solutions like increased access to birth control and medically accurate sex education while maintaining access to safe abortion care with the dignity and respect our clients deserve.
We thank the many supporters who have expressed their outrage at the efforts of the anti-abortion extremists and we honor and appreciate all your efforts to protect access to reproductive health care. We truly appreciate your support. We hope that you will join us in working to protect reproductive health and justice beyond this week.
Posted by paris
*Outdoors events will have free water available however please make sure you stay hydrated.
Call 404.532.0022 for any questions about events or contact Paris at 404.917.7694
