On March 29, members of the Pensacola Abortion Rights Taskforce (PART) organized an event at UUCP that brought out several dozen people to give a history of the long struggle for abortion rights in Pensacola, with part of presentation devoted to the church’s contribution to this fight.

The event began with a film screening of the film “Pensacola’s Struggle for Abortion Rights” that was researched by our own Lauren Anzaldo. The short documentary focuses on our city, with some of the focus on the UUCP congregation that was so heavily involved in those movement to protect women’s right to seek an abortion. During the early 1990s, several members of UUCP helped with clinic escorts, largely organized by Bill Caplinger, the point of placing their bodies on the line to fight against religious fundamentalist efforts to stop women from exercising their rights to seek a legal abortion. In 1993 and 1994, religious fundamentalists shot and killed two doctors in Pensacola, killing one UUCP congregant in 1994. The film highlighted the murder of Drs. Britton and Gunn, along with the murder of clinic escort James Barrett, while bring the story into the modern era. UUCP actively participated in clinic escorts before and after the 1993 and 1994 murders until Ladies Clinic was ultimately firebombed and burned down by a religious fundamentalist in 2012.

After the film, a dynamic panel convened to briefly speak on various aspects of the local history of abortion rights. The panel featured Robin Reshard (local historian), Paula Montgomery (physician and UUCP member), Ashley Faulkner (abortion rights activist and clinic escort), and Robin Blyn (founder of PART). After short presentations, the panelists held a brief Q and A that only ended because of time constraints with the hired security guard for the evening’s events—a stark reminder of the still volatile situation in Pensacola and across the United States surrounding this topic.

Another screening of the film will be held in the near future, followed by a longer Q and A with Dr. Paula Montgomery and Bill Caplinger to speak more on the role of the church in the events of the mid-1990s and the role of the church in helping to bring a tentative peace to  the anti-abortion protests outside of the Ladies Clinic. The date for this event will be posted as soon as available.