Free speech gets pro-lifers arrested in Maryland.
Posted by Matt Yonke on Monday, August 4th, 2008
Last Friday, August 1, Maryland State Troopers arrested eighteen pro-lifers participating in a "Face the Truth" Tour in Bel Air, Maryland.
Defend Life of Maryland sponsored the Tour, which had been a great success thus far. Our own Eric Scheidler had visited the Tour last Wednesday to participate and give a talk.
The confrontation arose when a state trooper told tour captain Jack Ames that they had to put their signs away and leave. If they did not comply, he told them he would start making arrests.
In an effort to comply, Jack moved the site to Bel Air, Maryland, just a little way down the road from where they had originally set up.
A short while later, with no warning, about twenty squad cars pulled up to the scene and began to arrest people without a word. The pro-lifers were not told what they were being arrested for, nor were they read their rights. They were simply handcuffed and taken to jail.
At least two of the arrested suffered medical problems after sitting in handcuffs reported to be too tight for over half an hour.
Two of the pro-lifers were minors who were soon released into their parents' custody. The rest, however, spent the entire night in the jail. Though the men and women were held in separate cells, they could hear one another and passed the night singing hymns and praying just like St. Paul and St. Silas in the Acts of the Apostles.
The last of the adults were released the next morning and were finally informed that they were charged with loitering, failing to obey a lawful order, and disorderly conduct.
The Pro-Life Action League's National Director Joe Scheidler had this to say:
We've got to protect our 1st amendment rights or we'll lose them. When police on their own can act like storm troopers as these officers did, we are in danger of losing all our freedoms. If we lose the 1st amendment, we'll be no better off than any totalitarian dictatorship.
And attorney Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, Chicago said:
This shows the need for proper police training in the nature of the law. The first amendment is as much a part of the law as any permit requirement or parade ordinance, and in fact, it takes precedence over all of them.
Updates will follow as these troopers are held accountable for their actions. Once again, pro-lifers are the last and seemingly only line of defense protecting our first amendment rights.
America the beautiful is loosing it's beauty.
(SING) God bless America, land that I LOVED, stand beside her and guide her from the likes of the evil one!!!
August 4th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Is there any coverage of this in the media? I find the allegation that they weren't even given Miranda to be highly suspect.
I am glad to see they moved this off of the street. As I've said many times before, this should not be forced on children.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I've answered my own question. YES, there is coverage in the media.
Sounds like they were blocking traffic, were asked to move, left for a bit and came back to the same intersection again.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Baltimore Sun's treatment
http://tinyurl.com/6jga43
August 4th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Student,
I haven't seen any mainstream media coverage yet, which makes me skeptical that there will be any at this late date, but every story I've seen so far has confirmed the lack of stated reason for arrest and Miranda rights.
I was shocked as you were, though unfortunately not surprised, at these reports. There will be legal challenges to this action and the facts will doubtless be laid out there. But this would hardly be the first time that pro-lifers trying to take advantage of their first amendment rights have been railroaded by local law enforcement.
Stay tuned. I'll certainly be keeping the blog up to date about this story.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Student,
My post came up before I saw yours. I heard the pro-lifers who were there saying they were in no way marching or blocking traffic.
Again, the facts will become clear when the case gets to court.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Matt,
Why do you think the police are out to get pro-lifers? What is their motivation?
I have no doubt their will be legal challenges. *sigh*
August 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Student,
I don't think that cops in general are out to get pro-lifers. That said, we do run into cops who have a very clear chip on their shoulder as regards pro-lifers.
Student, I understand you objections to our position and you have every right to state it and advocate it publicly, but I would hope you would stand by our side in our right to express our opinion publicly and defend our rights in court when they are violated.
Don't forget that such groups as PETA, with whom we have significant moral differences, stood by the Pro-Life Action League in their case with NOW because they knew that if we lost that case it would have implications for everyone's right to express their views.
Disagree with us all you want, but recognize the fact that it is the challenges you sigh about that are keeping free speech free.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Jesus went against the status quo knowing what it would cost him in the end. He paid that price, under duress, asking God three times to take this cup from Him. He did what He did for us out of obedience to the Father. Secondly He did what he did out of love for us. We do what we do out of obedience to the Father first, and out of love for the unborn second, following the example of Christ. Will the mainstream media offer coverage? The answer is moot. What is more to the point is: does Christianity offer the meadia something to cover? The answer is a resounding YES. To stand in the gap for the preservation of life is as old as civilization itself.
Without the interference of heroism as shown in Baltimore, civilization would not have made it this far.
Soon, sadly, those standing in the gap will not just be believers. They will not just be people acting in obedience. They will be people acting in self-preservation. Without the right to life there is nothing left to defend. It is now sadly true that our first amendment rights have been eroded just as have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Were the roman soldiers accountable for their actions?
You bettcha. Are the state troopers accountable for their actions? You bettcha? Is the justice/political/and legislative system accountable to the unborn? You bettcha. Thank God that the bravery in Baltimore is our reminder of this.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Matt,
I am a staunch believer in the First Amendment and, if truth be told, our positions on abortion are probably not too far away from one another. However, I honestly believe the signs go too far and shouldn't be covered. I also believe this to be true for signs I've seen by PETA. I haven't seen any other group displaying signs of such a graphic nature and, if they exist, I would likely oppose them as well. The best example I can give (and I know I've given it in the past) is the movie rating system. It was put in place to monitor what we put in front of children. I wouldn't want a 5 year old watching an R-rated movie due to the violence and gore, nor would I want that child playing Grand Theft Auto. This is why we rate these things — to keep them away from our kids.
Yes, I do believe (and fully support) your right to express your point of view regarding abortion. Truthfully, if I thought that right were being infringed I would be the first to try and put together a group of university students, professors and licensed attorneys to help you. However, the pictures (and acts prohibited under FACE) cross that line and, in my opinion, are not and should not be covered by the First Amendment.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Here is a post from Jill Stanek's website from a person who was actually there –
http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2008/08/truth_tour_prol.html#comments
Jill,
The Baltimore Sun article got a few things wrong. Here is the letter I sent to the editor:
Dear Editor,
Referencing the below article, there are at least three major errors. I was there for the entire time and captured much of the event on my digital camera.
1. The people who were arrested were not marching among cars stopped at red lights; they were standing in the grass on the side of the road, each holding a pro-life sign and quietly praying.
2. We did not refuse to disperse; we took the signs down at 5:00pm.
3. We did not return to the same intersection; we moved to another location and set the signs up again.
4. At that location, a state trooper arrived and began arresting people without telling them why.
My concern is that your newspaper should be gravely concerned with this deliberate attack by the State, the trampling of MD citizens' First Amendment rights. I would encourage you to dig deeper into this story and report it for what it really is:
+ Why is it against the law to stand on the side of the road with a sign and pray?
+ Why can MD State Troopers arrest 18 peacefully assembled people without telling them why and without reading them their rights?
+ Why can they hold them for up to 48 hours without charging them with anything?
+ By what authority can a police officer order people to leave a Maryland county without citing an offense? Is this the United States of America or the Soviet States of America?
How would your article have read if the people had been arrested for something that is politically correct these days, like gay rights?
Thank you for your time.
Joseph J. Healy
Catonsville, MD
August 5th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Student,
The people who think abortion is OK are the creators of those horrid photographs of babies ripped into bloody pieces. We must never be silent to their slaughter and fight with ever greater perserverence to expose the evil of abortion for the rest to see. And as shown on this blog, many of the same ones who would kill these children have the nerve to say it is hurting the minds of our children to see those pictures of the carnage they comit within the walls of the abortuary on a daily basis right in our backyard. Student, it is not the pictures themseleves that are troubling, but rather it is the fact that anybody could do that to a baby. My young daughter's response was "why doesn't the president do something to stop it"?
The pro-aborts are really no that much different from the the psycho who cut off the sleeping guys head ona Greyhound bus the other day. If society as a whole is willing to accept people choosing to deliver a baby up to her shoulders and then slide a scissors up her spine to the base of the skull and stab the scissors into her skull and then open the scissors wide before pulling it out and making a gaping whole so they can suck the baby's brains out and then crush the skull so they can deliver "the baby", then how can they be shocked by somebody cutting a sleeping persons head off? It was only last year that some sanity was brought back to the US Supreme Court and they upheld the ban on PBA. Up until that ruling, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were holding fundraisers to keep PBA legal! My children understand that we are holding those pictures up in order to try and help babies from being hurt. What they really have a lot harder time dealing with is the fact that they live in a country that legalizes the dismemberment and slaughter of the children in those pictures.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Student is right. It really is gore porn to you. The procedure is illegal but you sure seem to get all hot and bothered in describing it.
And what you choose to expose your children to is NOT what I want mine exposed to. You have no right to decide what MY children see.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
And you "peaceful protesters" are really not that much different from the psycho's at http://www.armyofgod.com. There, now we've both made stupid statements…..feel better?
August 6th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
AuroraResident says:
Student is right. It really is gore porn to you. The procedure is illegal but you sure seem to get all hot and bothered in describing it.
It gets me hot alright, hot with anger and disgust. And it bothers me to no end. Funny though, I think I'm in the large majority in those respects. But where do you come up with using the word "porn"? Is everything emotional in your life equated to sex and porn?
Now you answer the same questions AuroraResident. Does the "procedure" description as copied from the Supreme Court decision outlawing PBA get you at all "hot" or angry that our Democratic nominee and his wife held fund-raisers and donated their time to support the legalization of this "gore". Would you rather just ignore it and live your life without being
"bothered" about it?
August 6th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Student says:
And you "peaceful protesters" are really not that much different from the psycho's at http://www.armyofgod.com. There, now we've both made stupid statements…..feel better?
I don't get the logic in your analogy Student…. I said people who would stab a mostly delivered baby in the head with a scissors as she leaves the birth canal is psychotic. I can see logic in that comment.
Your comment that "peaceful protesters" are like violent protesters seems illogical to me. Maybe you could explain your comment in more detail and clarify it so we can understand what you mean by it.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Truthseeker,Why do you always have tp use partial birth abortion as an example?Personally I think that if a woman can carry a fetus up to the point of delivery then it makes no sense to abort it.Delivery is delivery whether the head comes out or not.Also as far as I know it's illegal so why don't you get off your high horse and argue with valid points.Once again I am PRO-CHOICE not pro-abort.Are you pro-abuse,pro-foster-care,pro-child molestation and rape?After all that is what many unwanted children suffer and you are all for women bringing unwanted children into the world.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:28 am
kathy,
I don't have to use PBA. It just goes to the mentality of some of the "pro-choice" community like the PP and Barack and Michelle Obama who would raise money and fight in the courts to keep such a barbaric procedure legal. I think it is insanity and it frightening that somebody who would fight for the right to do that is now favored to win the presidency of the US. How can anybody be comfortable with that. In my eyes a person who would do that to a baby is a sociopathic killer. And a person who would fight to keep it legal for a person to do that is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I found something about the evil PP organization today that I'd like to share with all of you:
Creamer: A mom at 13, with help she now excels
By Anita Creamer - acreamer@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, July 6, 2008
Story appeared in SCENE section, Page L9
The summer before her freshman year at Del Campo High School, Amber Vaden got pregnant. She was 13.
"I thought I'd have to drop out of school," she says now.
Instead, at 16, she just graduated with honors from Sierra Nueva, the San Juan Unified School District continuation school for pregnant and parenting teens, and she received her medical assistant certification.
She also won four scholarships, including one she'll receive at Planned Parenthood's Teen Success Program luncheon this week, and she begins classes at American River College in the fall. She wants to become a registered nurse.
Amber is the mother of a 2-year-old son named Keith. For now, she lives in her mother's Carmichael apartment and works at a nearby McDonald's.
But she has plans and a future, in part because of Teen Success, the education and support group for teen moms that she attended faithfully for more than two years.
Her biggest goal? Not to become a statistic.
"I just want to prove everybody wrong," she says.
Frankly, that's a tall order. One in five California teen moms below the age of 17 will give birth to another child within two years. And with the birth of each child, teens' options quickly dwindle.
As Deborah Ortiz of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte says, teen pregnancy is the biggest reason girls don't finish high school as well as the top indication of whether they'll end up living in poverty.
And children born to teen moms face enormous behavioral, academic and economic obstacles. They're more likely to become teen parents themselves. And boys born to teen moms are more likely to end up incarcerated one day.
All in all, a fairly grim outlook – one that's in no way offset by the blockbuster success of "Juno" or the sensationalized D-list celebrity news of Jamie Lynn Spears' recent pregnancy.
The traction of the so-called "Gloucester pregnancy pact" – the 17 Massachusetts teens who allegedly decided to get pregnant at the same time, a widely discounted hoax well on its way to becoming an urban legend – underscores our alarm over teen pregnancy, which has been on the increase in recent years.
Yet for the 72 participants in Sacramento's six Teen Success groups, a much brighter set of statistics holds true. Last fall, for example, all maintained their family size, almost all remained enrolled in or graduated from high school.
They want a better life for their sons and daughters.
"I was one of those daughters," says Ortiz, the former state senator. "My mother got pregnant at 16 and married my father. She was clear. 'I want your life to be different.'
"She had five children by the age of 22. She wasn't liberal or progressive, but she was clear about my future ability to support myself and my quality of life if I didn't go to college.
"It was a frank conversation and an economic conversation."
Yet it was a conversation that Lora Queen didn't have with her daughter, Amber Vaden.
"My reaction to her pregnancy was, 'Oh, my God, you've screwed up your life,' " says Queen, 39, who works as a caregiver.
But a school counselor told Amber her life is what she makes it. At 13, it's not over. It's just beginning. As it turns out, it was Amber's former boyfriend, now 20, who left school.
"My whole life changed, and he's still doing what he always did," she says.
Not her. She's got other plans. That's what she told the audience at her graduation.
"I talked about how we had to face hardships," Amber says. "No matter what, we got dirty looks and smart remarks, but here we are, graduating."
"She said, 'For all you haters, look at me now,' " her mother remembers. "I had to pull that dagger out of my chest. But she made the best of her circumstances."
And she had help.
http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/1060019.html
How dare PP help a pregnant teen and not force her to abort!?!! What were they thinking. (sarcasm)
August 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Nice Spam Student. Just recipricating your helpful comments from a few days ago.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
John, you're welcome. It seems to me if someone was "pro" abortion that would be what they would push for all of the time. It wouldn't make any sense to set up a Teen Success Program for teen mothers, would it? Or should people not help teen moms. I'm confused.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I'm sorry, I just couldn't be bothered to read your spam.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I'd be curious to know what kind of "help" PP is offering… until that organization ceases their evil practices, I will not develop any sort of "warm feelings" towards them.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Student,
Helping a teenage mother doesn't seem like "pro" abortion to me either. The black community welcomes help like Teen Success. Thanks for the post.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Student,
Pro-life will never see any good in anything that they themselves don't FULLY agree with.How sad that you are all so closed minded that you can't see any good in everything because,I'm sorry,there is good in everything.Why can't they look at it as their GOD working in any way he (or she) can.Every triumph no matter how small is still a triumph.I congradulate that young woman for her hard work and determination.She had a strong mother that wanted the best for her.UNFORTUNATELY,not all mothers are or will be like that so……..I will always be for a woman haing the choice over what happens to her body and her life no matter what anyone says or thinks.They can quote their bible,call what they dan't agree with "Spam" or other foolish things.They can make ridiculous comparisons,call names,and hold disgusting signs.They are only working against their own cause by pushing people to see how they are acting like bullies.Praying is one thing but noone likes to be preached to.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
kathy,
I wasn't preaching. Are you comfortable with supporting a womans right to hire somebody to deliver
her baby to the shoulders and then slide a scissors up the spine to the head and jab them in and then open them wide to make a gaping hole to suck her brains out?
It was just a question which I see you failed to answer.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Here is some preaching for you though.
I know many of who rebel against God and, ignorant of the meaning of the passage, point to passages and call God a wicked God. Those who seek forgiveness, take heart and turn yourselves away from evil for the mercy of God is infinite.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them,
saith the LORD:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying KNOW the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:21 am
UNFORTUNATELY,not all mothers are or will be like that so……..I will always be for a woman haing the choice over what happens to her body and her life no matter what anyone says or thinks.
Baiting young girls that it is o.k. to kill their babies if they don't have their mother's support kathy?
Do you truly see that as being compassionate to them?
August 8th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Student,
What percent of pregnant teens does PP commit abortion on vs. the percent that they support financially through a pregnancy? Is it 50%, maybe 30%, or maybe 20%, or maybe it is closer to less than 1%!! Who are you trying to fool. Just answer my question with your best guess. Skip the judgements about pro-lifers and try responding honestly to this question. What percent of pregnant teens does PP commit abortion on vs. the percent that they support financially through a pregnancy?
August 8th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Are you comfortable with priests raping children? I'm not — the procedure you describe is illegal — same as raping kids.
Are you comfortable with horsewhipping? How about sharp iron forks being used to mangle breasts? How about red hot pincers used to tear off flesh? No? Perhaps red hot irons inserted up vaginas and rectums or devices named the turcas used to tear out fingernails? Again, all of these are illegal but were, at one time, used by the church.
After the nails were ripped out needles were shoved into the quicks. Boots called bootikens were used to lacerate flesh and crush bone. Thumbscrews were used to crush the fingers and toes. Acid was poured on victims and hands were immersed into pots of boiling oil and water.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Student,
Thanks for posting the article. I must confess that Teen Success sounds like they do some good for teens. I, and most pro-lifers I know, are all in favor of helping teens become a success.
I read an article about Teen Success called
Putting Teenage Mothers On the Road to Success. It has some interesting things in it.
One thing to note here is the funding that is available to PP for doing this program.
Another note, where maybe someone can do some research. They have 21 locations in California, but only 6 in the rest of the country. I believe that California is one of the only states that provides funds for PP to do pre-natal care. As I understand it, most PP locations around the country DO NOT provide pre-natal care. (Does anyone have any exact figures regarding how many PP locations provide pre-natal care?) I also think that California mandates this pre-natal care for PP facilities by law. (Again, just what I've heard, if anyone can definitely confirm or deny this, that'd be great.)
"Emergency contraception" is often an early abortion. When conception/fertilization is not prevented, the "emergency contraception" blocks the newly formed life from attaching to the wall of the uterus, causing a very early abortion.
"Maintain the current size of her family"? It's not a contract saying "I promise not to get pregnant again", but one of "maintaining". So if I do get pregnant again, am I contractually obligated to have an abortion? Do I feel pressured into an abortion from this?
Granted, a girl might choose to refrain from intercourse under this program, but if the is run by PP, I don't think they will be recommending this course of action.
While I support programs to help teenage mothers, I'm not sure that I can fully support Teen Success. I applaud the good aspects of the program, encouraging teen mothers to continue their education, etc. But, I am cautious about other aspect of this program.
God Bless,
Roger
August 8th, 2008 at 8:54 am
truthseeker and AuroraResident,
I think that we've all heard enough on this line of thought. AuroraResident, I see your point, although I don't fully agree with it. Truthseeker, as many have pointed out, PBA is now, thank God, illegal. Perhaps you can refrain from the descriptions again and attempt to win your arguments with other tactics.
God Bless,
Roger
August 8th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Also, remember, the BLOG entries are for dealing with the topic of the post. Other entries can be posted in the forum.
God Bless,
Roger
August 8th, 2008 at 8:59 am
AuroraResident says:
Are you comfortable with supporting a womans right to hire somebody to deliver
her baby to the shoulders and then slide a scissors up the spine to the head and jab them in and then open them wide to make a gaping hole to suck her brains out?
Are you comfortable with priests raping children? I'm not — the procedure you describe is illegal — same as raping kids.
My point exactly AuroraResident. But why does it matter to you wether or not it was "legal". Why would any sane person fight to keep a procedure like that legal and offer to "perform" said procedure on women and their babies? It is precisely the fact that PP and Barack and Michelle Obama had to be forced to stop their enthusiastic struggle to maintain their "right" to perform this barbaric procedure that makes their talk of abortion being a morally wrenching issue so insidious.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Roger,
Thank God as of just last year it is now illegal in the US. As I posted above it is precisiely the fact that the person who fought for the right to keep it legal is currently leading in the polls to become president. And FVFAPP would rather people not post about it and just keep quiet till he gets elected. Are you kidding?
August 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Roger,
The topic of this blogline is "Face the Truth" protesters get arrested for expressing their first amendment rights. And you think a description about the truth of the mindset of pro-aborts is not relevant and should be suppressed here?
August 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Roger,
Would you tell those protesters that got arrested perhaps they could try another tactic that is not so offensive as holding those signs?
August 8th, 2008 at 10:14 am
The truth tour, which is the subject of this blogline, is all about exposing the sociopathic killing of the unborn. The fact that some would not stop supporting PBA until it was made illegal shows the mindset of some in the pro-choice community. We need to seperate the wheat from the chaff and weed them out.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:42 am
AuroraResident typical response to attack the church when faced with the insidious nature of your pro-abort
mindset:
Are you comfortable with horsewhipping? How about sharp iron forks being used to mangle breasts? How about red hot pincers used to tear off flesh? No? Perhaps red hot irons inserted up vaginas and rectums or devices named the turcas used to tear out fingernails? Again, all of these are illegal but were, at one time, used by the church.
Posted by AuroraResident August 8th, 2008 at 7:52 am
AuroraREsident, I for one am willing to categorically say that anybody who supports those types of behaviours has the mindset of a sociopathic killer. Are you willing to say the same about Planned Parenthood and the rest who supported people's "right" to PBA?
After the nails were ripped out needles were shoved into the quicks. Boots called bootikens were used to lacerate flesh and crush bone. Thumbscrews were used to crush the fingers and toes. Acid was poured on victims and hands were immersed into pots of boiling oil and water.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:06 am
AuroraResident, I for one am willing to categorically say that anybody who supports those types of behaviours has the mindset of a sociopathic killer. Are you willing to say the same about Planned Parenthood and the rest who supported people's "right" to PBA? A simple yes or no "ANSWER" to the question will suffice.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
truthseeker,
How we deliver the truth is just as important as the truth itself! (Eph. 4:15)
God Bless,
Roger
August 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Truthseeker,
This conversation is over. If you don't want to talk about arrests in Maryland, take it somewhere else.
Matt
August 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I don't understand why they were arrested if they were protesting peacfully which it appears they were,I'm sure they weren't waving guns around. I don't think anyone is wrong I just don't happen to agree.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Matt,
You are the moderator so you can control the content of posts on your blog. I just didn't expect such censorship here cause the truth tour anf FVFAPP were my first exposure to graphic pictures and descriptions. This is where I was taught the imporatnce of exposing the evil by putting it in the face of those who would rather ignore it and let the killing go on in tranquility. I am sure you are aware that the plaintiff in the case I referenced was Planned Parenthood. It is ironic that you would censor a post that played such a pivotal role in the judges decision. Don't you realize it could also play a just a pivotal role in the decision of many Fox Valley citizens who might otherwise never read the truth about what Planned Parenthood stands for and uses our tax dollars to fight for. The first time I read the description it had a profound impact on me personally.
Perhaps that is why I am so driven to use it as a tool in my own struggle to stop Planned Parenthood. I'll take a self-imposed two week sabattical from posting here. Please feel free to remove this and any of my previous posts that you believe were off topic, too graphic, or not helpful to your struggle against Planned Parenthood. I will take no offense to it. God love you. ts
August 8th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Truthseeker,
I didn't censor you. I just want comments to stay on topic. I think it can be safely said that I support graphic portrayals of abortion, whatever form they come in. I don't think your posts were inaccurate or attacking anyone and that's why they're still there.
Don't take a sabbatical on my account, let's just all try to keep the comments on the topic of the post. If they start to stray, start a thread in the forum.
No hard feelings at all here, truthseeker. Just doing my job.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:02 am
10-4 Matt
August 9th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Mr. Healy's letter (post 11) pretty much describes the type of harrassment pro-lifers have become accustomed to receiving over the years. Though the conflicting accounts of the incident make it hard to ascertain exactly what happened, it has been our experience that this fits the pattern of overly zealous authorities going too far. Does this mean we "think the police are out to get pro-lifers" as was suggested by one of our blogger friends? Of course not. It simply reflects the reality of what pro-lifers have encountered many times throughout the country and the odds are high that in the end this will be exposed as yet another example of this.
It was also suggested here that the display of the Truth Tour photographs run afoul of FACE and should not be protected by the First Amendment. If there is a majority opinion (there will always be at least one person to espouse any issue) among legal scholars that supports this contention we are unaware of it. Signage is not prohibited under FACE provisions, which is not a surprise because such would be unconstitutional.
If it should ever happen that displays used in the Truth Tours are prohibited it would seriously undermine one of the most effective means of political dissent. Propaganda ministers in totalitarian regimes have an ironclad grip on what the media and populace can share. That is one of the biggest differences between us and them. For example, would war protests stripped of the display of carnage be as effective in raising awareness of war's brutality? It is one thing for a country to go to war with the vast majority of its citizens blissfully unaware of the human costs to innocent non-combatants, but another thing altogether when people are confronted time and again with the harsh reality of what they are supporting.
The reality of innocent unborn children being dismembered inside the womb is something many supporters of abortion do not want people to see. This is understandable because it contradicts what many of them have said for years: namely, that abortion simply removes a blob of tissue. The pictures tell a different story, that indeed these are our tiny brothers and sisters who have met a brutal end. Their lives have been denied them.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Try again:
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6732659166933078950&hl=en&fs=true
September 19th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I'm perplexed:
Your link in the forum…."Matters of Life and Death" - "Man. He's got the truth!!" AND above link….reply #49, both do NOT work on my computer! I think the computer "goes somewhere" but all I get is a blank screen! I've got a state of the art (3 years old) with Windows Service Pack 3 and MS Office 2007 yet something is wrong?
September 20th, 2008 at 5:08 am