Here in liberal Western Massachusetts, in the little town of Adams, a right wing anti-choice fringe group (Susan B Anthony's List) is utilizing the creation of a museum to rewrite the history and preach their anti-choice agenda.
Please read the whole post, this goes beyond what is happening in my small town (I am presenting what is going on locally to warn others and solicit suggestions on how to fight this anti-womens group). This shows how insidious the anti-choice movement has become and how they are determined to make inroads into the most liberal states.
Susan B Anthony birth place is Adams, MA (the town where I live). A group with strong ties to anti-choice Susan B Anthony's list and Feminists for life purchased the home and they are very close to turning it into a open museum. When they talk about Susan B Anthony, they claim that they believe Anthony would have been anti-choice and they are NOW planning to include their phony version of history in their museum exhibits. But, much, much worse then this - the people behind this museum are major players in the anti-choice movement and you can be sure that they will use this platform to fundraise and network against a woman's right to choose.
According to today's North Adams Transcript:
"The birthplace and museum will have a grand opening, ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 14, 2010 which is the 90th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment. It will include a tour of the home and be followed by a public address by state Senator Marian Walsh in the Adams Free Library Memorial Room. The museum will feature exhibits on Susan B. Anthony’s legacy including her stances on temperance, Quaker life, slavery, abortion and women’s suffrage." (Note that the state Senator is NOT from our district, she is a pro-life democrat (another turncoat in our big tent party - I am already organizing a protest to occur outside the library where she is speaking and the ribbon cutting ceremony).
http://www.thetranscript.com/ci_14084728In addition, they have recruited as their new director a woman named Sally Winn. Her credentials: She has been the VICE PRESIDENT of Washington DC based 'Feminist for Life'. Here is there website:
http://www.feministsforlife.org/And, she also was a board member for the Susan B Anthony's list - a fringe right wing anti-choice group:
Snip (from womens e news)
he political action committee--which aims to increase the percentage of anti-choice women in Congress but also to defeat pro-choice female candidates by backing their anti-choice male opponents--is named after Anthony because officials there say she was "an outspoken critic of abortion."
In naming their group after Anthony, anti-choice activists hope to tell women the "untold" story "that she was strongly pro-life."
These efforts have pro-choice activists outraged over what they say is an unproven claim and concerned that their heroine is being appropriated by a community led by the very people Anthony battled during her lifetime: social conservatives.
Nora Bredes, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership at the University of Rochester in New York, has been having weekly conversations with colleagues about strategies to reclaim Anthony's legacy.
http://www.womensenews.org/story/abortion/061006/susan-b-anthonys-abortion-position-spurs-scuffleThey also just recently went after Obama for appointing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State stating that she will 'promote abortion around the world'.
The "Susan B. Anthony List" claims Clinton, as Obama's Secretary of State, will "promote abortion" around the world. According to their November 30 press release, "Clinton will join Obama in promoting taxpayer funding of international abortions through a revocation of the Mexico City Policy and restoring funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The UNFPA has been implicated in supporting China's coercive one-child family planning policy that involves forced abortions and sterilizations."
Defamation is a tool of the anti-choice establishment. Its campaign against UNFPA was one of its most sinister. It was, in effect, a campaign against the most desperate women, babies and families of the world. Anti-contraception groups, like the "Susan B. Anthony List," with the help of the all-too-willing President Bush managed to freeze $161 million of U.S. funds to UNFPA. This "pro-life" victory resulted in millions of infant deaths, over a hundred thousand mothers dying during childbirth, as well as millions more unintended pregnancies and abortions worldwide. With an Obama presidency, sadly for "pro-life" groups, this trend will end. But the pro-lie movement against UNFPA will continue.
In addition, this group was co-opted by Betsey Markety, a defeated Republican Colorado Congresswoman to make a campaign to target 12 democratic law makers
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/09/17/antichoice-group-reveals-electoral-hit-list-targeting-democratic-lawmakersIn sum, the anti-abortion movement is setting up headquarters in the most liberal county in Massachusetts. The pro-choice movement has a job on its hand. While we have been sitting on our hands, the anti-choice movemnt has been successfully eroding the right of a woman to have a legal, safe, and accessible abortion. This silence must end and we must fight back with the same fervor that these groups use to suppress women's rights.
My questions to you:
Can I work to get their funding revoked if they are utilizing state and government money for their museum and utilizing the institution for their narrow minded anti choice political agenda?
My first job is to expose their cover. I just called a local reporter about this story, and I am also going to contact the Rachel Maddow show as she lives just a stone's throw over in Conway and she may be interested to know that such a right wing fringe group is setting up shop 25 miles away.
Any suggestions, comments, and direction would be appreciated.
Also, if anyone lives near or in Western MA and they would like to be part of the protest and organization against these wingnuts, please PM me.
Thanks everyone!