HomeMy WebLinkAboutAbortion Protests Outside School-1992 Abortion picture Parents say
sparks protests . abortion sign a
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❑Parents worry that a picture of an too graphic
aborted fetus is too shocking for kids ” ,.. ,„. ••
who pass anti-abortion pickets near
Winter Springs Elementary School. SIGNS from B-1
By Elaine Bennett said. "But I think they can use
other, less graphic signs to get
OF THE SENTINEL STMT their point across in an area so
near a school. Who knows what '
. h�`S
WINTER SPRINGS— Shad Auerbach's gruesome emotional effect the sign will have
brand of free s strong on those children? I know it's up ��Iyyy
speech is strop stuff for adults, so it setting to children.It's very upset „
worries people that children see it as they walk to
school ting to me."
They're asking whether anyone can stop Auerbach Police Capt. Charlie Sexton -,An A rd
from carrying his anti-abortion sign in front of a doc- asked the state attorney's office ' F}use
tor's office across the street from Winter Springs Ele- for an opinion after several par- d� �b ad�6Yi
mentary School. ents complained to City Hall and it s
Parents, school and city officials say the sign, the Police Department. DENNIS wu✓sENnNeL
which features a photo of an aborted fetus without a Assistant' State Attorney Steve
head,is too graphic for children. Plotnick said Wednesday. he Auerbach insists on his right to.
Even Auerbach, who has been carrying the sign would review the law. protest at an abortion clinic.
several mornings a week this month,concedes that it
is "pretty disgusting." But he insists he has a right "If nothing else," he said, "the
to protest. sign does appear to be in bad take place.
"If people find it too gruesome to look at they taste-" "The children who pass us on
shouldn't be allowing abortions to take place;' he Laura Sanborn, assistant princi- the way to school are going to
said. pal at Winter Springs Elementary, grow up and be faced with this is-
City conAflii"sgrdnSRavAIe Auskwp4as a legal said she had not seen the sign, sue, and they should know from
rigffi to t..F]pwe y hats their attar- "but if there is one like that, I fie- the start where it leads," Auer-
ney whe9'red they em rrestrict offensive terial in a lieve it would be totally inappro- back said.
school zone. priate in an area where children Another protester, John Vanee-
Commissioner Cindy Koehler said several parents walk to school." poel, said he did not believe the
have called her to complain about children walking She said one parent had called city has a right to restrict protest
by Auerbach and other anti-abortion activists on the school to complain. signs.
State Road 434. Auerbach a 21-year-old lawn But in consideration of the
"People have a constitutional right to protest,"she worker in Longwood and the fa- schoolchildren, he wondered
they of two young boys, said the whether the group could consider
picture was taken in a Houston carrying signs without pictures.
abortion clinic in December 1989. But protester Myrna Cheffer, di- I
It shows the head and an arm sev- rector of a crisis pregnancy center
ered from a seven-month male fe- in Orlando, said the picture shows
tus. "what is happening to the babies
"That boy died a horrible being aborted."
death," said Auerbach, who was "Their little limbs are being
given a trespass warning Monday torn apart.
for picketing on property of the of- "If the public came out in force
lice of Dr. Ruangsomboon Month- to stop abortions then perhaps we
ree. wouldn't have to show these
"Children and their parents signs.
must not deny any longer what is "We can understand the par-
going on. This is fact. It happens ents'concerns,but to tell us not to
every day. They should face the show the sign," Cheffer said,
issue.If they can't stand to look at "would be a violation of our
it, they shouldn't be allowing it to rights."
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