Anti-Abortion Protesters Block the Liberty Bell

My children, ages six and eight, don't know about the birds and the bees. But now they do know about abortion.

On our wholesome family trip to historic Philadelphia over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I took the kids to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed. On every street corner on all sides of the historic district were anti-abortion protesters. I don't know if they were from Operation Rescue or a different fundamentalist Christian group. All I know is that they had billboard-sized photos of bloody, dismembered fetuses from late-term abortions (or possibly third-trimester miscarriages). And there was no way to cross the street without seeing those pictures.

My husband and I tried to avoid them. We saw the protesters as we approached, groaned to ourselves, and looked around frantically to find alternate ways to get to the sites. But there were no other entry ways. We were stuck. My six-year-old saw the pictures and screamed. He cried, trembling. We left the area to find a place for lunch, and he refused to eat a bite. An hour later we returned, and the protesters were still there. Finally, as we were finishing up our healthy dose of Americana, the protesters called it a day and left.

Both my kids were frightened but my six-year-old in particular has been distraught. He told his best friend at school that he went to Philadelphia, where he saw a picture of a dead baby on a fork. He has had trouble going to sleep. He is terrified that he could somehow wind up like an aborted fetus. I tell him he is safe, he has nothing to worry about, we will protect him. But the truth is, I can't protect him from vile political and religious rhetoric.

Yes, anti-abortion protesters have the right of free speech. But should they be allowed to traumatize children? They deliberately chose a spot that is a magnet for families with young children because, it seems, they want to scare children and give them nightmares, thereby winning over the parents to their cause.

Those of us who support reproductive rights consider abortion a sad but sometimes necessary option. We wish that more affordable and more effective forms of contraception were available so that abortions would become less frequent. We wish that all young people had access to comprehensive sex education so that they would know there are ways to prevent pregnancy aside from abstinence, which doesn't work.

Make no mistake about it: the ultimate goal of Christian anti-abortion activists is a nationwide ban on abortions at every gestational stage. Tellingly, they choose to represent only late-term abortions. Yet late-term abortions (after the twentieth week), the kind resorted to by only the most desperate women in horribly dire circumstances, account for only 1.2 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute. Assuming that the pictures are in fact from abortions and not miscarriages, they do not represent typical abortions. Their value is political and religious, not educational.

I told my children that abortions are sad, but what is much, much sadder, what is in fact tragic, is that thousands of soldiers--people who were born and lived lives, with children and families--have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that they continue to die. Indeed, a memorial in honor of the soldiers across from the Liberty Bell was overshadowed by the anti-abortion protesters. What kind of Memorial Day was that?

Comments

[littlepuffycloud]

I'm so sorry your 6 yr-old little boy has been so traumatized by protesters' gruesome and unnecessary signs. No child his age should be subjected to something so horrible. What good did they think would come of their obscene protest? I don't see how traumatizing a 6 yr-old child and disturbing families on Memorial Day does anything to further their cause. If they want to stop abortions, they need to work on educating girls and boys about sex and pregnancy, not to mention disease and make birth control affordable and accessible to those who need it. But of course, that's not as dramatic as scaring children and shocking families.

[Stillanidiot]

"Make no mistake about it: the ultimate goal of Christian anti-abortion activists is a nationwide ban on abortions at every gestational stage."
I think you are mistaken. The ultimate goal of these people is the control of everything having to do with human reproduction in this country, abortion, birth control and sex education.
Once those aims are achieved, then they'll move on to censorship of all media and establishing a real theocratic regime in Washington.
Seems laughable doesn't it.
But it's the way the vast majority of them think. And they won't be satisfied until they've remade this country and culture to conform to their vision. They've been dealt some setbacks lately and after November their voice may be much smaller in the government.
Still, we're not out of the woods with these kooks. If we let our guard down they will come roaring back with a vengenance and rest assured they'll have no qualms about posting those disgusting pictures in schools from one end of this country to the other.

[MamaBird62]

Leora,
I'm so sorry that this happened to your family. I would write to authorities in Philadelphia (police, tourism, mayor's office, etc). These protesters at the very least were disturbing the peace, and should have been removed if not arrested. Don't just take it, do something!

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Family Values, indeed!

I doubt that the Pseudo-Christian Taliban cares about the trauma they caused your son, he's Post-Born.

[LouisPWu]

Notice how most ANTI-ABORTIONISTS are PRO-WAR and PRO-DEATH PENALTY. These hypocrites have a very strange agenda. One has to wonder why they aren't ANTI-WAR if they're so PRO-LIFE?

[Merlin7]

Consider this: If the protesters had been holding up signs depicting innocently nude people, they could have faced arrest on obscenity charges. Such are our strange laws, and most of the strangeness is traceable to the toxic effects of religion on our society. Once people are taught to ignore logic and common sense to believe in supernatural beings and practices, there is no limit to the weirdness to which their belief systems may take them. Yet we not only tolerate religion and other forms of superstition, our government requires taxpayers to actually subsidize these toxic groups through generous tax breaks. Amazing -- and pathetic.