In 1997, a friend, Nick Frankovitch, sent me this email:
“A woman from the Bronx used to come down to the upper West side on Saturdays to demonstrate in front of the abortion clinic near Lincoln Center. She drew a small following over time. They would carry the usual signs (e.g., Abortion Kills Children). They weren’t particularly Gandhi like, but they weren’t particularly vicious either. From all descriptions, the woman from the Bronx seemed to be an unpretentious, working-class Hispanic woman who had strong feelings about unborn children.
The landlord of the building in which the clinic was located began to receive complaints from neighbors – tenants and other merchants (it’s a very toney, high rent neighborhood) so he elected not to renew the clinic’s lease. The clinic sued for discrimination. They lost. Then the clinic went all over the Upper West Side looking for a space. No landlord would rent to them. Representatives of the clinic claimed that at meetings with prospective landlords and community leaders everyone would be sporting their pro-choice buttons and voicing their strong support for the work the clinic was doing. Then they would vote against renting space to the clinic on their block. I believe the clinic then ended up working out of space in a Planned Parenthood clinic further downtown (although as of last fall they began running ads in the Columbia student newspaper, I believe the new address is on the Upper West Side again.)
The significance of this story, as a local weekly newspaper pointed out issue after issue, was that it was happening in a neighborhood where virtually everyone and their dog was pro-choice. The newspaper articles emphasized complaints that these upper West sider’s were hypocritical and weak kneed, caving in to fears of lower property values, etc. I wrote a letter to the editor pointing out that the story also points to the ambivalence beneath all the official pro-choice rhetoric. Most people who think abortion should be legal agree with the woman from the Bronx that it’s a sad thing, and they would rather the abortion clinic be far enough away that they don’t always have to be thinking about what takes place there.
So one person, acting under conviction, was able to close the clinic (at least temporarily) almost single-handedly, just by standing in front of it and speaking plainly about abortion. And just as important, her action had the effect of bringing to light the demonstrations against abortion that even people who call themselves pro-choice carry on silently in the back of their mind.
Never underestimate what one person can do.
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