Roundup: Harrass-a-thon Begins at Clinics, But Never Limited to 40 Days
February 17, 2010 - 10:56am (Print)
Need a low-cost pap smear? Trying to get some affordable birth control pills? Getting tested for an STI? Well getting into your local reproductive healthcare clinic may suddenly become a lot harder because protesters want to keep you away. Why would anyone want to stop a woman from going to the doctor you might ask? Well yesterday began the annual anti-choice campaign "40 Days for Life" -- an intense harass-a-thon happening at reproductive healthcare clinics across the country. And I do mean healthcare clinics, because let's never forget that all of the above are just some of the healthcare services these local clinics provide besides providing abortions.
There are some reports in the news media but not all that many:
In Maryland:
Wearing a button stating "I Regret Lost Fatherhood," Andy Haines said he and his wife, Jaime, have both experienced the effect abortion can have on a person's life.
"We ourselves are both post-abortive," Haines said as the kickoff rally for 40 Days For Life was getting under way Tuesday night at Faith Christian Fellowship near Williamsport. He said he was involved in a relationship that resulted in an abortion years ago and that Jaime had two.
Char Wendel, the Planned Parenthood executive, says the protesters cause a disruption.
"We are trying to make services accessible to people and the people on the sidewalk are choosing to set up a barrier," said Wendel. "You're coming in to get your health care...I think the patients get angry, get frustrated, they don't understand why its anyone's business that they're coming in for services. And I think for staff, it strengthens our commitment."
Also there is a brief report in St. Cloud, Minnesota. But so far, that's it in terms of news coverage. For those who want to provide support for women consider becoming a clinic escort in any of these cities.
Of course let's not forget that harassment of women at healthcare clinics isn't ever regulated to only 40 days a year. Portland, Oregon's new clinic is attracting protesters right from the get-go.
A member of a Romanian Assemblies of God Church, he joined hundreds of others Sunday as Planned Parenthood held a grand opening for a building where women will receive health care and get abortions.
The opening, which included a dozen Portland police and uniformed security guards, came almost three years after pro-life groups began protesting a city-backed urban renewal proposal to allow Planned Parenthood to move into the site at Northeast Martin Luther King Boulevard and Beech Street. The movement, called Precious Children of Portland, gained energy as it appealed to city leaders and then contractors in an attempt to thwart construction. Vigils have taken place near the spot weekly and will continue.
Of course sometimes the anti-choice activists' actions don't stop at mere protests. Sometimes they up the ante to death threats, which as Dr. George Tiller's murder shows, aren't always idle. Which is why when a man called a Boulder doctor and threatened to harm his family, it's taken rather seriously.
A man accused of threatening the family of Boulder abortion doctor Warren Hern wants to go to trial and fight the charges against him.
Donald Hertz was expected to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday, but changed his mind just before the hearing began.
Hertz, 70, is a retired real estate broker and insurance salesman from Spokane, Wash.
He was indicted on two counts: making a telephone threat to Hern's office on June 23 and violating the Free Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).
Hern said the caller told his staff that there were two Vietnam War veterans on the way from Spanish Fork, Utah, to hurt Hern's family.
Hern has said that his family was terrified by the telephone threat, and that his elderly mother had to be moved from her apartment in the middle of the night by federal agents.
Bonus item: In a Senate floor debate in Missouri about a bill that would require women seeking abortions to get an ultrasound, a Republican state senator asked the Planned Parenthood lobbyist "Have you had an abortion?"
February 17, 2010
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Will these psychos ever stop and realize that their behavior does nothing for their cause, but make them all look like, well, psychos? And I sure as hell hope that idiot who threatened that doctor's family gets convicted and that he is used as an example, that this behavior will no longer be tolerated.....but I doubt it. This crap still goes on, even after Roeder was found guilty. They will never stop, will they?
It's pro-choice or NO choice.
