August 04, 2004

One Man's God Squad: Troy Newman's plan to stop abortions in Wichita, Kansas. Newman and his staff have spent months compiling a list of more than 200 "abortion collaborators" -- companies that do business with Women's Health Care Services and its employees. They plan to approach every firm on the list -- from the guy who mows the clinic's lawn to the cafe that sells Tiller his morning latte -- and lobby them to stop doing business with the facility.

Apparently, sending out postcards of mangled fetuses is a great way to protest. These postcards were sent to Sarah Phare's--an employee at the Women's Health Care Services--neighbours, addressing Sara as "Miss I-help-to-kill-babies". Soon after the protesters parked a tractor-trailer across the street from Sara's home, plastered with twenty-foot-long images of dismembered fetuses, and playing children's music. What. The. Hell. They should show these pro-lifers pictures of the aftermath of a back-ally abortion. And you know what's really scary? It's becoming easier and easier to read people's medical history. What's stopping these protesters from harassing women who have had abortions? How traumatic would that be?

posted by flying_w 20 years ago
  • Why isn't your homeland security division on the tails of these terrorists? (Rhetorical question.)
  • I don't consider that a rhetorical question at all. I'd damn well like an answer to that.
  • I wish they would harass kids in the back seats of cars instead. If they spent as much time trying to prevent pregnancies as they do trying to prevent abortions, we would all be a lot happier.
  • Agree with every comment here. But I feel I should give you my experience with high-school health class. We were educated on STD's and how they are contracted, how you can prevent them, MANY differant methods of birth control, as well as how to effectivly say no. Our teacher was wonderful in that she never once said it was immoroal to have a child out of wedlock. She did however, counsel us that if we ever decided to have a child, we should fully consider our ability to care for her/him. A speaker from Planned Parenthood came in for two or three classes, and we handled various contraceptives and were told how we could take advantage of the various services offered by Planned Parenthood. The concept of washing before and after sex, knowing and trusting your partner, and using at least one but preferably two methods of birth control was stressed heavily. The emotional aspect of it was aldo discussed at length. I really think it was a very good class, by the end if you didn't know all you needed to about safe sex it was your own fault for not paying attention. And this is a public high school I speak of.
  • So what I meant is that the attitude is being slowly changed starting with the younger generation.
  • Well, I guess it's better than shooting clinic workers, but has to be really frightening for the people affected. I'm surprised that they can't file harassment or stalking complaints. But can you imagine Troy'll be able to convince the taxi company owner to question customers who want to go in the general direction of the clinic, much less those who give that specific address. Seems to me that would be the next step. Targeting the taxi owner and the dry cleaner must really piss those people, and their employees, off. Troy is asking them to breach the laws about offering service to the general public. Even if they're sympathetic to the Troy's stance, they'd be vulnerable to lawsuits. It's my impression that you can't tie services to a religious agenda, or really, anything that says "I'm discriminating against a class of customers." And if the business's trade went down and they had to lay off employees, how would that get the employees of the side of this nutzo group? Any lawyers out there could tell me if I'm wrong?
  • Another debate on the same article
  • Pro-Choice? Who protects the unborn babies right to choose, or have a future in which to make choices? Pro-choice doesn't protect the right to choose only the right to have an abortion.
  • Without engaging the the abortion debate head on, I am curious about the relationship between these protesters / stalkers / harassers and this, a discussion about anti-social behaviour orders in the UK, as well as this, an admittedly rambling MeFi discussion of a UK law designed to curtail exactly the God Squad-type protests. Many in both discussions expressed ACLU- (and Liberty-) -ish concerns about the curtailing of civil rights the laws represent. Trying to think of what my point is....that there are laws in place (in some jurisdictions) to combat this invasive, harassing approach to activism but that those laws are frequently criticised as being too open to abuse by the state. The nature of the activity makes it very hard to pinpoint with a Goldilocks law - one that is not over broad, but that is flexible enough to attach to unanticipated permutations. What would that look at? It could not be motive (e.g intent to scare, threaten, etc.), another Pandora's box vilified by libertarians, conservatives and liberals alike. Will have to think about this more. In the meantime, I have some Junior Mints left over from last time, and here's a cutie for a bright Wednesday.
  • I agree with path - won't the regular stalking and harassment laws cover this? It seems quite clear to me that they are stalking the clinic workers. Personally, had I been Sara Phares, I might have gone out with some purple spray paint, and started spraying my lawn, and it would be a shame if any protestor got caught in the way, but them's the breaks when you tresspass.