Banner With Fetus Picture Gets Pro-Life Group Kicked Out Of Parade

Palatine, IL Patch:

A pro-life group is out of the Hometown Fest July 2 parade after refusing to drop a banner that included a picture of a live fetus.

"They decided that an unborn baby is too offensive," said Martin Kelley, co-founder of Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life. "It's an ultrasound photo. It's not a picture of an aborted baby."

Read the whole story: Palatine, IL Patch

Comments

[Nick Franco]

09:20 PM on 07/02/2011

How come it's always the male posters that most strongly deny women the right to choice?

[rwextthoughts]

10:00 AM on 06/14/2011

HEY ,,, as a pro life Catholic ( abortion with exceptions for incest, rape, health of mother )

having the abortion on demand crowd seen as banning this is great as the picture got a whole lot more exposure nationally than the few thousand who would have seen the parade and not really paid attention

[FlangeSqueal]

04:58 PM on 06/15/2011

"....abortion on demand crowd..." ???


What the Hell are you talking about ?

The Jaycees merely kept this filthy bit of anti-woman pornography away from the eyes of our children.

[Mary Copas]

11:30 AM on 06/19/2011

A picture of a baby is "anti-woman pornography"?

[gingerland62]

02:13 AM on 06/14/2011

It's a parade people, why not carry a big sign of a ultrasound of a uterus and peni&. These people are obsessed!

[FlangeSqueal]

04:59 PM on 06/15/2011

They love their 1950's era illegal abortion porno !

[bealebkk]

12:51 AM on 06/14/2011

"Such evil deeds could religion prompt."
...Lucretius

[angryliberal]

12:34 AM on 06/14/2011

Leave that hokey nonsense in the church where it belongs.

[reck222]

12:30 AM on 06/14/2011

What, did people think they were aborting pumpkins? How is that image offensive?

[VirginiaJeff]

12:17 AM on 06/14/2011

I don't agree with this group, but I don't see why their banner wasn't permissable. When something like this happens, I wonder when it will be my turn.

[truly moderate]

12:15 AM on 06/14/2011

If gay pride parades are allowed to display content that would be considered an exercise of free speech, then the same afforded opporunity in free speech should be granted to this pro-life group.

We allow the westbore baptists to protest the funerals of dead soldiers, yet we deem it innappropriate to allow a fetus to be displayed.

If a cause is conservative, its wrong for liberals to push for banning of the content, and if a cause if liberal, its wrong for conservatives to try and silence them as well.

I do believe free speech has its limits, and that is when it goes in a criminal direction (such as the case of the pastor in georgia burning the Koran after knowing that his actions would cost the lives of soldiers overseas). However, in the case of this pro-life group I see nothing criminal.

Must we be politically correct, unless the cause fits our justification? (in otherwords, the mindset of if the cause is just its ok to display innapropriate content, but if its not a just cause then we must ban it)

[Bike Commuter]

12:55 AM on 06/14/2011

This is not a free speech issue. It is about the rights of a private group to make decisions related to an event that they sponsor. If the Knights of Columbus were sponsoring an event they would certainly bring Catholic sensibilities to the event.

[truly moderate]

03:45 AM on 06/14/2011

In other words being politically correct?

I'm all for logic and order but unless someone is acting in a lewd manner or their speech is turning into criminal or nation security issues, let them bring their sensibilities, or be totally incorrect but atleast have the right to be wrong!

[FlangeSqueal]

10:45 AM on 06/14/2011

The Jaycees call this event the "Hometown Fest," and they control what floats and groups march in the parade....family oriented, non-political fare.

A "gay pride" event would be exclusively FOR gay organizations and individuals to express their support and march or demonstrate in whatever manner is appropriate for gay pride marchers to do so...and the travelling public would be made aware that the event was going to be such.

Attendees at a family-oriented "Hometown Fest" do not expect, nor do they deserve, to be confronted with pornographic photographs of aborted fetuses or even in-utero images of live babies.

THIS is why the Jaycees wisely decided against allowing the silly pseudo-"catholic" woman-hater's club the right to march in their family-oriented parade.

[truly moderate]

12:06 AM on 06/14/2011

I am pro life, but not anti choice for two reasons. #1 A fair number of abortions are due to rape, threat to mother's health, and severe risk or discovered deformity/disease to child. #2 By making abortions illegal, the health risk to women increases due to illegal abortion operations and self induced (back alley) abortions.

Asside from the reasons in #1, there is no justification for an abortion since it takes the life of a living organism. However, it is ultimately the woman's choice, and even if it is for an immoral reasoning (in other words an abortion of convienance), its her body.

For pro lifers like myself that are not anti choice, our best solution to preventing unneccesary abortions is better preventional education. Unfortunately, the hardcore pro-life groups are against contraception preventional means such as birth control. However, they fail to realise that contraception reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies and thus reduces the number of abortions. They need to realize that while many Americans agree that abortion except under extenuating circumstances is morally wrong, many Americans also feel that sex is a private matter and not a "moral" one. Therefore these groups are trying to create forced morality on an issue that is not well accepted as a moral issue (contraception/sexual education). Abortion clearly is a moral issue....PREVENTION and not restriction is by far our best avenue. Also, increased funding for governmental programs to assist mothers finacially/ adoption would really help the issue.

[AStranger]

10:18 AM on 06/14/2011

Essentially what you are expressing is pretty close to being a mainstream pro-choice viewpoint.

Nobody truly wants more abortions to happen, but people who are pro-choice simply think it should be legal.

I am staunchly pro-choice, however I am definitely in favor of reducing the number of abortions that happen. One of the most effective ways of doing that is to reduce the pre-requisite to abortion: unwanted pregnancies. That is done by what you have suggested - education about contraception, encouragement of using contraception and other ways outside of making it illegal.

[Steve the Humanist]

11:50 PM on 06/13/2011

Why is the criminal pedophile ring known as the Catholic Church still allowed to exist?

[Spiggy]

12:12 AM on 06/14/2011

I have no problems with them or any other religion existing. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. My problem is when they want to push their beliefs onto others they should be forced to pay taxes like the rest of us.

[VirginiaJeff]

12:18 AM on 06/14/2011

You can form a non-profit to promote any belief you want, and not be taxed. Most non-profits proselytize, whether they are promoting religion or a charity.

[myviewsofnow]

01:16 PM on 06/14/2011

Fanned # 213

[FlangeSqueal]

11:53 AM on 06/14/2011

The Catholic Church has existed for over two thousand years, and in that time has fostered some of the greatest minds and finest causes ever to benefit mankind.

For you to condemn thousands of years of selfless individuals who have given the world music, the arts, science, law, and architecture because of the illegal, immoral, and vicious acts of a very few shows your own lack of judgement and fairness, and makes all who witness your gutless accusations wonder about your motives.

The Catholic Church is "...allowed to exist" because it is the largest Christian denomination on Earth, and does more good for mankind than any snarky armchair computer nerd that uses a dead Hollyweird hipster as his avatar.

[Steve the Humanist]

04:55 PM on 06/14/2011

Well since you made it personal. You are D-E-L-U-S-I-O-N-A-L.

If you can defend and support a criminal organization that knowingly defends and protects child molesters, and excommunicated the parents and doctors of a 9 year-old girl because they gave her an abortion after she was raped and impregnated with twins (which would have almost certainly killed her), then your morals and judgment are clearly suspect, and I don't care to be lectured by someone like you.

[williteverend]

11:25 PM on 06/13/2011

If it's not a baby than you aren't pregnant...

[LowSix]

11:34 PM on 06/13/2011

You mean 'If it's not an embryo,you aren't pregnant. You religious morons with your cute slogans and your faulty logic will eventually be irrelevant. Enjoy it whilemyou still can.

[STL BOB]

12:08 AM on 06/14/2011

Does that look like a zygote to you?

[Scoutitout]

11:19 PM on 06/13/2011

I wonder if they'd mind a banner of two men kissing.

[been2there]

11:15 PM on 06/13/2011

Stop calling anti-choice pro-life! These groups are not pro-life, they are just anti-choice.

[williteverend]

11:25 PM on 06/13/2011

No they are prolife...keep your legs closed of you don't want a baby rather than kill it

[Steve the Humanist]

11:45 PM on 06/13/2011

Grow up.

[Spiggy]

12:14 AM on 06/14/2011

Yeah...tell that to a woman who has been raped. Your statement reeks of your ignorance on this subject.

[Keth30]

11:37 PM on 06/13/2011

okay, so you're anit-life??

[NickfromCali]

11:06 PM on 06/13/2011

As opposed to the GOP who respect life from conception to birth

[Mabo]

12:44 AM on 06/14/2011

And after birth...don't keep spouting the lie that conservatives and Republicans don't care if children that are born live or die. It is an ignorant soapbox to stand on and it crumbles under the weight of its own inane premise. Nice try...

[Bike Commuter]

02:11 AM on 06/14/2011

The argument is not without precedent. It is not uncommon to hear self described "conservatives" switch from a pro-life argument to arguing that people with children they cannot afford are Ieeching off the government, and using such arguments as cause to cut assistance for the poor. The Catholic Church is usually an exception to this, but such positions are not unusual.

[trespanieli]

10:58 PM on 06/13/2011

Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. It is pro-less government, because it keeps government out of women's uteri.

[williteverend]

11:26 PM on 06/13/2011

pro-choice is giving an option of death

[FlangeSqueal]

03:55 PM on 06/14/2011

Spare us your ignorant snake-handling Baptist pronouncements.


Your congregation of green-teeth crackers awaits your next "sermon."