Graphic abortion protests rile business owners

BY KIMBALL PERRY | [email protected]

March 11, 2007

 

PHOTO: Abortion protesters can be seen outside a clinic near the Vintage Vogue store on Jefferson Avenue in Clifton. The store is moving because the signs are disconcerting to shoppers, the owner says.

The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran

 

PHOTO: Kara Hammond owns the Vintage Vogue store. Of the graphic protest signs, she says, "It affects my mood daily."

The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran

 

UPTOWN - Sally Sonkara serves some tasty dishes at her Cactus Pear restaurant in Clifton, but she said people don't want to eat there while looking at large signs across the street depicting aborted fetuses.

 

"They are disgusting," Sonkara said last week about the signs in front of the Women's Medical Center, where abortions are performed.

 

Anti-abortion protesters demonstrate many days, but Friday afternoons are the worst, Sonkara said, because dozens of them - including children - show up at the Women's Medical Center on Jefferson Avenue. "It's just awful. It's blood and guts and teeny little bodies. That's just hideous," Sonkara said, referring to the signs.

 

She is one of several Jefferson Avenue business owners complaining about the signs and what they believe are the protesters' excessive actions...

 

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070312/NEWS01/703120399/1056/COL02

Hammond is likely moving her store because she's a bad businesswoman, countered Paul Robertson, 52, of Sharonville.

I am going to have to have a conversation with this idiot next time I go up the hill.  I do know that an invitation has been made to her to move to Main (I believe unofficially), she so far has declined.

 

This is a real big problem for Mt. Auburn.  It is going to be an even bigger problem if and when Inwood Village gets off the ground and potential purchasers drive past this to turn down Glencoe.  I never thought we would see the day when it was better to have driving directions taking a person through OTR first.

 

He stood on the sidewalk outside the Women's Medical Center with a Bible, a rosary

I do not mean to offend anyone on here, just this guy by saying the church should be protested for the abuses they have been responsible for as well.

To these protesters, I quote the imagined words of Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

 

I then quote Hillary Clinton, when I tell them: "Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare."

 

I then reach into my bag, flip open the carton, and begin throwing egg after egg after egg...

I am a busy man, I will jump straight to phase 3  :wink:

I'll even let you throw one of my hard-boileds.

Its a deal, see you there.

Robertson insists he's not a protester. He is a "sidewalk counselor."

I will insist I am not an egg thrower, but a purveyor of urban justice.

people are still protesting abortions?

 

Hell, with all the chicks taking birth control, the abortion rates are actually going down...

 

According to the economics book I'm reading, it's roughly 2 million per year. Had those aborted fetuses been babies, they would have most likely grown up fatherless, poor, and unwanted, which is the foundation of the majority of criminals. Roe vs. Wade case enabled all states legal cheap abortions in 1973. The very next year there were 750k abortions, with the number climbing each year and since those future criminals weren't born, 1990--when they would have been the prime age to commit crimes, the crime rate nationwide was drastically reduced. According to the book it's atleast 1/3 of the cause. Rudy Giuliani would disagree though.

I've read that book as well...and it is a bold assertion to make to say that abortion is a way to lower crime rates.  I would hope that most people are not pro-abortion so to speak...but rather pro-choice.  There is a difference and that difference should be noted.

It is bold...and I've read stuff opposing it that makes sense but people seem to point to studies without citing sources and know how to use statistics to their advantage. I don't think very many people are "pro-abortion". I think a lot of pro-choicers would agree there is still too many abortions going on. You hear a lot of people say they believe it's right under select circumstances but when you have over 1 million a year..

This is a tough problem to solve.  Sidewalks are public spaces, and outright restrictions on expression in public spaces are almost always unconstitutional.  In Mt. Auburn, I do see that sometimes they lean the signs against Planned Parenthood's fence.  The fence is private property and you cannot legally lean anything against it without permission.  Maybe an ordinance against unattended standing signage would help, but that would hurt legitimate businesses who advertise with sidewalk signs. 

I've read that book as well...and it is a bold assertion to make to say that abortion is a way to lower crime rates. I would hope that most people are not pro-abortion so to speak...but rather pro-choice...

 

And they are: poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans ARE pro-choice, and beyond that, overwhelmingly opposed to legal action designed to curb an individual's right to obtain an abortion. Take a look: http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm

Thats what I thought the case was, but its unfortunate that the discussion is often turned into:

 

Pro Life (person with morals)

v.

Pro Abortion (person who wants to kill babies)

 

When obviously that is not the stance taken by the Pro Choice followers.

Just one more case of the right gaining the high-ground by seizing an absolutist stance and defining the opposition. Still, I stand by the sentiment expressed in these hallowed halls by the great philosopher CDawg who once opined, "Reality has a liberal bias."