Oregon Ping
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Posted on 11/26/2005 9:22:51 PM PST by Keyes2000mt
Anti-abortion protester Marion Hite is so enduring —and now so loving in his recriminations — that even abortion-clinic workers have come to his defense.
The 99-year-old Portland man — a former cowboy, shepherd and logger — has sat in front of Portland’s Lovejoy Surgicenter Mondays through Saturdays for 30 years.
He turns 100 in December.
“They’re killing babies in there,” says Hite, under a blanket in a weathered lawn chair, holding a sign that reads “Stop Murder. Stop Abortion. Save the children. Please give him or her to us.”
One day several years ago, when a woman took offense and tried to wrest away his placard, staff from the clinic rushed out and told her to leave the man alone. He doesn’t hurt anyone, they explained.
Hite has not always gotten that kind of support, and he himself has been more confrontational in the past. He has been arrested from the corner five times, as various laws and clinic administrations have come and gone. He even spent a month in jail over his abiding protest and was once ordered to pay the clinic $200,000.
Once, when he was being taken away by police, his leg was injured. That crimped his ability to work, and he went to full-time protesting.
He still gets the sneaking suspicion that some motorists whiz by close enough to have a shot at him with their side-view mirrors.
But most days, Hite sits undisturbed, reading Catholic devotions without eyeglasses, giving kind but not overly zealous waves to children and parents who happen by. For single women on their way inside the clinic, he has a yearning smile. There are about 10,000 abortions in Oregon each year and usually about one in three are performed at Lovejoy.
There is no way to tell how many babies Hite has saved, but he does have proof of at least one. Several years ago, a woman walked up to him with tears in her eyes. She said that nine years ago she was walking to the clinic to have an abortion when she saw him and changed her mind. She had come to report how happy she was to have a 9-year-old daughter.
Thanks to his hearing aids, he caught her every word.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do it,” he says of his vigil, admitting that there are days when he would rather stay home. But he comes anyway, even in downpours. He simply puts up an umbrella.
Hite grew up on a small farm between Sandy and Boring. A lifelong Catholic, he was raised in the faith at St. Michael Parish in Sandy, the second oldest of seven children. His parents had come from Missouri. That may account for some of his stubbornness, he concedes.
He attended Benson Polytechnic High School and then he headed to Mount Angel Seminary, intent on becoming a priest.
He says that he was forced to leave because of an illness. “General sickness, I guess,” he says.
There began a long series of roughneck and often lonely jobs. He tended sheep and rustled cattle in eastern Oregon. He worked in logging camps around the state and fixed dents in cars.
Hite retired in the early 1970s, just after the U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the door to legal abortion. It was then that he decided he had better do something.
“Thou shalt not stand idly by when human life is at stake,” he says, briefly breaking into King James English. “I’m afraid that is what a lot of people are doing.”
He never wed. He now says it might have been nice to have children.
Hite obviously loves youngsters, who bring him out of a semi-doze when they walk by.
“I don’t think there’s anything like a little baby,” he says. “So innocent, so pure. And they’re putting them to death here.”
After his morning of witness for life is done, Hite hops a city bus and heads for Holy Rosary Parish, where he prays the stations of the cross and attends Mass.
His favorite prayer, he says, is the Our Father, especially the part about “forgive us out trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That reminds him to forgive again and again, he explains.
His cowboy nickname, Dock, has morphed into Doc.
“Pro-lifers have been calling him Doc without a K because he has probably saved as many babies as any doctor,” says Marlene Toffler, a fellow parishioner at Holy Rosary. “He’s a very humble man.”
Hite has been honored by pro-life groups and even by the political Constitution Party.
Paul Wolf, a retired business owner and member of Holy Rosary, goes out on the corner with Hite on occasion.
“He’s amazing,” Wolf says. “I think God keeps him alive to keep him on that corner. He is a very determined person and believes what he is doing. He doesn’t harm anybody.”
Hunched over, he attends Holy Names Society meetings at Holy Rosary and pleads for others to join him at the clinic.
“His inspiration will hopefully be contagious to others,” Wolf says.
“He is the stalwart,” says Vaughn Longanecker, who has also ventured to the corner to protest. “There is no wavering there. He is very gentle and very committed and very devout and broken-hearted over this. It’s as if every time a child is killed in there he has a knife go through his heart.”
Plans call for a pro-life lecture series in Hite’s name. A group at Holy Rosary is taking up donations for the cause.
Hite will be honored at a special 11 a.m. Mass Sunday, Dec. 4. The scheduled celebrant is Archbishop John Vlazny.
A reception will follow in the parish center, where Auxiliary Bishop Kenneth Steiner will speak.
BTTT
amazing.
"Rustled?"
Mr. Langlois probably means "herded." I doubt that Mr. Hite was a cattle thief.
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**There are about 10,000 abortions in Oregon each year and usually about one in three are performed at Lovejoy.**
Huge numbers!
Oregon Ping
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I drove by him many times.....rain or shine....didn't realize he was this old!
What a wonderful man and what an excellent example to us all. It seems ironic that he never married, wanted to be a priest, and it didn't happen.
Great story.
An angel among us.
Great post. Thank you.
And if this committed man saved even one unborn child, he's done his job and he's done more than most of us. I salute his effort and his sacrifice.
An amazing triumph over adversity through grace. I hope that someone advances his cause for canonization once he passes from this world, for through his heroic example his place in the next world is almost certainly assured.
Good man!
The proof that life is worth living!!
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