Roundup: Harrass-a-thon Begins at Clinics, But Never Limited to 40 Days

Feb 17, 2010, 9:56am

Access to reproductive health clinics may become a lot harder this month because yesterday began the annual anti-choice campaign "40 Days for Life" -- an intense harass-a-thon happening at clinics across the country.

Need a low-cost pap smear? Trying to get some affordable birth
control pills? Getting tested for an STI? Well getting into your local
reproductive healthcare clinic may suddenly become a lot harder because
protesters want to keep you away. Why would anyone want to stop a woman from
going to the doctor you might ask? Well yesterday began the annual anti-choice
campaign "40 Days for Life" — an intense harass-a-thon happening at reproductive healthcare clinics
across the country. And I do mean healthcare
clinics, because let’s never forget that all of the above are just some of the healthcare services these
local clinics provide besides providing abortions.

There are some reports in the news media but not all that
many:

In Maryland:

Wearing
a button stating "I Regret Lost Fatherhood," Andy Haines said he and his wife,
Jaime, have both experienced the effect abortion can have on a person’s life.

"We ourselves are both post-abortive," Haines said as the
kickoff rally for 40 Days For Life was getting under way Tuesday night at Faith
Christian Fellowship near Williamsport. He said he was involved in a
relationship that resulted in an abortion years ago and that Jaime had two.

In Naples,
California:

Char Wendel, the Planned Parenthood
executive, says the protesters cause a disruption.

"We are trying to make services
accessible to people and the people on the sidewalk are choosing to set up a
barrier," said Wendel. "You’re coming in to get your health care…I think
the patients get angry, get frustrated, they don’t understand why its anyone’s
business that they’re coming in for services. And I think for staff, it
strengthens our commitment."

Also there is a brief report in St. Cloud,
Minnesota. But so far, that’s it in terms of news coverage. For those who
want to provide support for women consider becoming a clinic escort in any of these cities.

Of course let’s not forget that harassment of women at
healthcare clinics isn’t ever regulated to only 40 days a year. Portland, Oregon’s
new clinic is attracting protesters right
from the get-go.

A member of a Romanian Assemblies
of God Church, he joined hundreds of others Sunday as Planned Parenthood held a
grand opening for a building where women will receive health care and get
abortions.

The opening, which included a dozen
Portland police and uniformed security guards, came almost three years after
pro-life groups began protesting a city-backed urban renewal proposal to allow
Planned Parenthood to move into the site at Northeast Martin Luther King
Boulevard and Beech Street. The movement, called Precious Children of Portland,
gained energy as it appealed to city leaders and then contractors in an attempt
to thwart construction. Vigils have taken place near the spot weekly and will
continue.

Of course sometimes the anti-choice activists’ actions don’t
stop at mere protests. Sometimes they up the ante to death threats, which as
Dr. George Tiller’s murder shows, aren’t always idle. Which is why when a man
called a Boulder doctor and threatened to harm his family, it’s taken
rather seriously.

A man accused of
threatening the family of Boulder abortion doctor Warren Hern wants to go to
trial and fight the charges against him.

Donald Hertz was expected
to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday, but changed his
mind just before the hearing began.

Hertz, 70, is a retired
real estate broker and insurance salesman from Spokane, Wash.

He was indicted on two
counts: making a telephone threat to Hern’s office on June 23 and violating the
Free Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).

Hern said the caller told
his staff that there were two Vietnam War veterans on the way from Spanish
Fork, Utah, to hurt Hern’s family.

Hern has said that his
family was terrified by the telephone threat, and that his elderly mother had
to be moved from her apartment in the middle of the night by federal agents.

Bonus item: In a Senate floor
debate in Missouri about a bill that would require women seeking abortions to
get an ultrasound, a Republican state senator asked the Planned Parenthood
lobbyist "Have
you had an abortion?"

February 17, 2010

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February 16, 2010

At any time 350 Mesa County kids up
for adoption KKCO-TV

Teaching Safe Sex on TV New York Times

News Hounds’ Defense of Planned Parenthood The New
American

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Is THIS Close YourTango

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is Globe and Mail

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