Comments on: Can we talk about anti-abortion protesters?

By: Cara

Cara — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:56:18 +0000

Michelle, I’m pro-choice and work for Planned Parenthood, so clearly you did not read this post carefully at all. In fact, since you felt the need to condemn women who have “an abortion because you sleep around,” I’m much, much more pro-choice than you are. I think that everyone has a right to choose, and I don’t have to “condone” that choice. I only think that protesters have a right to be outside of clinics because of First Amendment rights, the dismantling of which could affect us all. They do not have a right to harass people, and I think that “bubble laws” are the best thing since sliced bread.

The best way to handle protesters is to ignore them. And they have to break the law by trespassing or making threats in order to get arrested.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:44:37 +0000

They definatly should not be able to protest outside clinics you are ignorant they should be arrested they are harrassing people that is not protesting they are killing people as well. How is that any better than an abortion. The people they bomb or murder have families who will be affected. And at 10 weeks if you had a miscarriage and decided to go home and look at it your sick you couldn’t look up what your fetus would look like first I knew exactly what my child looked like at 10 weeks. I’m sorry but you should have informed yourself as a mother to be on what a miscarriage is like and what the fetus would look like. I’ve had fertility problems miscarriages etc and I am still pro choice leave people alone you don’t know what they are going through. I do have a child and I almost died bringing her into the world and she almost did too.I don’t go around screaming at God saying he’s a murderer for the miscarriages I’ve had. So why should protesters scream at women for abortions shouldn’t they be yelling at God for miscarriages? Now I somehow got pregnant again and I have to have an abortion I am taking the pill because it is safer for the child and myself because not only can I die my child could die as well even in the 3rd trimester so this is less painful for both of us and I accept my decision. And I would love to see how a protester or you could explain to my daughter how the new baby or I died or how my family and husband will have to care for her after I am gone because I was selfish and chose to keep a child knowing that it could potentially kill the baby and myself. But I don’t condone late abortions or an abortion becasue you sleep around. Medical conditions inability to care for a child and rape are some of the only acceptable reasons for abortions. Women should not all be classified as whores and murderers just because some women keep getting abortions becasue they don’t use contraceptives. By the way I have to go in on thurs for my early pill termination and I would like to know how to handle the protesters and what line do they have to cross to get arrested.

By: Jones

Jones — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:54:14 +0000

II don’t think pro-lifers are evil. I think they should have the right to protest as much as they want and on whatever public grounds they want. If that’s on the streets outside of the abortion clinic than so be it. If you start telling one group they can’t protest because you don’t like what they are saying then you put at risks your own right to protest.

They have just as much right to protest as anybody else. As for the picture…honestly…and I don’t mean to be gross when I say this or graphic..but after learning of my miscarriage at 10 weeks, I decided not to get a D&C and pass it at home. What I passed was obviously more than just “tissue” which was pretty distressing to me since my Doctor didn’t warn me about this.

By: Cara

Cara — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:15:27 +0000

Good for you, Heather!!! The profession so desperately needs strong pro-choice women willing to provide all reproductive health services. I’m excited and grateful for you!

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:56:00 +0000

I have had many run-ins with anti-choice folks when I worked for Planned Parenthood. Our policy was not to speak to them and just ignore them, but it was very hard to do, especially walking by them on my way to work from the bus stop. I worked as a physician’s assistant during several abortions and having seen the tissue myself, I can tell you from personal experience that the pictures that are often used by the anti-choice folks are fake. The most disheartening experience I witnessed while working at Planned Parenthood was the day after George Bush stole the election again in 2004. That Wednesday was an AB day at the clinic and we had many more protesters than usual. It was hard not to cry because me and my coworkers felt so unsure and defeated. But that day inspired me to go to nursing school so that I may be of more assistance to women in need. So I’ll eventually be back working in reproductive health and countering those evil anti-choice protesters. Wish me luck.

By: SarahMC

SarahMC — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:44:15 +0000

Protesting at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum? My god, how insulting to victims of the Holocaust.

By: dew

dew — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:35:40 +0000

You said you were frightened but now are only furious. I’m still frightened. These people re dangerously unstable.

Also, I have personally known two people who participated in those protests, and they will talk about how the women are traumatized by their abortions and so forth, and that they see the women as victims too, etc. But then they have no understanding of how their own actions are traumatic for women, such as the ones you mention who take public transportation. I’m pretty sure that having people scream at me that I’m a whore and a murderer would traumatize me way more than a fairly simple medical procedure.

By: Libby

Libby — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:36:24 +0000

One of my first run-ins with pro-life protestors was my first semester of college. They were outside of the student union at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. It was around lunch time, so naturally many people were going there to eat. The signs, which were at least 12 feet high, were covered with the types of photographs you referred to. When I walked out to this scene I felt sick to my stomach.

They weren’t abnoxious protestors, but they had a sound system set up and were encouraging people to approach the microphone to “ask questions”.

One of my friends decided to call the protestors out on the disgusting display saying that most of the photographs were from the ’70s and while the enlargement raised the “shock value,” it just made them seem even less realistic. One of the guys working attempted to debate with him about whether life began at conception or birth. He also tried to extend a pseudo “olive branch” saying that they weren’t there to upset people, only to generate discussion amongst the student body. If that’s what they were trying to do, why go the way of the pro-lifers and set up displays that sicken people? Their stance on the issue was blatently obvious.

On campus there wasn’t much talk about it. There was a blurb about it in the next issue of the campus newspaper, and once in awhile people would say how gross it was. The overall feeling I gathered from it was that people found it an inconvience to have to manuver around the displays and keep down their lunches.

By: wellie

wellie — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:29:08 +0000

when i saw protesters on a streetcorner holding up ginormous signs of ‘aborted fetuses’ (if that’s indeed what they were), i honestly thought at first that they were pictures of some kind of nasty cooked duck.

By: Cara

Cara — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:24:25 +0000

Thanks for sharing, Melissa.

I am someone who very strongly believes in the right to protest. I do, however, see a very large difference between protesting the government, a business or a public figure and protesting a health clinic and private individuals making personal choices. If not a legal issue, it is definitely an ethical issue. And it is definitely a safety issue. And for that reason, I definitely support restrictions on where these types of protests can be held.