Tuesday October 19, 2010
Ottawa Pro-Aborts Trying to Get 40 Days for Life Permit Revoked
By Patrick B. Craine
OTTAWA, Ontario, October 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After failing to rally an ongoing protest against the Ottawa 40 Days for Life, a group of pro-abortion activists are petitioning the city to revoke the vigil’s permit.
The Ottawa 40 Days campaign, nearing the end of its fourth run, maintains a vigil 12-hours a day on Bank St., across the street from the Morgentaler abortion facility.
From the beginning, the Pro-Choice Coalition of Ottawa has attempted to mount a protest on the other side of the road in front of the abortion facility, but pro-life leaders say that opponents of rights for the unborn now show up only a few times a week.
“We decided to think more structurally,” Justine McNulty, a member of the pro-abortion group, told Centretown News. “By ending the ‘40 Days’ in the future, women are safe to access the clinic whenever they need to.”
The group has launched a petition and letter-writing campaign. “Women should not have to run the gauntlet of anti-choice activists in order to access legal health services,” the petition reads. “The City of Ottawa must immediately revoke this permit in order to respect the dignity, privacy, and legal rights of women to unimpeded access to health services at the Morgentaler Clinic.”
The petition also suggests that the city should consider the “legal precedent” established by the bubble zones and injunctions restricting pro-life activity outside certain abortion facilities in such provinces as Ontario and British Columbia.
Paul Lauzon, who organizes the Ottawa 40 Days campaign, said it is an issue of freedom of speech. “We can express ourselves. You can’t shut us up. You can’t censor us,” he said. “We have not been any trouble, and we have done what the permit requires. We’re not violating the law, with or without a permit.”
“The permit is not a privilege that they give us,” he added. “It’s basically for their own information so they know who is doing what and where.”
“These people are no-choice unless it’s their choice,” commented Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Campaign Life Coalition. “They don’t believe in freedom of speech for anybody else, unless it’s their opinion. The people out there praying on the street for an end to abortion have every right to be there.”
LifeSiteNews.com did not hear back from the Pro-Choice Coalition of Ottawa by press time.