Nicholas and I were rolling up to Enloe High School this morning when we noticed an interesting looking group of what appeared to be ultra-fundamentalist characters unloading a fair heap of anti-abortion posters from a truck just up the street from the conga line.
Sure enough, as I’m pulling out of the traffic circle in front of the western building housing the main office, I can see a couple of them stationed on the sidewalk on either side of the exit back onto Clarendon Crescent holding anti-abortion signs with more of them making their way toward the school from New Bern Avenue. The two girls standing near the transfer school bus that’s often sitting at that exit looked positively thrilled at being part of the protest…and by positively thrilled I mean “wishing they were anywhere else doing anything else than what they were likely forced into doing”, that is.
I’ll admit to a bit of surprise as I’d hardly describe Enloe as a hot-bed of abortion activity. And let’s just say the office staff was equally surprised at being protested by this group though they have had anti-abortion protests in front of the school years ago where the literature that was handed to the students varied based on ethnicity.
Abortion is one of the most hotly debated political issues right now and there is a very noticeable movement where predominantly Southern states are passing laws dramatically limiting current abortion access if not outright challenging and defying the 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision with the near certainty of getting sued all the way to the Supreme Court with the hope that the entrenched conservative super-majority currently sitting there will overturn Roe.
I’m not really interested in a debate on abortion at this juncture.
All I will say is for that those people who are implacably opposed to abortion whether it be their moral/political beliefs or “Ewwww!, it’s really grody no matter how it’s performed!” or whatever, then don’t have an abortion and do your level best to avoid being in a situation where you might find yourself having to consider one!
For about half the population, this is dead simple. You don’t have the proper equipment and you can never get pregnant! And yet there are a preponderance of men in legislatures and robes who feel perfectly qualified to dictate to the women of this country what they should or should not do with their own body.
They may as well admit that their real view of women is that they are property for men to do with as they please. Whilst this is certainly been the historical view that is still enshrined in several aspects of the law of the land…in my opinion, it is a position that is absolutely dead wrong.
Women are not property! They are not second class citizens! And any man who tries to deny her the final say as to what happens to her body is a far worse problem and detriment to this society than abortion will ever be.
And may massive woe be unto to any man who would dare try to enforce that twisted view of women as property and dictate to my daughter (or indeed anyone’s daughter!) about what she can and cannot do with her own body. Those that would try would find themselves faced with a formidable enemy and it will only end in tears for them.
Personally, I find abortion abhorrent and distasteful.
I don’t know very many people in this world who are seriously “yay, let’s have an abortion!” without simultaneously being quite mad…it’s been well-documented that the psychological after-effects upon women who have them can be profound and life-altering.
But there are far too many situations in this world such as rape, incest, danger to the woman’s life, or the baby having zero chance of any quality of life due to congenital defects to just summarily take away the option for women to deal with Hobson’s Choice with taking the best decision available to them out of a selection of truly awful options.
That’s why I’m truly thankful we were never put into the situation where we had to consider it with any of our kids.
I would rather hope no one would ever find themselves in a situation where abortion is the best possible solution. But that’s not at all realistic in this day and age and individual cases will vary and the emphasis should be on providing the woman with as much support as possible whatever her decision may be.
That being said, I will admit that I’m thankful to these protesters for providing a teachable moment for my kids vis-a-vis the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and that there are times that whilst it really sucks when that freedom is used for speech we’d find distasteful or abhorrent, we have to accept that sometimes the answer is to leave them be or counter-protest their message at the top of your lungs.
As long as these protesters stay on the sidewalk which is considered a “public forum” by Supreme Court precedent and don’t prevent the students from accessing the school, there really isn’t much that Enloe or Wake County Schools can do about the protesters other than have security or RPD keep an eye on them and send them packing only if they step over the line.
It may well be uncomfortable and awkward but as long as they stay off school property, it isn’t illegal.
It’s easy to be all for “free speech” when it’s speech you agree with. It’s much tougher to remember how sacred the right to “free speech” truly is when that speech isn’t something you agree with or it’s a message of hate.
I’ve spent all but one year of my life living in the South and it’s a rare year we don’t have what remains of the KKK or the Neo-Nazis visibly marching at least somewhere. And even though I’d imagine most people would have preferred issuing each one of those racist bastards a personalised 9mm hollow-point round right between the eyes, unfortunately the First Amendment protects their “speech” as well.
Quite frankly…that SUCKS.
But hard as it may seem to be believed, the alternative sucks far worse. Trust me on that as I’ve been to more than a few places in this world where you don’t have the freedom of speech we enjoy in this country and speaking in a way the government does not wish you to will land you in prison, or worse.
As long as these protesters keep their noses clean and obey legal ordinances on protesting (permits, buffer zones, etc), our only real recourse is to oppose them just as loudly if not more so in a peaceful fashion.