Anti-abortion campaign hits Chillicothe
By Kirran Syed
© 2003 Chillicothe Gazette

Locals may have seen images more graphic and bloody on the streets of Chillicothe than on television Thursday afternoon.

Trucks with pictures of aborted first trimester fetuses and human embryos on the sides were driving through Chillicothe for several hours. The truck campaign was organized by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, a pro-life group, to raise public awareness about what abortion involves.

"All we're trying to do is make abortion real to as many Americans as possible in a short period of time," said Mark Harrington, executive director of the center's Midwest office.

"We're not advocating for or against, but anyone seeing the pictures would realize that abortion is an act of violence and it kills a baby," he said. "This is purposefully attempting to bother people, to get them to think."

Harrington said the truck campaign, which is protected under the First Amendment right to free speech, has been under way for several years and will continue until substantive changes in American abortion policy occur.

"There is a strategy behind what we're doing ... What we're trying to do is change public opinion on the grassroots level in order to eventually affect public policy on a national level," he said.

Harrington said most people react with astonishment when they see the trucks pass. "It's usually just a look of shock and awe ... Many people have never seen this so their jaws will just drop."

T.J. Ridenour, 23, who stopped to watch the truck pass, said the images were startling, but they also did not affect his pro-choice stance. "I'm all for free speech, but (those images) might make some people's stomachs turn."

Others, like Kristin Doss, 20, who is pro-life and once briefly considered an abortion, was shocked by the images.

"They think making it graphic is going to change people's minds when, in actuality, it's just making people mad," she said. "If I was thinking about an abortion, it would make me think twice, but it would also make me angry because it is a person's right and doing that is forcing something on someone."

Renee McPherson, 32, who is pro-life and the mother of two, said she did not understand what she was looking at when she initially saw the pictures on the truck's side.

"When you look at it, it just looks like a bloody mess," she said. "It didn't really offend me, but it's not something you want your kids seeing and asking questions about."

She said if her children had been with her, she would have been angry.

Harrington said the group minimizes the chance of children viewing the images by remaining in downtown and business districts and avoiding areas where schools and daycares may be located.

Sometimes people react with anger and either yell, gesture or throw things, Harrington said. Partially for this reason, the trucks do not stop when they drive through towns.

Local law enforcement officials are notified that the trucks will be driving though town so they are not surprised when people call about the images. Generally, there is no problem with law enforcement, he said.

However, the center has filed a lawsuit against 21 Dayton-area law enforcement officers charging them with harassment for a June 2002 incident when group members were detained for three hours, searched and photographed, he said.