#645 - Peace & Life: New Abortion Chains/Referendums/Boycott Strategy - January 20, 2023
New Large Abortion Chains Coming
Protests February 4
One of the pro-life successes in the U.S. over the years is that abortion moved from being done in hospitals and doctor’s offices as well as clinics to being done mostly in clinics designated for the purpose. This change was accompanied by a steady drop in the numbers of abortions.
Now the Food and Drug Administration has changed the rules so that the abortion pill can be dispensed by ordinary pharmacies by prescription. CVS and Walgreens are both seeking certification to do so. This would make them the largest chain of abortion businesses in the country.
Can we repeat the successes of yesteryear in narrowing down where abortions are pushed? We have the experience.
Purple Sash Revolution has already started with picketing a CVS in Washington DC on January 18, and there may well be others we don’t know of. Local actions can be spontaneous.
The Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) is calling for coordinated protests at CVS and Walgreen stores all over the country on February 4. Member group Feminists Choosing Life of New York is doing one of those in Rochester. You can find your local one or offer to organize a local one here. They also offer supplies.
Day of Horror and Hope
January 22 has long been a special date for U.S. abortion opponents as the anniversary of the notorious Roe v. Wade decision. This year, it’s the first time we commemorate the anniversary with Roe having been overturned. This was only removing an obstacle, and there’s plenty of work to do, but Roe was a pretty substantial obstacle. This year is also the second anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons going into effect. Though nuclear weapons are now illegal, those nations that actually have them never signed the treaty and aren’t taking it seriously. Still, it has legal and financial impacts that should help the goal of nuclear abolition in the long run. We reflected on the conjunction of the two being on the same date last year in our blog post January 22, Day of Horror & Hope.
Update on Referendums
We now have a new election cycle starting (2023-2024). This cycle, things are already hopping on abortion, raising minimum wage, paid family leave, and removing the exception for crime conviction from the abolition of slavery. We mainly find U.S. state-wide referendums on Ballotpedia. That doesn’t cover city or county referendums, so if you know about good local ones, please alert us to them. That source also only gets us U.S. referendums; if there are any of interest to the consistent life community in other countries, please let us know: referendums@consistent-life.org.
Our Latest Blog Post
Of the many actions to counter the CVS and Walgreens abortion pill business, a boycott of those stores has already been called by PAAU and may well be called by many other groups, since it’s an obvious strategy. A proper boycott requires a lot of thinking through and hard working, so Rachel MacNair goes over Boycott Strategy: CVS & Walgreens.
Quotation of the Week
Psychology professor Sidney Callahan
"Abortion & the Sexual Agenda"
Commonweal, April 25, 1986, 232-238, 235
As the most recent immigrants from non-personhood, feminists have traditionally fought for justice for themselves and the world . . . Rejecting male aggression and destruction, feminists seek alternative, peaceful, ecologically sensitive means to resolve conflicts while respecting human potentiality. It is a chilling inconsistency to see pro-choice feminists demanding continued access to assembly-line, technological methods of fetal killing.