by Karina
Web Editor
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund
(cross-posted on Planned Parenthood Advocate )
Today marks the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that gave women the legal right to terminate a pregnancy. Anti-choicers mark the day by holding large protests across the country, including a huge March for Life protest in front of the Supreme Court Building in DC.
At the Minnesota Capitol building in St. Paul, Minnesota Concerned Citizens for Life hold their annual protest featuring speeches and messages from anti-choice politicians from the local and national level.
Also, in St. Paul, while anti-choice protesters peacefully protested across the street from the Planned Parenthood Highland Park Clinic, an extreme anti-choicer decided to ram his SUV against the front door of the clinic . Thankfully, no one was injured and little damage was done.
KSTP has a video about the incident.
These kinds of violent acts are extremely rare, but they do further emphasize the need to move beyond the divisive abortion debate and start talking about solutions that actually reduce the need for abortion. Planned Parenthood does more in a single day to prevent the need for abortion than anti-choice protesters do in a lifetime. If we could all come together and focus on increasing access to family planning and birth control, and providing medically accurate, age-appropriate responsible sex education, then we could dramatically reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy and keep the government away from legislating what are private and personal matters.
Today, on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota reaffirms its commitment to this cause.
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okay seriously, what the fuck is wrong with people!?
Oh my god, I volunteered at that clinic last summer! I'm relieved to hear that everyone is okay.
Part of what's absurd is that it's an office building with other businesses operating there, there are about 25 feet between the road and the doors (not to mention a wall of snow at this time of year), and there's a security desk right past the door that's staffed by some of the nicest folk ever and they would've been the ones most in danger.
Also, the protesters always do their thing right in front of those doors, which means they probably knew this guy was planning on driving through there and moved across the street. Why doesn't this stuff count as terrorism? The office pays insurance for being a "terrorist site" but these jerks aren't prosecuted as terrorists.
Watching the clip it's very clear that the guy who ran his SUV into the clinic is very disturbed individual and given his history (before he was in and out of mental hospitals he worked as a janitor in a NICU and according to his mother was very attatched to the infant patients) I can't find him as much at fault as those who are capable of rationally understanding the intricacies of the issue and choose violence or deliberately distort the issue to advance their cause. The mother, for example, talked about her son being disturbed by the idea of aborted fetuses "tossed into the trashcan making noise", and while I can't attest to whether she really believes that's an accurate portrayal of abortion or was just quoting her son, the fact that the news agency allowing it to air without comment while the rest of their report focused on the protestors made me roll my eyes.
Yeah, this. I don't doubt that a great number of anti-choicers are assholes with the potential for violence. The first time I escorted, one of the protestors shoved an escort to the ground while trying to push past her and harass some woman. However, this man is mentally disabled, which shouldn't be disregarded.
Yeah, this. I don't doubt that a great number of anti-choicers are assholes with the potential for violence. The first time I escorted, one of the protestors shoved an escort to the ground while trying to push past her and harass some woman. However, this man is mentally disabled, which shouldn't be disregarded.
I often wondered just that when I was in my women's classes in University as a Canadian Spanish woman- I'm not a Latina, but I would have expected to hear more about Latina points of view and seen more actual Latinas in my class than I did. It's not like there aren't any Latinas in Montreal, in fact the Latin population in Montreal seems to be growing, I can literally hear it bedroom furniture when I go out. There is Gloria Anzaldua though.