By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
Joe Scheidler’s opposition to abortion is so virulent that he’s a half-step removed from convicted clinic bomber Eric Rudolph.
So Scheidler’s scheduled appearance Saturday at a protest against Planned Parenthood of the
The desire of these folks to dictate women’s reproductive rights knows few boundaries. Scheidler promotes the display of pictures of bloodied, aborted fetuses on public streets. He pushes what he calls “sidewalk counseling,” where anti-abortion zealots harass people as they try to enter family planning clinics.
This grotesque invasion of privacy not only suits Scheidler, it is the centerpiece of his movement. “We believe sidewalk counseling is the most important pro-life work God has given us to do,” Scheidler says on the website for his Pro-Life Action League.
Scheidler remains in a protracted legal battle with the National Organization for Women over his aggressive tactics. Although the case is still open, at this point the ruling is that Scheidler has a First Amendment right to be a pain in the butt.
But in one sense, that is not the question he faces in
“We confront the abortionists and abortion promoters wherever they are,” Scheidler proudly proclaims on his website. “We picket and demonstrate outside abortion facilities, pro-abortion events, the offices of abortion organizations like NOW and Planned Parenthood and even abortionists’ houses. We infiltrate their meetings and groups.”
Whether the “we” to whom he refers will ever include more than a relative handful of people is doubtful.
Planned Parenthood has all the permits it needs to build a new headquarters on
Statistics show that only a small minority of clients use Planned Parenthood for abortion services. Most use it to get information on family planning and birth control. The number of people in
What’s left to extremists looks like a doomed war of attrition. You see that in the attempt by abortion opponents to grant fertilized eggs the same legal status as people. The same folks who liken a Planned Parenthood clinic to Auschwitz and who consider Joe Scheidler a role model are gathering signatures to place an egg-as-person constitutional amendment on Colorado’s 2008 ballot.
The push back against an amendment that effectively makes intrauterine devices and other common forms of birth control illegal comes almost as hard from the right wing as it does from the left.
Boycotts of businesses that will build the new Planned Parenthood headquarters may eventually prove temporarily disruptive, but that hasn’t happened yet.
“We’ve been very upfront with our general contractor,” said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Jody Berger. “And they’ve been very upfront with subcontractors.”
Contractors aren’t bailing because boycotts organized by fringe groups always struggle to attract mainstream momentum.
Former Colorado Senate President John Andrews opposes abortion in almost all circumstances. Andrews would like to see the Supreme Court decision that gave women abortion rights overturned. Andrews is no friend of Planned Parenthood. But even Andrews understands that a by-any-means-necessary strategy can actually hurt.
“There are certain kinds of rhetoric and some styles of protest aimed at saving unborn children which fail because they’re so shocking the undecided audience recoils,” Andrews said. “Some of the most selfless and saintly people I know display those 10-foot photo boards of aborted babies bathed in blood. But I just don’t think that advances the cause.”
“You get to a point,” Andrews explained, “that is counterproductive.”
Guys like Joe Scheidler passed that point a long time ago. And Colorado Families Against Planned Parenthood is getting awfully close.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
7 users commented in " Anti-Abortion Extremists Are Their Own Worst Enemies "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAh the irony of the “pro-lifers.” One would want to belief that people who are “pro-life” and want to protect the life of innocents, to be compassionate, caring people, even Christian-like. But this is the typical response. Not the killings of abortion doctors or the bombings, but the rhetoric. Do you think they might lose some converts with this rhetoric? Not the way to win the hearts and minds of those who “want” to feel that compassion and caring and take a stand.
Even more hypocritical is these very same “types” are the ones who adamently believe in capital punishment, and not just for murderers, but child molesters, drug dealers, terrorists, and blasphemers (OK, I made the last one up ?) They also have a dispensation to advocate war over peace, you know, where people are killed for righteous reasons; or not. But it’s not just hyprocricy of killing, it’s also the deception of compassion and caring. Never mind the argument about the health and welfare of the mother or family of the aborted, but the rest of the scenario . . people in need of health card, food, and a roof over their heads. The “let’em eat cake” society.
This is an odd bunch, and when they turn to sell their compassion and caring through hate and ugliness, it’s a tough sell.
Planned Parenthood provides more then abortions! The fact is pro-choice does not mean abortion! It means learning to take care of your self so you don’t get pregnent at all!
Planned Parenthood provides Pap smears, mamograms and education.
As the Chair and founder of the Women’s Legislative Health Care Caucus, we are now forming an interstate coalition of pro-choice legislators in surounding states to define a message of education and prevention.
One needs to be old enough to remember the “old days” when women had to go underground to get the help they needed. This, in many cases resulted in,death and infection.
Planned Parenthood, has always provided information since the days of the great influx of immigrants on the lower east side of New York, when families and especially women, simply could not handle any more children.
If you don’t like abortion, and I don’t, let Planned Parenthood teach you how to take care of yourself.
You can’t have it both ways!
I find it amazaing that the most outspoken opponents are men!
Education and prevention are the key!
Oh, and by the way, would the guys who oppose abortion take care of the unwanted kids who wind up in dumpsters?
Go Planned Parenthood!
We talk about religions in other countries that repress women. Seems to me we have the same thing here, where people try to force their religious viewpoints on others.
What is it about a woman’s right to her own reproductive system and privacy that they don’t understand?
To quote the Bible: “judge not that ye be not judged”.
[…] Original post by Jim Spencer […]
Sure wish you would say what you mean in these columns, Jim. I’m sure the anti-column replies will outnumber those like this one that think you are dead right on.
If Scheidler can refer to the new Planned Parenthood headquarters as a “new Auschwitz” we can just as easily refer to Mr. Scheidler as the leader of the American Taliban. Somehow, though, this is about more than calling people names.
This is about absolutism. Those who believe that life begins at conception are so certain of the correctness of their positions that they do not hesitate to impose those beliefs on others. There is no room in their belief system for even the teensiest possibility that another view might be correct. Personally, as God has not spoken to me in clear terms that require no interpretation, I don’t know whether life begins at conception or not. I find it easy - being male - to say it is up to a woman to determine what happens to her body. If she is correct that she is not ending a life, fine. And if she is wrong, she’ll have plenty of opportunity to discuss it with St. Peter, God and others in the after-life — if she believes in an after-life, that is. Let the (rhetorical) games begin.
Sperm Protection Police. Fertility Cult. Focus on the Fetus.
Once again. Sperm Protection Police. Fertility Cult. Focus on the Fetus.
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