Liberal Forum

RichClem » 22 Jan 2014 10:17 pm » wrote:Are you just babbling, trying to ignore what the actual court case is?

The Loud Truth About Abortion Protesters

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told us that these people are not anti-abortion “protesters.” Instead, he glowingly described them as, “counselors” who wanted “to comfort these [pregnant] women” by speaking to them, “quietly and in a friendly manner.”

Scalia offered these remarks during oral arguments in a case challenging the legality of a Massachusetts law that imposes a 35-foot buffer zone around clinics which anti-abortion protesters are prohibited from invading.
The Justice implied that a buffer zone was not needed because the people outside these clinics were not angry protesters, but rather a collection of kindly “sidewalk counselors.”

But something wasn’t adding up. Katie Klabusich, who has volunteered for years escorting pregnant women into clinics, told me a far different story. She spoke of numerous incidents where anti-abortion protesters would scream in the face of pregnant women in the hopes of shaming and bullying them to not enter the clinic.

So this past Saturday, I ventured out on a cold, snowy morning to see what was really up. What did I find? Well, upon parking my car about a block and a half from the clinic, I could hear screaming. I couldn’t make out the words but it was being directed at a woman approaching the clinic by a group of male protesters standing on the doorstep of the clinic.
New Jersey doesn’t have a buffer zone law like Massachusetts. (New Jersey does ban electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place.)

This group of men had formed an angry gauntlet in front of the clinic. They held signs bearing photos of dead babies, Biblical verses, and allegations that baby-killing was taking place at this facility.

I can’t even imagine what a woman who is likely emotionally distraught over the prospect of having an abortion is feeling as she approaches this group of men. In fact, to be brutally honest, I felt anxious as they glared at me when I neared the clinic’s entrance.

But one thing is clear, they were not there as Justice Scalia claimed, “to comfort women.” They wanted to intimidate women to not enter the clinic.
(.......)
And in the midst of this sea of people screaming, counseling and praying were a group of about eight volunteers donning yellow jackets that read, “Pro-choice clinic escort.” These people—whom one of the “sidewalk counselors” referred to as “deathscorts”—would safeguard the women entering the clinic, at times even forming a human shield around them.