Sacramento Considers "No Protest Zone" Near Abortion Businesses

LifeNews.com ^ | December 2, 2003 | Steven Ertelt

[nickcarraway]

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Prompted by some local leaders, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is considering a proposal that would place "no protest zones" around area abortion businesses.

One local abortion facility, Women's Health Specialists, already has a 20-foot zone in place thanks to an order issued by a local judge. Now county officials are considering extending similar anti-protest zones around all local abortion centers.

Three members of the board staged a press conference at the state capitol to announce their support for the idea.

"Those who wish to offer a different opinion are able to do so, but they are not going to be permitted -- under this ordinance -- to do so in a way that interferes with the legitimate exercise of an equally important right," Supervisor Roger Dickinson told KRCA-TV.

Since the late 1980's there have been no major protests in California, such as those groups like Operation Rescue organized in the past. In addition, none of the five protesters that were involved in the original lawsuit that led to the original 20-foot zone around Women's Health Specialists have protested abortions in two years and three of the five haven't participated in a protest in more than a decade.

That prompts pro-life attorneys to say there is no need for the protest free area.

"The buffer zone is useless due to the non-participation of those enjoined and [abortion] clinic employees are desperate," says Dana Cody, Executive Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation.

"Enter three pandering county supervisors beholding to abortion zealots," Cody added. "Now we will waste county resources debating a dead issue."

Another pro-life attorney, Cyrus Zal, argues such a law would limit the free speech rights of pro-life protesters and would cost the county because of expected lawsuits against it.

The supervisors will vote on the issue next Tuesday. San Diego and San Francisco have similar no-protest zones in place.

[kegler4]

Only a 20-foot no-protest zone? At least the protesters will still be seen and heard. There's always about a one-mile no-protest zone (or at least big enough that he never has to see or hear them) around George Bush.

That's one of the problems with restrictions like Bush's. Others see it and figure they can get away with it, too.

[nickcarraway]

You deliberately edited out a section of my response to make it appear I said something other than I did. Let me make it perfectly clear: I said I didn't agree with any murder, but the regrettable actions of a few crazy people, don't limit the rights of the rest. What you are saying is that pro-life protesters have less rights than any other kind of protestors.

I am to young to remember Vietnam, but I took history classes and saw tapes on TV plenty of times. And I can hardly believe anyone has recieved adulthood without seeing plenty about the civil rights movement. Do you think we should go back to Jim Crow laws, just because some civil rights activists killed people?

[nickcarraway]

So you base your opinion solely on the opinions of some people who work at an abortion clinic? Did it ever occur to you that they had a biased opinion? [by the way, Operation Rescue stopped in the 80s] I've heard about housewives being manhandled by people who outweighed her by 100 pounds and elderly men on walkers being beat up by clinic workers.

By the way, just yesterday another abortionist was convicted on 24 counts of sexual abuse of his patients. He isn't the only one being charged with that crime. There are at least two separate abortionists on trial in California now for their patients death. And in the Bay Area, a teenage girl is dead in the last two months after coming home from being given the abortion pill. If you base your opinions of pro-lifers on the actions of the few, what do you say to that?

[nickcarraway]

By your standards, the Revolutionary War was immoral and wrong. I'm afraid that you and I disagree there.

[m1-lightning]

It's always free speech for the liberals but none for the conservatives. War protestors ransacked neigborhoods, blocked traffic, and one case even blocked an ambulance from reaching someone injured by the protestors. Is there a buffer zone for liberal protestors? No. They come in hordes so strong that even the police have a hard time controlling them. Yet a few members of a church are considered dangerous. I simply stepped on the grass by accident at an abotion clinic and was escorted out of the area by police. This buffer zone isn't about the threats. It's about the attention that the protestors get. Abortionists do not want protestors out there and will attempt to stop free speech at all costs in order to keep their industrial supply of wealth.

[MEGoody]

I wonder if they'll also consider 'no protest' zones when the President comes to visit, or when any number of other things? Nah, probably not.

[MEGoody]

"I have, however, seen protesters harass and manhandle people"

Yep, the anti-war protesters did a lot of that. Sometimes it happens. Do we ban all protesting?

[Political Junkie Too]

Maybe they should test this idea at a Southern California supermarket, first.

-PJ

[You Gotta Be Kidding Me]

"A swing and a miss. Comparing abortion to the Holocaust won't win you any points with me."

Be more interested in winning "points" with God. If you did accept that abortion=Holocaust=mass murder, would you find yourself at the same moral level as Aucshwitz camp guards? That is the question that abortionists will never face, until they are forced to. Better to face it now, than later.

[MEGoody]

"One could make the argument that there are "lots" of families wanting to adopt children, but most of those families want babies only, and white babies at that..."

2 million couples waiting to adopt, while only 22,000 babies are put up for adoption each year.

And that whole 'white babies' thing is simply empty rhetoric. Thousands have adopted non-white, non-infant children in this country - many with special medical needs. And there are many thousands more who travel to foreign countries to adopt.

Just another excuse from a supporter of baby killing to justify the horrendous act of abortion.

[Pedantic_Lady]

So you base your opinion solely on the opinions of some people who work at an abortion clinic? Did it ever occur to you that they had a biased opinion? [by the way, Operation Rescue stopped in the 80s] I've heard about housewives being manhandled by people who outweighed her by 100 pounds and elderly men on walkers being beat up by clinic workers.

Nice to hear that O.R. didn't operate in the 1990s...I guess it wasn't them that I saw every morning on the way to school (well, not every morning...only when the weather was nice) handing out leaflets and holding up posters with "Operation Rescue" printed on them.

[Pedantic_Lady]

Be more interested in winning "points" with God.

I'm atheist; I don't believe in God.

If you did accept that abortion=Holocaust=mass murder, would you find yourself at the same moral level as Aucshwitz camp guards? That is the question that abortionists will never face, until they are forced to. Better to face it now, than later.

If you're going to compare me to an Auschwitz camp guard, better learn to spell "Auschwitz."

[Pedantic_Lady]

It's even harder to look at an aborted baby and think to yourself, "he deserved it."

Not even the same thing. When an anti-abortionist gets his or her way and bans abortion, young women (sometimes your sisters, daughters, etc) die as a direct result of YOUR moral judgement. When a woman aborts an embryo, a potential human being is expelled from the body. The embryo does not think. It does not feel. It has DNA...so what? So do viruses. So do bacteria. So do cockroaches. We don't think anything of killing them. Chickens and cows have complete nervous systems and their own DNA, yet we eat them for dinner. Our country executes convicts...human beings...on an average of one a week. Where do you draw the line? Where is it OK to kill and OK to not kill?

[Pedantic_Lady]

It was a hypothetical question. It has no answer. Nobody is right.

[Pedantic_Lady]

When logic fails, hide behind relativism, eh?

Just following your lead.

[Augustinefan]

Well, to be honest, Sacramento isn't really half queer. That's San Francisco. We're actually only about 25% queer. ;)