- NPN writer Harmony Grant marches in a pro-life
protest
in northwest Portland, January 24, 2009
-
- All Americans should protest the "anti-hate"
bills before Congress, HR 256 and 262, which threaten our freedom of speech.
But pro-lifers are especially at risk of arrest and censorship for "hate
speech." Incidents in Germany and Canada-as well as recent events
in our own "free" nation!-demonstrate the danger of hate crime
laws to pro-lifers.
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- Last Thursday, nine college-age pro-lifers were <http://survivors.la/blog/index.php?id=89>arrested
and jailed in Alabama on charges of "criminal trespass." They
were giving out literature at a local high school, while standing on the
public sidewalk! Police "handcuffed and arrested all nine [pro-lifers]
without warning. One of the team members who did not assist in the distribution
of literature was also arrested and handcuffed so tightly that it caused
her to cry in pain police confiscated the team's video cameras and personal
belongings, and impounded and searched the Campus Life Tour van. The police
also asked the team members where they were staying so they could conduct
a search in their hotel as well."
-
- Pro-lifers fare even worse in other states. In Oakland,
CA, pastor Walter Hoye <http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=418990>faces
up to two years in jail and a $4,000 fine for carrying a sign, "Jesus
Loves You. Can We Help?" outside an abortion clinic. He is charged
with "harassment."
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- Police were sensitized to Hoye and other pro-lifers by
California's 2004 "anti-hate" law SB 1234. Police in California
now receive hate crime training called "multi-mission criminal extremism."
A new category has been added: "anti-reproductive-rights crimes."
Pro-lifers are automatically suspect.
-
- <http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54125>Janet
Folger of Faith2Action writes, "If I lived in California, I have a
feeling my picture would be found at the local post office. If you think
killing children is wrong, they're training people against you, too."
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- Since pro-lifers are already persecuted under existing
statutes, we can only imagine how the crackdown will intensify if federal
"anti-hate" laws HR 256 and 262 are passed. Soon all American
police will be trained to specifically target "hateful" pro-lifers,
as they already do in California.
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- No Freedom for Canadian Pro-Lifers
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- Persecution of pro-lifers under existing statutes demonstrates
the ferocity of public authorities to attack defenders of the unborn. As
we have warned all along, the plight of our neighbors in Canada-where federal
hate laws have already shattered free speech-will soon be ours if we don't
stop these bills. In 1994, <http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Bill-Whatcott>Canadian
pro-lifer Bill Whatcott spent 6 months in jail for praying on the public
sidewalk outside an abortion clinic. In 2003, he was sentenced to 8 days
in jail for displaying images of aborted fetuses. Police charged him with
"criminal mischief" and "disturbing the peace." In
2004, he was fined $15,000 for protesting Planned Parenthood on a public
sidewalk. His total legal debts to date in defense of these charges, and
others stemming from criticism of homosexuality, total at least $250,000.
-
- In Canada, as in Europe, the government, and university
administrators, are now speech police. Toronto Sun columnist <http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael
- _coren/2009/02/14/8389976-sun.html>Michael Coren writes
of "pro-life clubs defunded and barred from meeting on college property
in two universities in Ontario, pro-life stalls vandalized in Manitoba"
The German Law Journal explains, "Although the dangers of hate speech
are concededly abstract, they are nevertheless seen as being real enough
to warrant management by the government, whose task in this area can be
termed as control of the political climate [emphasis mine]." This
is the clear intent of hate crime laws: ultimately to control whatever
the government defines as "hate speech," thus "controlling
the political climate"-and silencing objectors like those who fight
for life.
-
- But more on Germany later-there's even more bad news
from Canada. Last November, students at the University of Calgary faced
police intimidation for their campus pro-life display. The university demanded
that their large color photographs "face inwards"-obvious censorship-and
threatened arrest and expulsion. The students courageously erected their
display, which was no less gory than previous displays such as of torture
in China.
-
- "Under the watchful eye of numerous media cameras,
the university did not arrest the students. But two months later, the university
instructed Calgary police to deliver summons to these same students --
privately at their homes, with no media present." <http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive
- /2009/02/09/john-carpay-free-speech-dies-a-slow-death-on-canadian-campuses.aspx>This
quote comes from John Carpay, a lawyer for the students, published in the
National Post. <http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090202/CGY_Trespass_
- ProLife_090202/20090203/?hub=CalgaryHome>These students
have been charged with "trespassing" on their own campus, and
will appear in court this Feb. 27.
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- Also this month, in Nova Scotia, pro-life presenters
at St. Mary's University were commanded to disband. Protestors descended
on the event, which was called "Echoes of the Holocaust," with
"chants and yells," disrupting the main speaker less than a minute
into his speech, yelling, "No hate speech in our school!"
-
- "They continued to shout until [the speaker] was
forced to type on the projected screen in order to get his message to the
audience" Campus security did nothing, and then an <http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020906.html>administrator
told the pro-lifers to break up the meeting!
-
- Federal "anti-hate" laws were not even used
in every case-official antagonism is so great that authorities used trumped-up
charges of "harassment" and "trespassing" to persecute
pro-lifers. Hate laws turn this antagonism into a clubbed fist because
they empower the government to define the pro-life position itself-regardless
of any action taken-as "hate." That makes any pro-lifer vulnerable
to prosecution the moment he or she takes a stand.
-
- Hate Laws in Germany
-
- Elsewhere, federal hate laws have already shown their
practically exponential power. In 2007 in Ireland, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20070701/ai_n19342297>a
pro-lifer was arrested for displaying "offensive" material. She
was detained and her "display board showing photographs of abortions
was also seized." Police showed up after just an hour of sharing leaflets
and collecting signatures. Apparently someone found the work "offensive."
-
- It is terrifying that the words "offensive,"
"hurtful," or "hateful" have now become actionable
legal concepts. This alone should spring pro-lifers into protest against
hate laws. What could be more "hurtful" than showing an image
of an aborted fetus to a woman who killed her child? What could be more
"hateful" than stating the truth that abortionists kill babies?
-
- The simple truth about this loaded issue can unsettle
communities and hurt feelings-and that's the point of pro-life protest!
Few areas of public debate are more threatened by hate laws.
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- The <http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=225>German
Law Journal explains the intentional vagueness of Germany's own federal
"anti-hate" law:
-
- Similar to applicable provisions of international law,
German statutes specifically refrain from requiring that racist [or other
politically incorrect] messages lead to a clear and present danger of imminent
lawless action before becoming punishable [emphasis mine]. A distant and
generalized threat to the public peace and to life and dignity, particularly
of minorities, suffices for legal sanctions irrespective of whether and
when such danger would actually manifest itselfhate speech is generally
prohibited-it is "speech minus" or "low-value speech,"
even if it addresses issues of high political importance.
-
- Shamelessly this journal says German laws criminalize
pure speech-even if it doesn't incite violence! Any speech that might create
a "distant and generalized threat to the public peacesuffices for
legal sanctions!"
-
- Germany first picked on Johannes Lerle, an outspoken
Lutheran pastor few people will defend. In 2007, <http://www.kreuz.net/article.5395.html>Lerle
was sentenced to one year in prison for a sermon comparing abortion to
the Holocaust. He was charged with "inciting the people." According
to one source, Lerle previously spent 8 months in jail for calling abortionists
"professional killers." The court said that was slander since
the unborn aren't humans, so abortionists aren't killers.
-
- There is controversy over whether Lerle was jailed for
being pro-life or being "anti-Semitic." Regardless, the pastor
was jailed for speech, not a physical crime or violent act. Tragically,
his association with "anti-Semitism" and his alleged Holocaust
denial caused most American Christians to either fail to defend, or retract
their defense, of Lerle.
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- Two years previously, "In 2005, a German pro-lifer,
<http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2211>Günter Annen, was
sentenced to 50 days in jail for saying 'Stop unjust [rechtswidrige] abortions
in [medical] practice,' because, according to the court, the expression
'unjust' is understood by laymen as meaning illegal, which abortions are
not."
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- Throughout Europe, pro-lifers face stigmatization which
will eventually make them as detestable as Lerle the "anti-Semite."
In Britain, the <http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090210/bbc-to-repeat-distortion-of-pro-lifers-as-terrorists/>BBC
this month again aired a two-part drama that portrays pro-lifers as violent
terrorists who kidnap children and lethally inject one of their hostages.
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- These incidents in Canada and Europe pose a sober warning
to the American pro-life movement. For the last decade, our National Prayer
Network has faithfully warned pro-lifers that they are in the crosshairs
of "anti-hate" legislation. Yet, many seem to view white supremacists
or critics of homosexuality as the only ones who should fear hate laws.
Wake up!
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- If you believe in the sanctity of life, you must protest
HR 256 and 262 to Congress. Call 1-877-851-6437 toll free or 1-202-225-3121
toll. Also, alert your pro-life organization about how hate laws can persecute
and even destroy the pro-life movement in America. <http://www.truthtellers.org/>Watch
our recent 10-minute video, How to Kill the Hate Bills - and take action.
- We must rescue the lives of women and helpless, innocent
babies from abortion. But pro-lifers must also save the freedom of the
living. Otherwise, we will have no voice left to speak for the unborn.
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