Locally

On Saturday, October 27, at the Holiday Inn, E. 12th and Lakeside, Education for Freedom of Choice in Ohio (EFCO) and NARAL/Ohio are Cosponsoring a workshop and luncheon designed to inform and educate pro-choice supporters on the political aspects of the abortion issue. Morning sessions will cover the various means voters have at their disposal to get their legislators' attention, not only on choice but on other issues as well. In the movement for reproductive rights, both votes and demonstrations have an impact. These sessions offer an opportunity to learn to use both more effectively.

Carol Werner, registered lobbyist and legislative director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, will be the luncheon speaker. Ms. Werner

will discuss the influence of the new right wing on the issue of reproductive freedom and how it relates to other feminist issues.

Virginia Aveni will also address the luncheon gathering. Ms. Aveni was the state representative of District 17 to the Ohio General Assembly until her defeat at the hands of a well organized anti-woman campaign. Ms. Aveni will speak from first-hand experience on the need for women to be active in the political forum. Reservations for workshop or luncheon can be made by calling EFCO at 579-0028 no later than October 19. The charge for the workshop and luncheon is $10.00; the luncheon only is $6.00 and the workshop only is $5.00.

PRETERM OPEN HOUSE

The Greater Cleveland Right-to-Life Society currently has a speakers' program which claims to tell the "truth" about the women who are virtually swept off to abortion clinics against their will, in unsanitary conditions, with surgery performed by profit-minded doctors. This community service program is entitled "Inside an Abortion Clinic."

While most of us are pro-choice, few of us really know what happens to a woman in a clinic unless we've had an abortion ourselves or supported a friend through her decision. Could those gruesome stories be true?

On Monday, October 22, Preterm, an out-patient abortion clinic, will hold an open house in conjunction with Abortion Rights Action Week. A tour of the clinic will be given and a brief film will be shown on abortion. Preterm is located at 10900 Carnegie Avenue in the University-Cedar Medical Building.

Reservations are limited, so complete the form below or call Chris Link or Susan Lipkin at 579-0028, or Liz Nolan at Preterm, 368-1006. Send the form to Liz Nolan, Preterm, 10900 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106.

Name

Phone

I'd like to come to Preterm at: 4:00 6:00

ABORTION RIGHTS ACTION WEEK

Nationally

New York (1 NS)--Focusing on the theme "Abortion... It's Our Right," local pro-choice groups and coalitions across the United States will hold rallies, demonstrations, teach-ins and other events in a-nationally coordinated week of action, October 22-29, "At a time when the right is gaining more strength, it's important to show in a visible, concrete way the depth and breadth of support that exists for abortion rights," stated Frances Kissling, coordinator of the national steering committee.

Initiated by over 50 sponsoring organizations, the national week of action has a platform calling for the right to safe, legal abortion, protection from sterilization abuse, access to and education about safe, effective contraception and to comprehensive sex education.

"Rather than having one big march in Washington, we want to show that there is local sup port for abortion rights around the country, from New Hampshire to lowa to California," Kissling stated. Each locale has activities planned to coincide with similar activities happening elsewhere on the same day.

In New York City, the week is kicking off with a rally outside St. Patrick's Cathedral with speeches by religious leaders for free choice. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, there are going to be lunch hour rallies, and in Boston representatives of several different unions are sponsoring a workshop on reproductive rights at the workplace.

For information about planned activities in Cleveland, contact EFCO (Education for Freedom of Choice in Ohio), 579-0028.

Pornography and the First Amendment

By Wendy Kaminer

We are a group of feminists speaking out against pornography, because it exploits and encourages violence against women. We are protesting the physical and psychological violence in most pornography and the degradation of women; we do not oppose displays of nudity or erotica.

We do not advocate censorship. We respect First Amendment strictures against the imposition of prior restraints on any form of speech, and we do not wish to deprive pornographers of their due process rights. We do not advocate the summary closings of businesses that deal in pornography or any general prohibitions on the publication or production of por'nographic material. We respect the right of all adults to read or view what they choose in the privacy of their own homes.

We have not put forth any repressive legislative proposals, and we are not carving out any new ́exceptions to the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has traditionally held that "obscenity" is not protected speech, but the Court has struggled with the formulation of a fair and workable definition of obscenity and an effective constitutional enforcement scheme.

We want to change the definition of obscenity so that it focuses on violence, not sex, but we do not propose to alter the basic process by which obscenity. laws must be enforced, in accordance with the procedural guarantees of the First Amendment. We ac-

cept the constitutional limitations on official regulation of speech, and we do not expect the government to magically rid of us pornography.

We are working hard, in the exercise of our First Amendment rights, to develop strategies for effective private action against the pornography industry. We are working to make people aware of the implications of the increasingly violent pornography that is becoming an accepted part of our culture.

Most hard-core pornography consists of pictures or graphic descriptions of women being raped, bound, beaten, or mutilated; some of it involves child molestation. Subtler images of women á. passive sexual toys pervade soft-core pornograpy and legitimate commercial advertising. The message is clear: sex is power, and women and children are objects for subjugation and abuse.

Pornography is not a harmless outlet for sexual fantasies. It is fascistic, misogynist propaganda that fosters acts of violence against women. It is sexual bondage, not liberation. We believe that the recent growth in violent pornography and the sexual exploitation of children is, in part, a reaction to the women's movement by men who cannot accept women as equals.

We do not expect to find any simple solutions to these problems. Pornography is deeply rooted in our culture, and it both shapes and reflects our sexual identities. But the women's movement has proven that we can change the way people think-the way men and women view themselves and each other. The

fight against pornography is part of this struggle to change and crucial to the sexual liberation of us all.

Wendy Kaminer is an attorney with the New York City Mayor's Midtown Enforcement Project, and a member of Women Against Pornography.

THE END

"Fifty per cent sex and fifty per cent violence. That's the balance we've been looking for!"

October, 1979/What She Wants/Page 3