Rally at Fertility Control Clinic, East Melbourne, 22 August 2009

The monthly "Clinic defence" by pro-choice activists at the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic in Wellington Parade has taken on a new urgency following recent events in Queensland and the threat of challenges from the Catholic Church to the decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria. The Campaign for Women's Reproductive Rights, which has co-ordinated the monthly actions, called for a rally at the clinic on Saturday 22 August to show solidarity with campaigners in Queensland and especially the young couple facing lengthy imprisonment for the "illegal" use of RU486 - their committal hearing is due to start on 3 September and will be marked by ongoing protests there, led by the Pro-Choice Action Collective (Queensland) - http://www.prochoiceactionqld.org/

Extracts from speeches at the rally have been posted on EngageMedia - http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/pc/videos/clinic-22aug09_transcoded.m.... A confrontation at the clinic on 26 April 2008 was reported at the time on Sydney Indymedia - http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/video/confrontation-east-melbourne-fertil... - including video footage. Since this footage is no longer accessible on that site it is reposted here, along with a fact sheet issued by CWRR.