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Who’s playing God on Bellevue abortions?

   In the June 13 article regarding activists urging lawmakers to keep Bellevue hospital open, Marcia Pappas, the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), stated that “When Catholic hospitals play God, the results are devastating to women’s health.” As a Roman Catholic, I must stand up and tell her she is wrong and far from the real truth.
   Catholic hospitals are not the ones playing God. Those who, through support and/or participation in abortions, artificial contraception, euthanasia, etc., decide who should live and who should die, are the ones playing God. One of the most basic tenets of the Catholic faith is to protect and defend life from conception to natural death. We believe that life should be given and taken away only by God. Once life has been created, we, as human beings, have no right to take it away from someone.
   Attacking Catholic hospitals for upholding one of the faith’s most basic beliefs in pathetic. If the most compelling reason supporters of Bellevue can think of to keep it in business is access to abortions, then perhaps its mission is not as lofty and important to “women’s health” and the community as they would like us to believe.
   ANDREA SALAZAR
   Niskayuna  

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SCHENECTADY
Activists settle in for 2-week protest
Demonstrations affect businesses
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   The Rev. Philip “Flip” Benham of North Carolina stood on the corner of Union and North Jay streets Tuesday afternoon.
   In one hand, he gripped a wellworn Bible; in the other he held a 4-foot-tall sign graphically depicting the aborted remains of 21-weekold fetus.
   Every so often, he would raise his Bible like a sword and steady the sign before him like a shield.
   “I’m not protesting,” Benham said, his deeply lined face red from the sun. “All I can claim is that Jesus is Lord at the gates of hell and this is a manifestation of hell.”
   For Benham, hell occupies a small brick building at 414 Union St., headquarters of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson, the area’s largest provider of abortions. Planned Parenthood performed more than 3,000 abortions in 2006, said spokeswoman Linda Scharf, but added that abortions represent less than 10 percent of the services it provides in 12 counties ranging from Madison and Essex to Washington and Schoharie.
   It also provides HIV pre-testing and counseling, pregnancy tests and testing of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as nutritional counseling. Last year, its centers saw 22,825 patients during 45,434 visits. “We have more pre-natal visits than abortion services,” Scharf said.
   Benham, pastor of Temple Truth, a Free Methodist church in Charlotte, N.C., is among 30 activists from around the country staging a two-week demonstration downtown against Planned Parenthood.
   He also is head of Operation Save America and baptized Norma Mc-Corvey as an adult. McCorvey was known as Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 Roe V. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. In that case, McCorvey successfully challenged a prohibition on abortion. She later regretted that success and now campaigns against abortion.
   The activists plan to make the 400 block of Union Street their ground zero for at least six hours per day every day through next Friday. Their base is the nearby building housing the headquarters of Schenectady County Right to Life. The two-week demonstration is the activists’ most concerted effort in years, said the Rev. Francis McCloskey. They also plan to visit high schools in Albany, Schenectady and Troy next week to present students with anti-abortion literature.
   McCloskey’s organization, “Oh Saratoga!”, is organizing the twoweek protest. In past years, he and others staged one-day protests against local Planned Parenthood centers.
   Anti-abortion activist Beth Lynch of Illion said the one-day protests became so commonplace that people ignored them. Hence, the two-week demonstration this year. “It shows we are here and are a presence that is not going away,” she said.
   When not protesting, they will stay at a nearby Christian campground, McCloskey said.
AGENCY PREPARED
   Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Linda Scharf said the agency is prepared. “This center will stay open,” she said.
   Patients with appointments have been notified about the activists, and Planned Parenthood is providing volunteer escorts for visitors, who have to walk a gauntlet of the activists to reach the front door. Its new facility at 1040 State St., to open Sept. 18, will offer visitors a private entrance, which activists will not be allowed to approach, Scharf said.
   She said the demonstrators have a right to voice their opinions, but they should not try to intimidate other people or impose their views on them.
   “Planned Parenthood has been a trusted partner in the community for more than 70 years,” Scharf said.
   Planned Parenthood also expects to make money on the two-week demonstration, Scharf said. In campaign called “Making lemonade out of lemons,” the organization collects donations from supporters who pay a fee every time a demonstrator appears at a center. In 2006, Planned Parenthood raised $14,948 through the fundraising effort, she said.
   Police barricades prevent activists from approaching within 10 feet of Planned Parenthood’s only entrance, a front door off a public sidewalk. Activists could still address and present literature to visitors walking to and from the clinic, however. Two women paced the barricade, quietly telling visitors: “Turn to God. You don’t believe in God, but he believes in you.” An activist near Planned Parenthood’s parking lot shouted to visitors they were “going to hell” and were “killing babies.”
   The two-week protest is also causing headaches at City Hall. Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden must deal with complaints from the protesters — who want to get closer to the Planned Parenthood entrance — and nearby store owners who want the protesters to leave.
   “It’s the protesters that were really being difficult,” Van Norden said. “They didn’t like the way the barriers were set up. They were standing in the street one day — somebody’s going to hit them.”
   When he went out to explain where they could safely stand, the response wasn’t quite what he expected.
   “He said, ‘If you were a real man, you’d be out here protecting these babies,’ ” Van Norden related. “I was like, ‘Come on! You don’t know me! For all you know I could be a rabid right-to-lifer. But let’s stick to the subject here.’ ”
   But while the protesters think he’s being too harsh, some local business owners feel he’s being too lenient. One local restaurateur threatened to sue the city if Van Norden wouldn’t stop the protest because it was ruining his business.
   “He called me up screaming, just screaming. ‘People have to drive by these sickening pictures to have lunch,’” Van Norden said. “Emotions run high with this sort of thing.”
   He declined to identify the business. There are several restaurants near Planned Parenthood.
PUBLIC MIXED
   An activist approached Lucinda Maya of Troy after she left Planned Parenthood. She politely dismissed the woman. “In this free country each woman has a right to chose whether or not to continue a pregnancy,” Maya said. “It’s a private matter.”
   Activists lined both sides of the street near Planned Parenthood and stood on several corners Tuesday. Their children played on sidewalks, sometimes interrupting their activities to shout anti-abortion messages. Full-color, graphic posters of aborted fetuses were everywhere.
   One poster was enough for Nicki Sitterly to stop. She approached Benham with the intent of chastising him for promoting abortion. But after she saw the sign was against abortion, she asked: “How can I get involved?”
   Sitterly said she wants to get involved because, “I love my kids and I am against abortion.”
   Lynch said she hoped the posters shock people while McCloskey added: “It’s more important if it’s true rather than shocking.”
   Scharf said the activists’ posters are distortions. They show abortions performed at or after 21 weeks, which account for less than 2 percent of all abortions in the United States, she said.
   The federal Centers for Disease Control received reports in 2003 of 848,163 legal induced abortions from 49 reporting areas. This total represents a 0.7 percent decrease from the 854,122 abortions reported for 2002. More than half (61 percent) of the reported legal induced abortions were performed during the first eight weeks of gestation; 88 percent were performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, according to the CDC.
   McCloskey said the two-week event was tied to the 230th anniversary of the American victory at Saratoga. “That was a turning point in the war. We believe this will be a turning point in the process of saving the unborn. It combines the best of everything, patriotism, evangelism and Catholicism.”
   The religious aspect of the event was apparent in other ways. Several activists wore T-shirts that read: “Islam is a false religion. Evolution is a delusion. Liberalism is a false God. Homosexuality is a sin. Feminism is rebellion against God.” Benham called Islam “a religion from the pits of Hell.” Others distributed prayer beads and slips of paper that read “God bless you!” One activist asked Scharf her religion; Scharf did not respond.
   Benham said “the battle is being fought in the streets, and we’re winning.” He said the number of freestanding abortion clinics, which he termed “abortion mills,” has declined from more than 2,000 in 1991 to fewer than 760 today, that abortions have declined 41 percent and that the number of doctors who perform abortions has decreased by 40 percent since 1991.

PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Anti-abortion activists attempt to hand pamphlets to passengers in a truck leaving the Planned Parenthood office Wednesday on Union Street in Schenectady.

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Planned Parenthood performed more than 3,000 abortions in 2006, said spokeswoman Linda Scharf, but added that abortions represent less than 10 percent of the services it provides in 12 counties ranging from Madison and Essex to Washington and Schoharie.
   It also provides HIV pre-testing and counseling, pregnancy tests and testing of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as nutritional counseling. Last year, its centers saw 22,825 patients during 45,434 visits. “We have more pre-natal visits than abortion services,” Scharf said.

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He also is head of Operation Save America and baptized Norma Mc-Corvey as an adult. McCorvey was known as Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 Roe V. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. In that case, McCorvey successfully challenged a prohibition on abortion. She later regretted that success and now campaigns against abortion.

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“He said, ‘If you were a real man, you’d be out here protecting these babies,’ ” Van Norden related. “I was like, ‘Come on! You don’t know me! For all you know I could be a rabid right-to-lifer. But let’s stick to the subject here.’ ”

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One local restaurateur threatened to sue the city if Van Norden wouldn’t stop the protest because it was ruining his business.

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“He called me up screaming, just screaming. ‘People have to drive by these sickening pictures to have lunch,’”

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and hope that creep from California doesn't show up

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How to quiet anti-abortion protesters
Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.

   I was in front of the Schenectady Planned Parenthood office the other day, on Union Street, hanging out with a group of anti-abortion protesters, and I saw something interesting. I mean, beyond the usual waving of gruesome posters, the chanting of “baby killers” and the reading from the Bible.
   This was the attempted towing of a van belonging to one of the protesters.
   The van was parked across the street in the parking lot of Friendship Baptist Church, where the protesters had been told the previous day they could not park. Apparently one of them didn’t get the messsage, and now — Holy Smokes! — his van was being hooked up to a Holmes and Kugler tow truck!
   Hey, look! First one protester saw it, then another, and then they all went running across the street to try to prevent this outrage, led by Father Francis McCloskey, a Catholic priest and anti-abortion campaigner from the Catskills. They started right in on the truck driver, a portly fellow with no apparent interest in theology. “We’re trying to save babies!” one woman yelled at him as she lectured him on the group’s holy works.
   “And you’re wearing a crucifi x!” Father McCloskey hollered at him with indignation. “That’s an outrage!”
   “Block the truck! Block the truck!” he urged his fellow believers, which they did, milling around in front of it like Chinese students facing down a tank in Tiananmen Square but holding up rosary beads and invoking the name of the Christian Lord.
   And then what happened was, the driver turned around and unleashed on them a storm of profanities, obscenities, imprecations and insults such as no one had previously heard this side of Hades, crucifix or no crucifix. “I don’t give a [blank] about your [blank] babies!” he bellowed at them.
   “Get the [blank] out of my [blank] way, you [blank] [blank] [blank]!” and so on.
   It was hilarious, at least for a heathen like me, but the funniest part was the reaction of the Christians, which is how I was beginning to think of the protesters, with their Bibles and their crosses and their posters declaring what God thinks. They shrunk back and kept more or less quiet. Oh, they grumbled about the injustice of it all, and they remonstrated with the police when the police arrived, but they delivered no more sanctimonious lectures to the tow truck driver. They left him alone.
   In the end, with police mediation, they took up a collection and paid the driver’s $45 charge for coming to the scene and hooking up, and the driver unhooked the van and thereby spared them the additional $100 for a tow.
   I thought I had learned something, and in a spirit of humanitarian sharing I passed it along to the Planned Parenthood folks: If you want to quiet these latter-day crusaders standing at your doorstep hollering “baby killers” at you, don’t be meek and turn-the-other-cheek about it. Give them a hearty blast of Luciferian invective, or else hire a tow truck driver to do it for you, in his off hours, and they’ll quiet down. It seems to have a calming effect on them to be yelled back at.
   But the Planned Parenthood people didn’t take the lesson to heart.
   For the rest of the day they stood on the Union Street sidewalk, meek and mild in their orange safety vests, escorting patients, or clients, into and out of the clinic, while the Christians berated them as murderers and shouted Holy Scripture at them.
   If you’re a regular reader of this column you know I’m skeptical of people who claim to operate with divine direction, but this was not my fight, so I kept quiet myself. I was there only as an observer, not as a coach to one side or the other.
   I did try to talk to one Christian who was especially aggressive, a fellow wearing a Virgin of Guadalupe T-shirt, reading aloud from the Bible to a couple of small children with him, and occasionally yelling across a police barricade at the Planned Parenthood escorts, berating them for allegedly not knowing the difference between a cat and a human being and urging them to “Repent!” among other things.
   He wouldn’t tell me his name or where he was from, which I thought was interesting. He was on a public sidewalk doing his self-righteous best to intimidate other people with his sacred certainties, shouting in their faces, but he preferred to be anonymous.
   Some of the others were more open. They came from Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or Florida, or even California for this two-week antiabortion fest in Schenectady, or else they were local, some of them. The ones I spoke to were all Roman Catholic, though I didn’t speak to many. They held up their postersize photographs of mutilated fetuses for the benefit of passing cars and yelled, “Killing babies here! Planned Parenthood — killing babies — right here!” One elderly fellow I got a kick out of did this in an incongruously cheerful tone, like it was a neighborly greeting for him: Good morning, folks. Killing babies here.
   But in general the tone of the event was nasty and belligerent, and I was glad the police had erected a barrier to keep the Christians at least a few feet from their targets.
   I don’t say anything about abortion one way or another, leaving that to wiser minds, but one thing I did take rueful note of was the use of children in this demonstration — children to hold posters making moral and religious claims when those children could not possibly be expressing independent views but could only be instruments of their parents’ zealotry. To employ children in such a manner I fi nd objectionable. It’s worse than some of things I have seen parents dragged into Family Court for.
WORD WATCH
   On the language front, the Christians took pride in what they called “turnarounds,” referring to young women they have confronted at the entrance to places like Planned Parenthood and convinced not to have abortions. “We’ve had turnarounds,” more than one assured me with what I took to be smugness, though they didn’t have any while I was watching.
   Also, Father McCloskey, in conversation with me, cited George Orwell, famous for satirizing double-talk, when he rejected not only the “anti-abortion” label but also the euphemistic “pro-life” label. He prefers to call himself and his fellow crusaders “mother and child bonders,” which he insisted was more truthful.
   Alas, Orwell is dead, so I couldn’t get a reaction from him.

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Planned Parenthood shouldn’t presume to dictate to hospitals

   Paul Drisgula’s recommendations for the promotion of women’s health services by mandating abortion services in all medical institutions and through all health providers is neither healthy nor ethical [Aug. 26 Gazette].
   To require all physicians to provide abortion services that are at the very least questionable, and ultimately harmful to a woman’s health (physically, emotionally and spiritually), is to ask many health providers to act against their consciences and is immoral. Mr. Drisgula’s statement that “Physicians cannot be constrained by religious restrictions or other artificial limitations when providing necessary services,” misrepresents the role of religion in an individual’s life. The assumption is that religion is simply an application of some externally imposed rule when in fact true religion is a matter of the heart. Mandated abortion services should not be manipulated (artificially imposed) on those health providers who, in good conscience, practice the call to “fi rst do no harm.”
   If Planned Parenthood and its representatives truly have an interest in “a woman’s right to choose her physician and a physician’s right to offer her the care she seeks,” then they must allow women the right to choose physicians and health care providers who respect the lives of the unborn and who hold the same values.
   Women’s health, and in fact human health and well-being, is a primary concern of those who support life from birth to natural death. Women seeking abortions are dealing with far more than the need to end a pregnancy, and many would not receive abortions if they were able to gain the support they needed. Hospitals and other organizations that are committed to providing this support should not be hindered in their goal to promote life-affirming care.
   Mr. Drisgula should not presume to speak for “most of us in this community” in regard to expectations of women’s health services. He certainly does not speak for all who choose life.
   MARY JONES
   Rexford  

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Thanks for warning on abortion protest

   I thank you for your Aug. 30 article about the planned two-week protest in front of Planned Parenthood in Schenectady. No parent should expose their young children to the horrific images the Right to Life groups display.
   Had I driven by with my 4-year-old, she surely would have been terribly upset with what she saw and asked me to explain. Thanks to your article I can avoid the area to protect my child — as will other responsible parents in our community.
   MICHELLE EDWARDS
   Niskayuna

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Counter-protesters decry photos
Residents oppose methods used by demonstrators
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.net

   Blythe Gieseler stood near the Planned Parenthood in Schenectady holding her own sign.
   There were no pictures, just words: “No More Pictures.”
   It was in contrast to the antiabortion protesters she was near, many with signs of graphic pictures of what they said were aborted fetuses, photos that anyone in passing cars could see.
   “I don’t think that the children in Schenectady need to see such disgusting pictures to get a point across,” Gieseler said.
   Gieseler, her husband and another relative held signs reading “Stop Nasty Pictures” and “No More Pictures.”
   She spent much of the day Tuesday at the site, after spending much of the night at her job as a nurse at St. Clare’s Hospital.
   Gieseler drove past the protesters last week with her family. That prompted her 9-year-old step-daughter to ask questions. “She didn’t understand because, of course, I would never tell her about abortion at 9 years old.”
   It also prompted the mother to stage her counter-protest.
   A group of anti-abortion activists has demonstrated outside the clinic at 400 Union St. for the past week. They intend to stay until Friday.
   Their base is the nearby building housing the headquarters of Schenectady County Right to Life. The two-week demonstration is the activists’ most concerted effort in years, Rev. Francis McCloskey has said.
   The photos have been a centerpiece of the anti-abortion protest, large graphic depictions of what the activists said are aborted fetuses.
   Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson officials have called the photos distortions. They show abortions performed at or after 21 weeks, which account for less than 2 percent of all abortions in United States.
   Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Linda Scharf said they’ve received support from many people, though calls and other means. She said they respect the right of anyone to free speech, the protesters and the counter-protestors.
   For his part, McCloskey said he didn’t mind the counter-protestors. “People think they’re with us,” he said.
   He responded to their concerns by saying he believes it’s the adults who have more problem with the pictures than the children.
   He said it’s the parents who have to answer the questions. “What happens if the child says ‘well, mom and dad, why aren’t we doing something to save the babies?’”
   “Some people think we’re here to shock them with the pictures,” he said. “We’re here to expose what’s happening.”
   Gieseler described her own feelings on the issue as being against abortion for birth control, but believes it should be available to victims of rape.
   But she said those are conversations she doesn’t want to have yet with her 9-year-old.
   “You can protest without having to be so disgusting and graphic,” she said.

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Abortion photos just showing the ugly truth

   I found the hypocrisy of the people protesting the anti-abortion activists showing photos of aborted unborn children interesting [Sept. 5 Gazette]. If they support abortion, why are they upset at pictures of the result of abortion? Are they afraid to have the world see just what happens as the result of an abortion? Yes, those are babies that were killed in an abortion and, yes, they do look just like that.
   In the letters to the editor on the same day, one mother said she took another route so that her child would not have to see those pictures [Aug. 31 Gazette]. Was she upset that the pictures would frighten the child or was she upset that she would have to explain to the child that people killed unborn children? Parents who object to the pictures should ask themselves how they would explain this to their children. Then maybe they might not be so supportive of abortion.
   CHARLES ROBINSON
   Princetown  

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Abortion images needed to shock desensitized society

   After reading the Aug. 30 Gazette news article regarding the abortion protests in Schenectady, I began wondering about the supposed issue of protecting children from frightening images. This is the first time I’ve heard any concern voiced in a society where demonic images abound. It seems there is a skull on almost every T-shirt, serpent images, demonic-looking tattoos on grown men (who should know better), indecent television programming and, of course, lewd and suggestive conversation from supposed broadcast professionals. Sadly, I’ve only skimmed the surface of an increasingly degenerating society. These truly “nasty” things have been bombarding our sensibilities and children for years now, and I’ve barely heard a peep out of any parent.
   For two weeks, some citizens have been trying to shed light on what I, and many, believe to be a very great evil done to the most defenseless and innocent in our society — the unborn. People are appalled, and well they should be, when animals are prevented from escaping and coldly killed in canned shoots. Here in our country we allow our own kind to be slaughtered in a very similar manner. No matter the size of the person, over 21 weeks, or if the baby’s well-formed leg is the size of a dime, it should horrify this supposedly civilized and well-to-do country.
   As a Christian, I have a responsibility to shed light on evil and, believe me, it is not a pleasant job. I have participated in some abortion protests and the snarling hatred one encounters is not something we look forward to experiencing. There are also many positive comments — in fact, more and more every year. You see, biology tells us when life begins. Ultrasounds and pictures also bear a most faithful witness. We now firmly believe that the only way to stop abortion in America is to show America abortion. This is the ultimate threat to the abortion industry — the truth.
   Two weeks ago marked the 10-year anniversary of Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s passing. Predictably, however, the world chose to concentrate on Princess Diana and the “Crocodile Hunter” [Steve Irwin]. Mother Teresa once warned that if a baby wasn’t safe in the womb, no one could expect to be safe anywhere. She said war would prevail.
   As people yearn for peace in our troubled world today, I am sure it will only begin in the womb.
   MAUREEN A. CALLAHAN
   Waterford  

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Protesters should leave Planned Parenthood be

   I am so angry every time I see bad articles or hear protesters on Planned Parenthood.
   Planned Parenthood is so much more than people know, or want to know about. These people make it sound like a meat market — next, cut, next, etc., That’s not what it’s all about.
   I was 18 years old the first time I ever went there for birth control. They treated me like a person — not a number— and with respect. I worked part-time and went to school. I had no insurance on my own, — yes, under my parents — but I felt like I wanted to do this on my own. A lot of people don’t have insurance and can’t afford to go to high-priced doctors or hospitals.
   I would recommend Planned Parenthood to anyone for anything. If you have questions, they give you honest answers and options. People go there for lots of different reasons, but protesters only see “abortion.”
   So, for all the ignorant people out there, leave Planned Parenthood alone. It’s there to help people who need it. By the way, I’m 51 years old now.
   MONICA HALFACRE
   Schenectady  

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I had no insurance on my own, — yes, under my parents — but I felt like I wanted to do this on my own. A lot of people don’t have insurance and can’t afford to go to high-priced doctors or hospitals.

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The reality is that abortion remains legal

   While I will not impose my own personal feelings involving the “right to life,” I am responding to the Sept. 5 letter by Mary Jones, “Planned Parenthood shouldn’t presume to dictate to hospitals.”
   Health care professionals are required not to pass judgment on individuals who make legal and clear choices regarding their own health care. These choices can include discontinuing life support or terminating a pregnancy.
   Women’s health care services are necessary for our community. We are obliged to honor and respect a woman’s legal right to choose abortion, whether we as a community or health care professionals personally or sp