Police To Pro-Life Protester: It’s All About Protecting Children

Today I held my signs outside St. Pius X Catholic Church in St. John’s. Within minutes of arriving I heard a neighbour screaming out to me to get my sign out of view of her children. Apparently her children were in the house and my graphic abortion sign disturbed them, even though her house was about 100 feet away from my sign, making it a little difficult to see the detail. Also, I guess it didn’t occur to her to keep the children away from the window; no, she had to make a federal offense out of the matter. She insisted I turn the graphic picture side of my sign away from her house because it was disgusting and if I did not do as she insisted she would call the police. I did agree with her that the picture was disgusting. However, I don’t make a habit of carrying on a long distance conversation so I simply asked the lady if she would like to read my pamphlet and then I continued on in my protest.

About fifteen minutes later the police did arrive. Two female constables exited the car, walked towards me and began to ask questions. The video details the drama. What I found surprising was, once again, the argument that we mustn’t show the pictures for the sake of the children. Apparently the pictures will inflict some sort of damage on children. Never mind my argument—which is that abortion is actually KILLING children every day—but let’s rather focus on removing this picture from view for the children’s sake. Even though we know that children are subjected to huge amounts of violence on TV, including murders with some very graphic and gruesome scenes, apparently we need to take every possible precaution to prevent them from seeing one more disturbing picture on the sidewalk outside. In fact, we need to call the police to ensure that the picture is removed immediately so that children aren’t subjected to such awful imagery.

Whatever. But let’s face it, it’s a masterful ruse! Get rid of the pictures, they bother us terribly, and we’ll let the children take the heat for our discomfort. [Am I being fair in saying that? I think so; after all, it was only recently that a local psychotherapist remarked at our recent pro-life conference that, insofar as graphic abortion pictures are concerned, children are much more resilient than we think.] Hey, come to think of it, I do see a pattern here. Blame the children for our sins, discomfort and failures and then use them as our excuse. If they suddenly and unexpectedly appear after sex, we’ll “terminate” them quickly and carry on with life. If we get unexpected reminders of the evil deed, we’ll say the children can’t handle the hard truth so please get it out of their faces, you evil person!

I wonder how many times that mother called the police to report what was happening every day at the Morgentaler abortuary on LeMarchant Rd. where hundreds of children are actually suctioned—ripped asunder—to their deaths every year. But of course that’s all legal so it’s not the same thing, is it? It needn’t be brought into the conversation therefore at all. God forbid that anyone introduce it into the discussion for it will be mysteriously ignored or summarily dismissed.

But getting back to the police…this was a clear case of harassment and intimidation, and if it should happen again, I intend to use a different approach and stand a little firmer on my legal rights.