The Rude Pundit has a suggestion in the wake of the SCOTUS ruling in McCullen.
There’s a sweet little church in Grafton, Massachusetts.
The congregation participated in 40 Days for Life, an action during Lent that 17,000 churches around the world took part in, with another 40 Days planned for September 24 to November 2.
The St. Mary’s churchgoers headed over to Worcester to protest at a Planned Parenthood and to “sidewalk counsel” women there…
Come September, and maybe even before, the parishioners will be harassing every woman who goes to the Planned Parenthood, even those just going for pap smears and help getting pregnant. And they will no doubt be joined by the anti-abortion radicals, the fetus picture carriers, the screamers, the hysterics who shame women.
“Is it really necessary to be out on the sidewalk instead of praying at home?” St. Mary’s wants to know. Look up at that picture again. What do you see in front of St. Mary’s? That’s a nice, wide, very public sidewalk. The parking lot is across the street, so most of the people attending church services on, say, a nice summer Sunday will have to walk that sidewalk, a sidewalk just like the one outside Planned Parenthood in Worcester. A sidewalk like the one that Eleanor McCullen “gently” counsels women from outside a Planned Parenthood in Boston.
Women who don’t ask her to “counsel” them; women who haven’t gone there for “counseling”; women who are there for their own purposes, which Eleanor McCullen wants to replace with her purposes.
In 2007, Massachusetts passed a law that created a 35-foot buffer zone around clinics in order to allow for a woman to be able to enter a Planned Parenthood without having people screaming and spitting in her face. And, yes, it prevented the gentle counselors from gently using their complete lack of medical or psychological expertise to advise women not to have abortions. So McCullen sued because Catholic Jesus wants her to save the babies and, quietly, shhh, shame women into changing their minds. And, today, the Supreme Court, in a fairly tepid opinion, overturned the law and said, “Sorry, but in order to protect the slut-whisperers, we have to allow the potentially violent crazies closer contact with you and the staff of the clinics. Use other laws to protect them, if you can.” (They can’t.)
So the suggestion is? It’s about that nice wide sidewalk in front of St Mary’s church.
So let’s get out there, every goddamn Sunday, and head to the churches that send their lunatic Jesus-fellaters out to try to shut down Planned Parenthoods, and stand on their sidewalks, just like the one up there outside St. Mary’s in Grafton, and let’s make churchgoing a living fuckin’ hell for ’em. Let’s bodily block the access to the walkways that lead to the church. Let’s bring signs that have pictures of women who were killed by illegal abortions. Let’s go up to them and try to convince them to convert or go atheist, following them until we are on church property and have to stop. Let’s block the street by walking back and forth in the crosswalk. Let’s force the churchgoers to need escorts to even get inside.
Hey, it’s consensual; SCOTUS said so.
Anthony K says
Yup.
Kevin Kehres says
Just that church. Every Sunday. I think it’s a plan.
catof many faces says
Fuck Yes!
Pen says
I think this is a fine plan under the circumstances. I hope people will remember to select those churches which are harassing outside abortion centers specifically. Do have some nice pamphlets showing pictures of all the people who’ve been killed in the name of religion, not just as a result of an inability to get abortions. Oh and starving children. And shaming of welfare users after they’ve been forced to carry babies.
aziraphale says
“Let’s bring signs that have pictures of women who were killed by illegal abortions.”
Yes. And of those women who died from being refused abortions.
A Masked Avenger says
Make sure to counsel them. Elimination of the buffer zone was specifically for counseling. Simply protesting would result in SCOTUS instituting a buffer zone. Respectfully offer pamphlets about biblical contradictions, evolution, and church misogyny. Offer to have consensual discussions on those subjects.
anbheal says
Love this!
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2002_03_03_Nangle_AccusedPriest_Bagley_AND_Inzerillo_1.htm
Perhaps anti-altar-boy-rape-counseling is much needed in the Worcester diocese.
donnie says
Beat me to it:
– anti-pedophilia rape
– pictures of church wealth juxtaposed against crippling poverty
– pictures of burnt corpses and mangled bodies from inquisitions
– pamplets on “Reasons why there are no gods”
– mock cruxifications
– signing, “evey sperm is sacred”
– Note: this list making thing is fun and I will be upfor a road trip. I have a very booming voice without amplification
quixote says
Brilliant.
Where can we find out if there are local actions planned?