Who stole abortion billboard?
By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
September 24, 2007
Colorado Right to Life today accused Planned Parenthood supporters of stealing a controversial billboard banner on display outside the anti-abortion group's annual dinner.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains countered that the group knows nothing about the theft, and doesn't condone it.
A witness told Arapahoe County sheriff's deputies that a white male grabbed the 15-foot by 7-foot banner located on one side of the billboard, put it in his car and drove away from the Denver Tech Center hotel where the banquet was being held.
The witness got a license plate number, which shows the vehicle was registered in Aurora, said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson. The investigation is ongoing.
Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, conceded today that she can't be certain that it was a Planned Parenthood supporter who took the sign or that anyone who is pro-choice is automatically a supporter of Planned Parenthood.
"I'm certainly not saying that Planned Parenthood paid somebody to come and do it, but I believe that it's people who support Planned Parenthood who were offended by our message," Hanks said. "They don't want that message out there."
The banner features the photo of a black baby and includes a quote that Right to Life attributes to Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. The quote says, "We don't want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population ... "
Lizzy Annison, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, called Colorado Right to Life an "extremist group," willing to employ "every tactic in the book" to discredit Sanger.
"She was a vocal opponent of racial stereotyping and she worked very hard to eliminate the barriers to health care in the African-American community," Annison said.
"Planned Parenthood is about providing the education, information and services that people need to make responsible choices. Those actions as described (concerning the theft of the banner) do not reflect what we're about, and we don't condone them," she said.
Hanks maintains that Planned Parenthood is about abortions, and she said the group used mobile billboards to get that message across.
The mobile billboard had identical banners on each side. Only one banner, valued at $1,000 was taken.
After the theft, a deputy drove several times by the home where the car was registered but no one was home, the sheriff said.
An investigator will attempt again today.
Copyright 2007, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
Give us a break, Margaret Sanger is the founder of Planned Parenthood and remains an icon of the organization.
BLOGGERS' RESPONSE:
Not sure if you are in favor of Sanger or against. If in favor, have you read her diatribe against the poor and "feeble-minded" called The Pivot of Civilization?
Christina links to it, here, in the combox to this post: http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2007/09/what_percentage.php
The above comment was in response to my critcism of the billboard, now deleted because only pro-life people are permitted to speak on this blog.
I sure never removed your comment and I don't think
that is the policy of this blog.
Please post again.
Leslie, please email me if you can? I can't find an email for you. There has been a seriously deteriorating troll problem on PLB for the past 2 weeks or so. You seem to not have been following the various combox threads, but Suricou's comments are now being deleted for one or more of the following reasons, as are those of one other inflammatory prochoice troll. Their earlier comments remain.
To Suricou and everyone:
Not everyone can understand or follow common guidelines of respectful, non-ad-hominem, non-insulting debate. When that happens, the bloggers at this blog will delete or edit comments. It's a fair amount of extra work for us to monitor the comments that way, and in some cases, we'll ban people altogether to save ourselves the extra work. We do have regular dayjobs.
When commenters do not use their creative energy to find ways to state their opinions that respect the dignity of others, and they've been directed repeatedly to be respectful but refuse, their comments will be deleted.
Trolls also are not accommodated here.
If someone offends against the virtue of charity, or against common respectfulness, we do make every effort to address the situation in a timely way.
In the meantime, recognize that nearly everyone who reads comments on blogs has the horse-sense to recognize when someone is being offensive, being provocative, or engaging in verbal behavior that is damaging and/or antagonistic.
These reasons are why some recent offending pro-choice comments are being deleted: because they have insisted on ad hominem attacks and on being trolls.
If one expects respect and to be taken seriously regardless of their differing opinions, then it is expected that all will do likewise to those already here.
Raven's just mad because the billboard correctly quotes Margaret Sanger, a notorious eugenist and a hero of "population control" pro-aborts. Sanger and her organization Planned Parenthood sought to 'decrease the surplus population' by stopping the so-called "undesirables" from reproducing. This is reality, and it continues to be Planned Parenthood's mission.
The philosophy of a pro-abort is that death is often superior to life. A child in a poor family is better off dead, they argue. A minority child in a racist society is better off dead, they argue. There's a reason why they're called the Culture of Death.
JWL, I agree with you on all points except one, which might be considered minor. I learned from my esteemed co-blogger Emily at the AfterAbortion blog tocringe when a prolife person calls their opposite a "pro-abort." To the prochoice person, it's a derogatory term, a label, just as we recoil in disgust when we're called "anti-choice" instead of Pro-Life.
Our whole commenting philosophy is here, http://afterabortion.blogspot.com/2004/05/who-we-are-and-some-guidelines-to.html . Emily wrote them, and I think they really do make sense, esp.
"Please don't use the labels "anti-choice" or "pro-abort". Please don't label individuals."
I can't tell you what to do, of course. But I was just wondering if you'd think about it. I know I've gotten into enough disagreements with some prolife friends of mine over this kind of stuff. Not looking to do that here, as it's not "my" blog, but just wanted to share my thoughts with you (and all) on that.
Respect is as respect does, I guess, is what I'm thinking. I know we don't respect WHAT the culture of death and its proponents do and stand for, but I can't help but think that we are called to not condemn (by labeling) the PERSONS inside those actions.