— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
We always knew that the people protesting basic freedoms outside of Valencia Street's Planned Parenthood were a bit unhinged, but their tantrum during last week's Board of Supervisor's meeting—when the board created a 25 foot protest-free “bubble” around the city's reproductive clinics—defies our already low opinion of them. The Examiner's Melissa Griffin caught the scene:
At the meeting, a number of anti-abortion activists came to register their opposition to the law, and while I usually listen to the meetings while doing other work, I stopped multitasking when the first activist said, “This is my daughter. She was born on April 22, much to the chagrin of my husband. April 20 — 4/20 — might have been more fun, living in San Francisco.”
So, yes, it started with drug humor and got worse. “I have a question for the supervisors and all the people present here. Have y’all heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?” said the next activist. “There was a time when, if I had the means and the desire, I could own slaves.”
Then, pointing to various supervisors, two of whom are black, she said, “I could own you. I could own you. I could — usually the black people — I could own them. Yes I could. You would belong to me.” She went on to say that eventually, we will all view abortion like slavery, as something we can’t believe we tolerated. At least that’s what I think she said. By that point, I had crawled completely under my desk.
Fortunately, the law passed.
[Examiner | Photo of a BACORR counter-protest by Steve Rhodes]