2/18/2010
Protesters hold line after abortion clinic opens
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Ed Langlois
As he holds a sign saying "Planned Parenthood Kills Babies," Florin Panaite of Gresham recalls his own 7-month-old daughter, who died of an illness last year.
"There are lots of choices other than abortion," says the mourning Panaite, an electrical contractor who was at Portland's new Planned Parenthood location for his first ever pro-life protest.
A member of a Romanian Assemblies of God Church, he joined hundreds of others Sunday as Planned Parenthood held a grand opening for a building where women will receive health care and get abortions.
Panaite suggests that, because no one likes abortion, the organization put its energies into adoption instead. He also wishes people could see children as a blessing it would be unthinkable to snuff.
The opening, which included a dozen Portland police and uniformed security guards, came almost three years after pro-life groups began protesting a city-backed urban renewal proposal to allow Planned Parenthood to move into the site at Northeast Martin Luther King Boulevard and Beech Street. The movement, called Precious Children of Portland, gained energy as it appealed to city leaders and then contractors in an attempt to thwart construction. Vigils have taken place near the spot weekly and will continue.
"My hope now is that they won’t do as well as they thought they would," says Bernardine Niece, a protester and member of Holy Redeemer Parish who lives near the new building. "We will be here for those young women going in. We'll do sidewalk counseling. Hope is not lost."
It was an ecumenical day on the sidewalk. Catholics prayed the rosary and held a sign quoting Pope John Paul II: "A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope." Speakers included a Catholic deacon, an Anglican priest and a black evangelical pastor who said Planned Parenthood is cynically targeting members of his community with a message of abortion and promiscuity.
"Women get an abortion and they get a death complex," said the Rev. Isham Harris of Upper Room Home Church located in Northeast Portland. "It ruins their lives. Every black person ought to be out here." Rev. Harris resents that the center was built on a street named after a great leader in civil rights.
Last month at a downtown Portland rally, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers of nearby Immaculate Heart Church warned the city about what he thinks is a black genocide. "Abortion kills as many African-American people every four days as the Ku Klux Klan killed in 150 years," he said.
Tamra Johnson also spoke Sunday, representing Silent No More, a coalition of women who have had abortions and subsequent physical and mental health problems.
Protesters came from St. Andrew, Holy Rosary, Holy Redeemer, Immaculate Heart, St. Rose, The Madeline and St. Charles parishes.
Inside, a Planned Parenthood chaplain led an invocation as part of the grand opening.
Bill Diss, a member of Holy Rosary Parish and a high school shop teacher, is a chief organizer. He and other Precious Children volunteers provided refreshments, flowers and St. Valentine's Day cards, along with material from Catholic Charities and Providence on reproductive health.
The group also had material on Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul's look at sexuality.
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