Friday, August 28: Express Your Support for Dr. Carhart

I really hope that you, the readers of Blog for Choice, got a chance to see Dr. Leory Carhart's profile in Newsweek last week. His clinic - one of a handful left in a post-Dr.-Tiller world - is under attack by the groups that attacked Dr. Tiller's Wichita clinic:

Carhart knows there are people who want him dead, too. A few days after Tiller's murder, Carhart's daughter received a late-night phone call saying her parents too had been killed. His clinic got suspicious letters, one with white powder. It's been like this since Carhart started performing abortions in the late 1980s. On the same day Nebraska passed a parental-notification law in 1991, his farm burned down, killing 17 horses, a cat, and a dog (the local fire department was unable to determine the fire's cause). The next day his clinic received a letter justifying the murder of abortion providers. His -clinic's sidewalks have been smeared with manure. Protesters sometimes stalk him in airports. The threats, the violence, now the assassination of his close friend--all of it has left Carhart undaunted, and the billboard-size sign over his parking garage still reads, in foot-high block letters, ABORTION & CONTRACEPTION CLINIC OF NEBRASKA. "They're at war with us," says Carhart of the anti--abortion activist who killed Tiller. "We have to realize this isn't a difference of opinions. We need to fight back."

Can you imagine living under a threat like that? I most certainly can't. Dr. Tiller's murder in May was a stark reminder of the danger abortion providers face every day. As a pro-choice community, we have to do our part to ensure that other abortion providers and their patients don't experience this kind of intimidation and harassment.

Still, even in the face of continued harassment and threats, Dr. Carhart isn't giving up. That's why Operation Rescue and other local anti-choice groups are planning a demonstration outside his health center in Bellevue, Nebraska starting Friday, August 28. This means women will have to endure the shouts of anti-choice protesters as they enter Dr. Carhart's center.

Women accessing their legal right to abortion--and the providers who make this possible--should never be targets of violence. That is why NARAL Pro-Choice America is holding a virtual rally on Friday, August 28 to show support for Dr. Carhart, his staff, his patients, and all women's reproductive health and health-care professionals. Here are easy ways you can participate:

• Sign our letter in support of Dr. Carhart.
• Add your photo to our "Trust Women" Flickr slideshow.
• On August 28, update your Facebook or MySpace status to "Trust women. Stand against anti-choice extremism." and post a link to this page.
• On Twitter? Tweet in support of Dr. Carhart (and, of course, follow us if you don't already!)
• Change your profile photo or icon on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or LiveJournal to your own "Trust Women" photo, or use one of the graphics from our "Virtual Rally Center." You can also feel free to add any of these graphics to your blog, or anywhere else you can think of.
• Donate today to support our efforts to protect doctors and patients from anti-choice violence and protect choice at all levels.

Help us show Dr. Carhart, and all abortion providers, that we greatly value their continued service to women's health. Join our virtual rally TOMORROW, August 28.