Terrorism in Colorado Springs

[PlaysWellWithOthers]

Don't know how many people have read about this terrorist attack on a PP clinic in Colorado Springs?

Is it just me that thinks that the idea of "pro-life" people with firearms killing people is oxymoronic?

Why has no one described this obvious act of domestic terrorism as that?

There's been a lot of Tweets from anti-choice/anti-woman people supporting this terrorist. How do these people square the circle of which lives they are pro?

The way it's being reported is also interesting to me. I wonder if this man had had brown skin and been shouting pro daesh slogans, he would have been taken alive and have as much support from these people.

[VestalVirgin]

How do these people square the circle of which lives they are pro?

They are pro male lives. Pro white male lives, most likely. And of course, male gynecologists are their enemy, so those are exceptions, too.

No anti-abortionist could ever claim to be pro women's lives.

[LurcioAgain]

Horrific. And yes, pro life is an oxymoron. Pro the continued existence of little blobs of cells, anti women, anti poor children. Anti abortionists in the US on the whole as a demographic tend to be republican voters who oppose any hint of a welfare state or any socialised medical care - and weirdly tend to be pro the death penalty and anti gun control.

Please, please can we keep bumping this thread so it stays in active conversations to remind people that yes, there is a point to feminism and feminist activism, a bloody important point. I believe the figures for the UK are that one in three women have an abortion at some point during their childbearing years - and there are people out there who want to take access to abortions away from women, and will stop at nothing, up to and including murder, to remove access to abortion.

[QueenStromba]

Foetuses have a 50% change of being male unlike the person carrying said foetus.

[BeyondThirty]

Terrorist attacks not being named for what they are because the attacker isnt muslim is an ongoing problem atm. I dont know what 'we' can do about it though. Any ideas?

[BeyondThirty]

Apart from yy, bumping the thread.

[SpellBookandCandle]

I was working at Planned Parenthood in Brookline,Massachusetts the day a gunman broke in. He shot and killed my coworker, Shannon Lowney, injured one of our nurses and terrified staff and patients. This has stayed with me all these years. I can only imagine what occurred in that clinic. My thoughts are with all those affected.

[LurcioAgain]

SpellBook - that must have been terrifying, your poor coworker and her family.

This is why issues like exclusion zones round clinics are so important - as one of the women in the article says, protestors harrassing women contribute to a culture which makes lunatics like this one think it's justified to harrass women.

[LurcioAgain]

Sorry - meant to say "murder women" - bit dopey this morning.

[Helmetbymidnight]

Awful news.

We can surely expect something profound from the Trump-meister on this.

Sorry to hear of your experience, Spell.

[PlaysWellWithOthers]

Spellbook

I'm so sorry.

[SpellBookandCandle]

It was one of the worst days of my life. Shannon was just 24 or 25, I was only 26. We were a young staff for the most part. Always had protesters out front of the clinic. It was a piece of working for PP. The shooter was young too. He later committed suicide in prison. What I remember mostly, is the weird nightmare dream quality of the day and the days after. We received tons of support from many many people all over the country. We reopened very quickly. We just refused to let anyone, any man, stop us from providing abortion services.

Sorry this is so disjointed, it still makes me cry.

[SpellBookandCandle]

Marge Piercy, an American writer and poet, wrote a poem about the shooting which I still have tucked into my night stand.

[OneMoreCasualty]

So sorry spellbook. Thank you for your bravery in reopening quickly.

[SpellBookandCandle]

I think what is most frightening, a white male with a gun targets a place that exits to provide services for women. These places ( and I am speaking of PP as that is my frame of reference) are staffed mostly by women. Women trying to proved support and medical services to other women.

[SpellBookandCandle]

fallingoffmypedestal.blogspot.no/2006/12/for-two-women-shot-to-death-in.html

Here is the Marge Piercy poem..it is a bit long but I think still relevant to the situation happening in the US.

[almondpudding]

Thanks for sharing that SpellBook.

Marge P's writing has always been really important to me, but I've never seen that poem before.

I'm sorry for you and your co-worker.

[FreshwaterSelkie]

Spellbook, I'm so sorry you went through that . You made a difference to women's lives, and thank you for that.

YY to bumping this thread. The rhetoric around the rolling back of women's reproductive rights in America is terrifying. How many women are now going to not be able to access the basic health care that they need because of this violent misogynist? How can anyone support him?

(I know the "answer" - that in fact he is "saving lives" because the people that he shot are "murderers" of "unborn babies". It's what they always say. Tedious, woman hating nonsense.)

[LurcioAgain]

What a great poem, Spellbook. Thanks for posting it. Hope you have someone there for you today - this must have brought it all back.

[PlaysWellWithOthers]

Some really horrible stuff being said on Twitter still.

TW: fucking horrible humans

Why is this man still not being described as a terrorist? If someone holds others hostage at gun point having shot up a bunch of people, surely that's terrorism?

This is why we need large exclusion zones around women's health clinics so the nuts that hang about with their false posters and video cameras have to stay well away from their female targets. It's only a matter of time before one of the anti choice/ anti woman crowd gets the idea in his their heads that it's a good idea in the UK as well.

[SpellBookandCandle]

Thank you all for the support. I've been puttering around MN all day. My heart is going out to everyone who works in reproductive health care in the US. I left PP shortly after George Tiller was shot and killed. I knew Dr.Tiller for some very personal reasons. His murder made it impossible for me to continue working in the field.

Anyway, thank you for listening to me today

[HermioneWeasley]

Awful, just awful. These people hate women so much.

[OneMoreCasualty]

One of those said "any pregnant woman there for an abortion who died deserved it" - Hard of thinking much? What do they think would happen to the foetus in that instance??

[PlaysWellWithOthers]

One... I think you're confusing their hatred of women with actual care for actual foetuses. Anti woman rhetoricians don't give 2 hoots about those foetuses. They just want to control women. In this case, with terror tactics.

[VestalVirgin]

It is a bit depressing that they don't even make an effort to pretend it is about the foetuses, though, isn't it?