Should picketing be allowed outside abortion clinics?

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk

Originally posted by: manlymatt83

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk
Arrest them and throw them all in jail. The protesters are using fear and intimidation in an attempt to prevent women from accessing health care. They're nothing more than petty thugs who hide behind the bible.

I know people who are pro-life and consider themselves liberal and non-religious in every other means.

And this:

http://www.democratsforlife.org

Not everyone is a bible thumper.

I volunteered for a time to escort women from the parking lot into a PP clinic. The fact that those women needed someone to ensure they could walk 30ft into the clinic is disgusting. I may be wrong about labeling them all bible thugs, I can only speak from my personal experience with the scumbag "protesters" I encountered.

So you don't support free speech?

Got it :thumbsup:

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk

I volunteered for a time to escort women from the parking lot into a PP clinic. The fact that those women needed someone to ensure they could walk 30ft into the clinic is disgusting. I may be wrong about labeling them all bible thugs, I can only speak from my personal experience with the scumbag "protesters" I encountered.

You probably feel the same way about union members picketing then right?

Entirely different issue. You can't compare a company to a woman who is usually scared half to death. Granted the clinic is the supposed target of abortion protesters but it is the clients who must pass through the gauntlet of abuse to enter the facility.

It isnt a different issue. Both are intimidating whoever passes. I'd say from experience union protestors may be scarier. They get legtimately pissed at scabs or replacement workers, or ever people who arent Union who work there.

Not to mention what a sexist attitude surfs has. Plus much higher likelihood of violence from the union members.

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk

Originally posted by: manlymatt83

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk
Arrest them and throw them all in jail. The protesters are using fear and intimidation in an attempt to prevent women from accessing health care. They're nothing more than petty thugs who hide behind the bible.

I know people who are pro-life and consider themselves liberal and non-religious in every other means.

And this:

http://www.democratsforlife.org

Not everyone is a bible thumper.

I volunteered for a time to escort women from the parking lot into a PP clinic. The fact that those women needed someone to ensure they could walk 30ft into the clinic is disgusting. I may be wrong about labeling them all bible thugs, I can only speak from my personal experience with the scumbag "protesters" I encountered.

So you don't support free speech?

Got it :thumbsup:

=)

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Originally posted by: nkgreen

Originally posted by: SammyJr
As long as they don't block access to the clinic and remain on public property, then it is their right.

This.

Why do you hate America, manlymatt83?

I am pro-choice, and this is the correct answer, as long as they do not interfere with business, as much as I don't like the delivery method of their message, they have the right to say it.

 

[Cogman]

"I'm pro-choice as long as the choice is one that I feel pro about!"

Picketing is their right. So long as they don't stop or harass customers, they stay on public ground, and they don't block access, they can do whatever they like. It's their choice.

And I would hate to have it any other way. I want the right to be able to protest anything I like, but if the government steps in and decides what we can and can't protest on then welcome to a communist dictatorship.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Originally posted by: Cogman
"I'm pro-choice as long as the choice is one that I feel pro about!"

Picketing is their right. So long as they don't stop or harass customers, they stay on public ground, and they don't block access, they can do whatever they like. It's their choice.

And I would hate to have it any other way. I want the right to be able to protest anything I like, but if the government steps in and decides what we can and can't protest on then welcome to a communist dictatorship.

In a perfect world everyone would respect the boundaries the law places on their behavior. I can only speak from my experience and in the situation discussed in the OP I find that a significant number of people come with the expressed purpose of violating the rights of the clinics and their clients.

Any situation in which an individual finds themself faced with a mob of screaming "protesters", weight of numbers alone should not dictate which group gets to enjoy their rights.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Originally posted by: alchemize

Not to mention what a sexist attitude surfs has. Plus much higher likelihood of violence from the union members.

Why would a clinic ask for volunteers to escort clients into the facility if violence wasn't a persistent problem? Out of what hole did you pull the idea that a union protest is a more violent demonstration than what occurs around clinics that provide abortions?

 

[Atreus21]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I would also add the clause that they can't harass (try to block entrance, photograph, etc..) patients going into the clinic. If you want to express your views, fine, but you can't deny others their rights as well.

Incidentally, I seem to remember either a San Francisco or Berkeley protest where protesters deliberately impeded the entrance to a Marine recruitment building.

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk

Originally posted by: alchemize

Not to mention what a sexist attitude surfs has. Plus much higher likelihood of violence from the union members.

Why would a clinic ask for volunteers to escort clients into the facility if violence wasn't a persistent problem? Out of what hole did you pull the idea that a union protest is a more violent demonstration than what occurs around clinics that provide abortions?

Same reason scabs ask for police protection when crossing picket lines.


From wikipedia:
Examples of union violence include:
2004 AFL-CIO push their way into a Republican field office in Orlando FL, breaking the wrist of one staffer. AFL-CIO member Van Church is unrepentant: "If his wrist was fractured, it's a result of his own actions in jerking the door the way he did."
1999 - During protests by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 against a non-unionized workforce getting a contract, picketers threatened and assaulted workers, spat at them, sabotaged equipment, and shot guns near workers. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the union had engaged in "ongoing acts of intimidation, violence, destruction of property".
1999 - During protests by Laborers' International Union of North America Local 310, picketers punched a worker, and threw coffee cups at workers.
1999 - Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 120 were convicted of striking a worker, and imprisoning another one in a truck trailer.
1998 - Teamsters Orestes Espinosa, Angel Mielgo, Werner Haechler, Benigno Rojas, and Adrian Paez beat, kicked, and stabbed a UPS worker (Rod Carter) who refused to strike, after Carter received a threatening phone call from the home of Anthony Cannestro, Sr., president of Teamsters Local 769.
1998 - During the Communications Workers of America U.S. West strike a worker was threatened with a gun, and a manager was hit in the head with a rock.
1990 - on the first day of The New York Daily News strike, trucks were attacked with stones and sticks. One union member was immediately arrested for transporting Molotov cocktails. Strikers followed replacement laborers and threatened them with baseball bats. Strikers then started threatening newsstands with arson, or stole all copies of the Daily News and burned them in front of the newsstands. Independent sources estimated over a thousand reports of threats. The newspaper recorded over two thousand legal violations. The Police Department, recorded more than 500 incidents. 50 strikers were arrested. Bombings of delivery trucks became common, with 11 strikers arrested on one day in October.
1984 - Taxi driver David Wilkie was killed by NUM strikers while driving a non-striking worker during the UK mining strike
1983 - Eddie York was murdered for crossing a United Mine Workers (UMW) picket line.
1926 - Striking workers derail The Flying Scotsman train with over 100 passengers on board


If you have examples of abortion protesters acting violently against the women, I'd be happy to review it. Most violence from the pro-lifers is targeted at the clinics/doctors, an perhaps the "escorts".

For the record, I applaud the escorts, and have general disdain for the protesters...but stop acting like a partisan...

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: Cogman
"I'm pro-choice as long as the choice is one that I feel pro about!"

Picketing is their right. So long as they don't stop or harass customers, they stay on public ground, and they don't block access, they can do whatever they like. It's their choice.

And I would hate to have it any other way. I want the right to be able to protest anything I like, but if the government steps in and decides what we can and can't protest on then welcome to a communist dictatorship.

Agree whole-heartedly.

 

[kage69]

I get a kick out of you all who say they should not be allowed to picket. What the hell did Acorn and the Black Panther thugs do? They intimidated people and blocked access to polling places. But since it was all for the good of getting that mental midget Obama voted into office everything is fine.

I get a kick out of trolls like you being so insecure about the lack of brains within the GOP that you project it on Obama. Do you realize what an idiot you sound like trying to frame someone with the Constitutional Law credentials of Obama as a "mental midget"?

You're still mad over Bush being a retard, and it all being so apparent. We get it. Now how about you get over it, and instead focus on not sounding like a hate filled troll? Can we infer by your free speech sensitivities that you had a problem with the Cheney/Bush "Free Speech Zones" ? Typical right wing reactionary. The boogeyman is all things left, all things I don't agree with. :roll:

Meh.

I feel picketing should still be allowed, although anti-choice protesters have this knack for stepping over the line and inciting violence. If any measures have to be taken which mitigate protesters getting exposure to abortion seeking women, they can blame their own ideological brethren for ruining it, not some leftist figment of their imagination hellbent on stripping away their rights. If anti-choice protesters hadn't started the storm with bombings and assassinations they wouldn't find themselves facing this kind of scrutiny regarding clinics.

 

[Engineer]

Peaceful - yes.

Right to assemble (and protest: free speech).

 

[Pliablemoose]

I think they should be allowed to picket all they want from a parking lot 3 blocks away.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: kage69
If anti-choice protesters hadn't started the storm with bombings and assassinations they wouldn't find themselves facing this kind of scrutiny regarding clinics.

A few psychos bomb some clinics, and you decide that all anti-ABORTION (yes, I see what you did there) deserve scrutiny when exercising their FA rights? Wouldn't that amount to some sort of guilt by association? Is this your own brand of partisan hackery?

Let me reiterate: "anti-choice" is as stupid as "pro-abortion". And despite your claims to the contrary, it would appear that you do, in fact, have your own boogiemen that you fear.

 

[daniel49]

Should picketing be allowed outside abortion clinics?


Of course not, we should deny thier constitutional rights and jail them for having a conservative opinion and view on life:roll:

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk

Originally posted by: Cogman
"I'm pro-choice as long as the choice is one that I feel pro about!"

Picketing is their right. So long as they don't stop or harass customers, they stay on public ground, and they don't block access, they can do whatever they like. It's their choice.

And I would hate to have it any other way. I want the right to be able to protest anything I like, but if the government steps in and decides what we can and can't protest on then welcome to a communist dictatorship.

In a perfect world everyone would respect the boundaries the law places on their behavior. I can only speak from my experience and in the situation discussed in the OP I find that a significant number of people come with the expressed purpose of violating the rights of the clinics and their clients.

Any situation in which an individual finds themself faced with a mob of screaming "protesters", weight of numbers alone should not dictate which group gets to enjoy their rights.

If it becomes a problem, call the police and have them escort you in and out. Get the protesters that break the law to go to prison. If the police don't cooperate, sue the police department (its the American way ). But making it illegal all together is dumb because it screams slippery slope.

If you really want to strike back, form a protesting group for a church. Protest the protesters.

I would rather have a couple of people inconvenienced because the law doesn't prosecute groups of protesters, then loose the right to form groups of protesters.

 

[umbrella39]

Originally posted by: SammyJr
As long as they don't block access to the clinic and remain on public property, then it is their right.

Yep. As long as they are following the letter of the law what's the problem.

 

[umbrella39]

Originally posted by: Medellon
What the hell did Acorn and the Black Panther thugs do? They intimidated people and blocked access to polling places. But since it was all for the good of getting that mental midget Obama voted into office everything is fine.

Oh get your head out of your ass and start thinking for yourself. Fox dropped that contrived story faster than a priests pants at an alter boy convention. Ever wonder why nothing more came of that set up? That was just the Ashley Todd story of the week.

 

[sandorski]

Over a decade ago a Law was passed here in BC that moved Protesters a certain distance(don't recall figure) from the front of Abortion Clinics. The amount of Verbal Abuse women/staff were being subjected to daily just was too much not to.

 

[Atreus21]

Originally posted by: umbrella39

Originally posted by: Medellon
What the hell did Acorn and the Black Panther thugs do? They intimidated people and blocked access to polling places. But since it was all for the good of getting that mental midget Obama voted into office everything is fine.

Oh get your head out of your ass and start thinking for yourself. Fox dropped that contrived story faster than a priests pants at an alter boy convention. Ever wonder why nothing more came of that set up? That was just the Ashley Todd story of the week.

Link?

 

[Mani]

I'm pro-choice and believe they have the right to picket abortion clinics. Now where are all the pro-choicers that are supposedly against this right, or this yet another republican straw man?

 

[umbrella39]

Originally posted by: Atreus21

Originally posted by: umbrella39

Originally posted by: Medellon
What the hell did Acorn and the Black Panther thugs do? They intimidated people and blocked access to polling places. But since it was all for the good of getting that mental midget Obama voted into office everything is fine.

Oh get your head out of your ass and start thinking for yourself. Fox dropped that contrived story faster than a priests pants at an alter boy convention. Ever wonder why nothing more came of that set up? That was just the Ashley Todd story of the week.

Link?

To what?

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: surfsatwerk
Arrest them and throw them all in jail. The protesters are using fear and intimidation in an attempt to prevent women from accessing health care. They're nothing more than petty thugs who hide behind the bible.

Congrats, you live in the wrong country.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: umbrella39

Originally posted by: Medellon
What the hell did Acorn and the Black Panther thugs do? They intimidated people and blocked access to polling places. But since it was all for the good of getting that mental midget Obama voted into office everything is fine.

Oh get your head out of your ass and start thinking for yourself. Fox dropped that contrived story faster than a priests pants at an alter boy convention. Ever wonder why nothing more came of that set up? That was just the Ashley Todd story of the week.

What? There were charges pressed against them for voter intimidation that were later dropped by the Obama Justice Department.


Fox magically dressed black men up holding a baton in front of a voting location?

How good is that kool-aid?

 

[umbrella39]

Originally posted by: OCguy

Originally posted by: umbrella39

Originally posted by: Medellon
What the hell did Acorn and the Black Panther thugs do? They intimidated people and blocked access to polling places. But since it was all for the good of getting that mental midget Obama voted into office everything is fine.

Oh get your head out of your ass and start thinking for yourself. Fox dropped that contrived story faster than a priests pants at an alter boy convention. Ever wonder why nothing more came of that set up? That was just the Ashley Todd story of the week.

What? There were charges pressed against them for voter intimidation that were later dropped by the Obama Justice Department.


Fox magically dressed black men up holding a baton in front of a voting location?

How good is that kool-aid?

You let me know when your done sucking it up. As stated, Fox dropped that story instantly and never aired another second of it on election night. Pst, it was bullshit.