Take Back the Night on August 3!
Every woman knows the feeling of being afraid as she walks down a street at night. The fear of harassment, physical assault, and rape severely limits our freedom to leave our homes and workplaces in safety. This fear is reinforced in countless ways-through the threat or use of violence in the home, through sexual harassment on the job, through distorted images of women, in the media, through the courts, prisons, and the health care system.
Fear of violence, is such a part of our daily lives that most of us simply accept it and alter our lifestyles to avoid potentially threatening situations. How many of us, for example, hesitate to go out at night alone? Or avoid all secluded, unlit areas? Or cross the street rather than face possible catcalls and other verbal harassment? Or turn down a job because it might involve working the night shift?
Isn't it time that we stop trying to live with our fear and start confronting its causes?
As a first step we can join in Take Back the Night on Friday night, August 3. Sponsored by the Take Back the Night Committee, the Rape Crisis Center, and the Cleveland State University Women's Alliance, this event includes a rally in Public Square, a march through sections of downtown Cleveland, and a celebration at the Cleveland State University Center. Bring your family and friends to show our strength and determination to end all forms of violence against women.
The rally will begin at the northeast corner of Public Square at 7:30 p.m. Park at CSU and take a toop bus to Public Square. At 9:00, following several speeches, we will march to the CSU campus. The march will take approximately one hour. Please
bring your flashlights. Children are encouraged to march, but free child care will be provided at CSU through the evening's events. Since this is an opportunity for us to show our strength and solidarity as women, men are requested to show their support by marching along the perimeter or helping with childcare. In other cities men held flashlights and signs reading, "Light the Way for Women's Safety". The Rape Crisis Center will hold an open Benefit Celebration in the University Center from 10 to 2. There will be inusic, dancing, refreshments, an open
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forum for speakers, performances by the Feminist Theatre Collective and the Cleveland Women's Choir, and literature tables. Donations for the celebration are $2, $4, and $6 (more if you can, less if you can't), and all proceeds go to the Rape Crisis Center. Tickets for the celebration will be on sale
Pro-Choice Dealt Blow in Ohio
As WSW goes to press, the Ohio State Legislature faces a crisis over the State's $16.5 billion budget which failed to win approval by a margin of the vote. What is the cause of this turmoil? It began last week. in a late night session of the Senate Finance Committee, which is responsible for planning and revising appropriations over the next two years. As chairperson of the committee, State Senator Harry Meshel, D-33, of Youngstown included in the bill a harsh anti-abortion amendment which would prohibit Medicaid funding for poor women unless two physicians certify that the woman's life would be saved by the procedure. After debate in the Senate, a compromise was reached by which rape and incest were included as permissible reasons for an abortion, but only when the crime is reported within 48 hours. (rather than the 60 days allowed in the current law). Some representatives, including Marv O. Boyle, D-14, of Cleveland Heights, opposed the amendment. because of its obvious discriminatory intent against lower-income women. Other representatives voted against the budget bill because of the covert way in which the anti-abortion amendment was added.
According to the Plain Dealer (June 30, 1979), political debts left over from election time play a major role in the kinds of amendments proposed: "Merkel would not deny he had talked about the anti-abortion language with Gov. James Rhodes who owed a debt to the Ohio Right to Life Society for supporting him in his re-election.”
What does the new anti-abortion amendment mean? The fact that the Legislature and the Ohio anti-abortion movement got away with this atrocity means that we are that much weaker and they even stronger. It means that the next piece of anti-woman legislation and all those that follow will slide by more casily than before. And it means that the “Right to Life" movement can again proclaim a victory over the majority because they lobbied better, spoke out more often, wrote more letters and sent more telegrams to the men in Columbus.
In the wake of a terrific demonstration in Cincin-
nati, the pro-choice movement has a major defeat on its hands. While there are many complex reasons why we lost on this one, the first place to look is at the failure of our own strategy.
—Carol Epstein and Chris Link
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soon at the CRCC and various women's organizations.
You can further support the evening's events by wearing a Take Back the Night T-shirt, now on sale at Coventry Books (east side), Rape Crisis Center (downtown), and Six Steps Down and Tish's Shoe Shop (west side). The proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts help to meet the expenses of the Take Back the Night Committee.
For further information or to volunteer your help, call Mickie (371-2210) or Sandra Coster (321-6889).
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To reserve a literature table at the Celebration, call Jean Craciun (398-3376) or Cleveland Rape Crisis Center (391-3912).
Endorsed By:
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center WomenSpace
Sexual Learning Line Oven Productions Women's Growth Co-op
CWRU Women's Center What She Wants
Six Steps Down
Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice Cleveland Urban Learning Community National Organization for Women-Cleveland Coventry Books
National Women's Running Conference
Join CARAL for Action!
In one year, Cleveland pro-choice people supported or organized at least four public rallies and demonstrations. They were fun, they were energizing and they got media attention for the movement. But no one in Columbus or Washington gives a damn about demonstrations unless they're backed up with letters, telegrams, personal visits and most of all,
votes.
It's time we wake up to the political realities and our own shortcomings before we lose everything. While demonstrations and rhetoric serve a valid purpose, if we don't fight back in the political arena we
CARAL Membership Form
1 Enclosed is my contribution in support of CARAL: › $100 $75 $50 $25 $15 Local Only $10. Other $.
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Please make checks payable to CARAL. Mail tol CARAL, P.O. Box 18089, Cleveland Hts., OH 44118. If you have contributed directly to NARAL this year, I check
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will continue to lose. Writing and lobbying legislators isn't as exciting as a rally-but it works. The other side has proven that over and over again.
Begin today by joining the Cleveland Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL). This is the only pro-choice group that concentrates on influencing legislation and organizing lobbying campaigns. One
of the reasons pro-choice advocates lost in Ohio was the lack of people to respond to all the demands of lobbying. We have to answer attacks on every level of government and we have to do it now.
For information on CARAL activities, call Cheryl Jensen, 226-8990, or Monica Bassett, 228-5743.
Late Breaking News
On July 2, the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law requiring unmarried minor girls to get the approval of their parents or a judge before being able to obtain a legal abortion. The 8-1 ruling was a setback for those opposing abortion who have been pressing for such laws in state legislatures across the country.
The setback could well be only temporary however. A majority of the Court appeared to endorse an arrangement under which a girl could go directly to a state court without first consulting or notifying her parents, and the judge could decide whether the girl was mature enough to make such a decision. "If she satisfies the court that she is maturc and well-informed enough to make intelligently the abortion decision on her own, 'the court must authorize her to act." If the girl is found immature, the judge could decide whether an abortion was in the girl's best interest. Presumably, state legislatures are now free to enact such an arrangement with relative assurance that it would be found constitu tional.
July, 1979/What She Wants/Page 3