Peaceful protest
Abortion foes march as Planned Parenthood holds session
AURORA -- Most people just walked by Joe Basar bundled in a winter coat outside the Eola Community Center Wednesday evening, as he passed out fliers warning "Planned Parenthood lies to you."
"No," people interrupted Basar in mid-speech.
(Donnell Collins/For The Beacon News)
"OK. Thanks," he said, over and over again.
Basar, of Plainfield, joined roughly 40 protesters outside the Community Center as Planned Parenthood held an information session inside on the Reproductive Justice and Access Act of Illinois.
This legislation would prohibit Illinois government from interfering with a woman's right to have an abortion, as well as mandate that all Illinois public schools offer age-appropriate, comprehensive sexual health education.
In Basar's opinion, it's "a very bad piece of legislation."
"I just want people to be informed of the truth," Basar said. "This is why I'm out here."
Introduced last year, the legislation aims to ensure that abortion remains legal in Illinois, regardless of what decisions are made by the Supreme Court, said Bonnie Grabenhofer, an Aurora resident and president of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women.
Grabenhofer pointed out that the legislation would ensure that all women have access to sex education, contraception and pre-natal care.
And she said the act would provide women with information about adoptions and sexually transmitted diseases.
However, many anti-abortion activists view this legislation as overturning laws that protect women and their unborn children.
"Is Planned Parenthood going to be standing there, picking up the pieces when a woman has physical or emotional problems" after an abortion, asked Barb Hoyt of Naperville, who walked with her husband at Wednesday's protest.
For the most part, the protesters paced quietly back and forth outside an entrance to the community center.
Some prayed out loud. A few chatted about their children. Most of the protesters held signs above their heads urging people to "Stop abortion now" and warning "Planned Parenthood kills babies."
Inside, the community meeting was open to only those who RSVP'd to the event.
Fox Valley Park District Police patrolled the hallway outside the door, which remained closed.
The room's windows were covered with paper so no one in the hallway could see inside.
In a news release, Planned Parenthood of Illinois said it "strongly advocates" for this legislation, "because it states that women have the right to a continuum of choices throughout their reproductive lives."
And these choices, Grabenhofer said, help ensure that every child is wanted, and they help reduce unintended pregnancies.
However, anti-abortion activists like Eric Scheidler of Aurora adamantly disagree.
It's largely because of these choices that Scheidler considers this bill the most anti-family and pro-abortion legislation "being pushed" in the country.
So Scheidler, with the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, quietly protested through a light rain shower and plunging temperatures Wednesday evening.
"People don't want to think about abortion," he said. "That's why it's important for us to be out (here)."
"So our society does not forget about this injustice," he said. "And so that someday it will end."
