Babies Now Equal to Elephants

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File:CircusProcessionElephants1888.jpg Description "Circus Procession" 1888 artwork showing two elephants in human clothing, one of whom rides a tricycle, a clown, and 3 uniformed ... (1,853 × 1,265 (2.46 MB)) - 07:28, 5 October 2012

File:CircusProcessionElephants1888.jpg

Description "Circus Procession" 1888 artwork showing two elephants in human clothing, one of whom rides a tricycle, a clown, and 3 uniformed ...

(1,853 × 1,265 (2.46 MB)) - 07:28, 5 October 2012

Last Tuesday, the family went to the circus.  We parked the car in the parking lot, and as we were walking towards the circus, I saw a group of people who looked like they were protesting, or picketing.  I didn't want to cross a union picket line; I was concerned.  As I talked with them, I found out that they were representing animal rights groups.  They contend that the animals in the circus, specifically the elephants, were taken out of the wild, where they belong, and forced to work and live in unnatural conditions.

What I think of their contention, is not the point of this post.  The fact that these people were exercising their freedom of speech rights is important. I immediately thought of my friend Eleanor McCullen.  I wrote of her case in front of the Supreme Court in March.  

Because of the "Buffer Zone" law in Massachusetts, Eleanor could not talk to people going into an abortion clinic, like the people concerned about the elephants talked to me.  I also thought of the people who stop me on the street and ask me to sign their petition for this and/or that.  I buy girl scout cookies from little girls who sell out on the sidewalk. And every now and then, I see some people sitting outside the post office who want to impeach the president.

Think of all the people who get their message out by talking to you face to face.  But Eleanor and other pro-lifers, are denied that right, supposedly granted in the First Amendment.

That was Tuesday.  Yesterday-Thursday,  McCullen v. Coakley was decided. It was a unanimous decision.   Eleanor can now talk to people, just like everybody else can.

The sidewalk is public.  The pro-life people can now counsel people.

Justice Roberts said "Petitioners are not protesters."   And I am celebrating over this decison.

Eleanor McClellan

Tonight, my "cloistered brothers" and I listened to Eleanor McClellan.  This is the Eleanor from McClellan v. Coakley.  She told us her story.

In the year 2000 she felt moved to do something about abortion.  So she prayed.  She felt that she was just taking the easy way out and made herself go to an abortion clinic and pray.  Every week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 9-12 she prayed in front of an abortion clinic.

Then came the day when one of the counselors was sick and she was asked to step in a be a counselor.  She had no idea what to do.  A couple walked by and she said, "Can I help you?"  They just looked at her as they passed by.  A few minutes later, the man came out to smoke a cigarette.  She said to the man that she wanted to help him if he would let her.  He looked at her and seemed interested.  So she said, "Go back inside and get your wife."

He did.

Eleanor was shocked.  Soon they both came out together and she said, "I'd like to help you, can we go somewhere to talk."  She took them to her house.  Once there, she telephoned someone to come talk to them.  The couple eventually was helped.  They had the baby.  He's eleven years old now and Eleanor gets a picture of him, every year.

This became her function--counseling.  Then, in 2007, Massachusetts passed what is known as the buffer zone law.  The pro life people have to stand 35 feet away from the doors to the abortion clinic.  This definitely hampers Eleanor's counseling.  She can't get close enough to counsel people.  Yet the workers in the clinic can.  Discrimination?

But the argument Eleanor and her lawyers are using is that sidewalks are protected places of free speech, protected under First Amendment rights.

Eleanor counsels consensually.  She doesn't hold signs or yell.  She quietly talks to people.  

The opposing side kept calling Eleanor a protestor.  The court objected to this label because Eleanor doesn't protest; she counsels.  

This is a counsel case, not a protest case.  And that's how it was left.  The decision won't be decided before June.

Eleanor McCullen

I met Eleanor in prison.  That sounds like we're both inmates.  Maybe it sounds like one of us was visiting the other, who happened to be in prison.  None of these statements are true.  Eleanor and I are volunteers for the Catholic Chaplaincy, in a prison.  She is a Lay Franciscan, and I am a Lay Dominican.

Eleanor is an anti-abortion activist.  She doesn't throw bombs at abortion clinics.  She's not a violent activist.  She counsels the women going in to have an abortion.  She may distribute leaflets and educational literature, but she's not confrontational.

I'm requesting prayers for the success of her court case on Jan. 15th.  You see, the state of Massachusetts has a statute that prohibits anyone from approaching another person entering an abortion clinic, for counseling or educational purposes, within 35 feet of the abortion clinic.

This  Massachusetts abortion-clinic-entrance-access law prohibits “peaceful, nondisruptive antiabortion advocacy via the distribution of leaflets and oral advocacy at the very places it is most likely to be effective” .

This is a violation of the First Amendment's guarantees on free speech.  So far, this case, McCullen v. Coakley, (Coakley is Massachusetts' Attorney General) has gone as far as the Supreme Court.  Eleanor's case will be heard on January 15, 2014.  Pray for a successful outcome for Eleanor and all the innocent babies she has saved, and will continue to save, if she wins this case.