Operation Rescue was an organization that picketed abortion clinics and sometimes blocked them. All the participants signed a pledge to be nonviolent and nonconfrontational. Pro-choice writers and activists portrayed them as being violent, but in reality they usually conducted very peaceful sit ins.
The following passage is an excerpt from the March 1989 publication entitled “Clinic Defense: A Model,” by the Bay Area Coalition Against Operation Rescue (BACAOR)
Share on Facebook“Isolate and humiliate. It is critical to separate in some way the resident OR leader or troublemakers. We assign them a particular escort and do our best to isolate them from the others by getting them to lose their cool, look foolish, argue with us, etc. Although in general sexual jokes or extreme harassment are not useful with the OR picketers, if baiting an OR about his treatment of women, his sexuality, and how many times he masturbates will keep him from bothering clients and from being able to effectively direct the others, do it. Remember, we are under no obligation to be polite to these people … They have already broken Miss Manners code by being at the clinic at all … Confining our behavior toward OR to the legal realm has distinct limitations.”