A Radical Women contingent from four U.S. cities travelled to Jackson, Mississippi to take part in marches, rallies, forums and other actions that Southern feminists organized for the week of July 15th through 22nd. Photos During this time, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, has been under siege by Operation Save America (OSA, the former Operation Rescue), with support from groups such as the homophobic, anti-woman Minutemen United. Radical Women called for people to either join them in Jackson, or lend their financial support. A rally in Jackson on Saturday the 15th was disrupted by a bomb threat. Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh of the National Clinic Access Project of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said, "What happened at the rally speaks to the violence centered around abortion clinics in this country. It's not unusual for a clinic to be shut down during the day because of suspicious packages, bomb threats and trespassing."

BACORR organized a Reproductive Rights Film Festival, which was a benefit for the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. On Sunday, July 16th, the PBS documentary "The Last Abortion Clinic" was shown at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco.

When Jackson NOW, the Southern Abortion Fund and other pro-choice activists called for a “Reproductive Freedom Summer” to combat OSA, the idea was to provide physical defense of the women’s clinic. The new clinic director decided to hire a private security firm instead of collaborating with the feminist community.

Radical Women says that "rightwing anti-abortionists... agenda would send society back to the era when women’s 'place' was barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and the 'place' for people of color was on the back of the bus." Radical Women says that defeating the bigots hinges on generating a move- ment powerful enough to win the hearts and minds of the people of Mississippi and of the U.S -- a "militant, multi-hued multi-issue force that will protest, sit-in, strike, and use any means necessary to preserve human rights." Read more

Radical Women | BACORR