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Fightdirecto -> When does protesting vs. abortion go too far? (9/20/2011 7:50:32 AM)
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In Protest Outside Middle School, Anti-Abortion Activists Target Daughter Of Abortion Clinic’s Landlord
Anti-abortion protesters target clinic’s landlord outside child’s Maryland school
quote:
Antiabortion activists who have sought for months to shut down a Germantown, Maryland clinic picketed outside a Montgomery County middle school where his daughter is a student, school and police officials said Monday...
The student’s father, who did not want to be named to protect the safety of his daughter, a sixth-grader at the school, said he saw the five protesters when he went to the school.
Some held a large banner that showed his photo, his full name, his phone number and the words “Please STOP the Child Killing.” Others held posters showing aborted fetuses.
The man owns the property in the Germantown office park where LeRoy Carhart has been performing abortions late in a pregnancy at the privately owned Reproductive Health Services clinic. Antiabortion protesters have repeatedly demonstrated outside the clinic since Carhart arrived in Maryland in December. Carhart is one of the few doctors in the country who openly acknowledges performing the procedure.
The clinic’s landlord said he explained the situation to his daughter and his son, a freshman at nearby Thomas S. Wootton High School, and reassured them that they were safe. Neither child was named in the posters or the banner.
But he said he is furious that the protests targeted his daughter’s school. Both children use their father’s last name.
“It’s horribly outrageous that they’re going out in front of a middle school,” he said. “It is way crossing the line. I very much respect the right of the protesters to do so in front of the clinic, or the steps of Capitol Hill, or the courthouse. But in front of a middle school is really not an appropriate place to do anything except protest for better teacher wages or the school budget.”
“The idea that a group of protesters would target a school because the child of someone they are targeting attends the school...is fairly despicable.” Montgomery County schools spokeswoman Lesli Maxwell said.
Jack Ames, director of a regional antiabortion group called Defend Life, said his group organized the protest at the school because it was a “very good public venue.”...Ames said the landlord, whose father operated a College Park abortion clinic that was firebombed in the 1980s, was a part-owner of the clinic and should not be allowed to “hide under this cloak of anonymity.”
Targeting people only tangentially related to abortion clinics has become a new favorite tactic of activists determined to shut down operations. In California, anti-abortion protesters recently forced a Planned Parenthood clinic to move by bullying Enterprise-Rent-A-Car into reneging on its contract to provide the center with the parking spots it needs to satisfy local zoning regulations.
The average age of a 6th grade student is 12 years old.
This 12 year old girl does not perform abortions, she does not work in the clinic, she does not own the building where the clinic rents space (her dad does) - is she a legitimate target for anti-abortion protestors?
Suppose she was not a 6th grader, but a 1st grader (age 6) or a kindergarten student (age 5) - should she be a legitimate target for anti-abortion protestors?
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