DAY 1  DAY 2  DAY 3

ACOG Day 2:  “Dead Abortionists can’t kill children.” 

by

Joshua Graff

(Christian Gallery News Service, May 9, 2005)

Above:  Missionary Dan Holman warns ACOG attendees about Hell. 

The first day of the ACOG demonstrations was a tame and loving thing compared to the greater tensions and hard-line messages being preached by some protesters.  While the ACOG members heard a message of love and repentance on the first day, they were confronted by a message of warning during today’s protest.  On a gray, rainy, chilly day, the abortionists and their associates listened to proclamations such as that from Jonathan O'Toole, “dead abortionists can’t kill children” and Chuck Spingola who warned that there could well be another James Kopp or Paul Hill living next to them right now.  Dan Holman, a veteran protester fromIowa also gave a fire and brimstone message to the abortionists.

Above:  Preacher Chuck Spingola and a young friend.  The phrase "the only good abortionist is a dead abortionist!" was heard frequently. 

While many of the protesters were not on-site through the afternoon, the booming voices of these three men, in particular, carried a clear message that those who killed babies in the womb deserved to be put to death.  These fiery preachers ensured that no one in the area had any doubts they believe the unborn deserve the same defense as the born.  The bulk of the activists did return for the last session of the day after protesting outside a sodomite church earlier in the day.

Helping to emphasize the point, the Truth Trucks from OR West in Wichita, Kansas maintained a presence on the San Francisco streets around the convention.  While many of the signs displayed today were statements regarding Defensive Action, the Truth Trucks were mobile testimony to the reason for such actions. 

While some expressed righteous anger, some chose to quietly stand or spend time in prayer.  Anne Franchek of Long Beach, California was one of these quiet protesters.  Involved in support for women with crisis pregnancies in her home town, she displayed no less fervor though with a different demeanor.  Anne stated she hoped their presence would help spur the doctors in ACOG to pressure their abortionist colleagues to either quit the child-killing business or at least purge the organization of the abortionists.

 
Above:  Babykiller:  "Fuck you!"  Jonathan O'Toole:  "No, fuck you!"

There were many more heated verbal exchanges today including one between O'Toole, who held a sign praising the actions of James Kopp, and a man who claimed to have been a friend of Barnett Slepian.  As the exchange progressed, the man did finally admit he thought abortion was wrong, but he felt it was wrong for Kopp to have shot the abortionist.  Another doctor came out of the building to harangue the protesters because, as he claimed, “95% of ACOG members don’t perform abortions” and he said the protesters “piss me off”.  As a counter to this argument, a settlement was broached.  In public, over the bullhorn, the protesters did offer to pack up and go home if ACOG rid itself of the abortionists immediately and withdrew its support for the abortion industry.  As of the writing of the article, ACOG has not accepted this offer.

There were other hecklers who came out of the woodwork.  One open homosexual danced and shouted in front of the anti-abortionists calling them “Satanists” while an older woman doctor screamed that the protesters should return to the Dark Ages. 

 
Above:  Missionary Donna Holman passes literature with serious persistence. 

It cannot be said that the protesters were undivided in their messages.  As in many events, there is a growing delineation between those who support Direct Action, actions like bombings or shootings in order to save innocent lives, and those who believe there is no room for anything other than passively standing by in quiet protest.  While there is a tangible level of discomfort in the various camps, at times, the combination of presentations seems to enable a greater diversity of dialogue between protesters and attendees.  In some respects, the more confrontational protesters seemed to drive attendees towards the other protesters who seemed more “reasonable”. 

One person who was passing by the area stopped to talk with the anti-abortionists and asked an interesting question.  This man asked where the local Christians were when he discovered all of the protesters were from far flung areas of the country but none were local.  His question was interesting because it did point out a fact observed in so many protests, there are few, if any, representatives from local churches or groups.  The man was not expressing a willingness to start anything local, and he expressed some shame in this, but the end result was the same.  With activists from Wisconsin, Southern California, Ohio, Iowa, Alabama, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other states, there is not a single activist from the San Francisco area here to support the anti-abortionists.

Above:  Missionary Andrea Rinaldo passes literature to ACOG attendees.   Young man in hat derides abortionists for "using tools of healing to kill."    

The general message of the day was most definitely not the “kinder, gentler” words so often used.  With a far more confrontational, even hostile tone, the protesters were able to engage many more ACOG attendees in conversation.  If the protesters are hoping to put pressure on the doctors, especially those who are mere associates of the abortionists, trying to push them to modify their organization, they certainly seemed to be generating more solid responses.  While some ACOG members were undoubtedly pushed to side with their abortionist colleagues, there are others who have thanked even the fiery preachers for standing there, and in one case a doctor even gave an on the spot donation to a preacher who was praising Jim Kopp for killing an ACOG member.

 

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