by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
To defend or to defund? That question hung in the nippy air when nearly 150 people carrying signs stood in front of the Planned Parenthood Clinic in east St. Cloud last Saturday morning.
The demonstration lasted from 10 a.m. until noon.
Some showed up to support national and state efforts to defund Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the nation, claiming it is an anti-life organization that promotes and performs abortions. Those efforts to defund the organization have gathered congressional momentum after the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency.
Other demonstrators, most of them holding bright-pink placards, stood streetside to proclaim their strong support for Planned Parenthood and its commitment to women’s health issues. Many noted the St. Cloud clinic does not perform abortions, contrary to what some opponents claim.
Pro-choice proponents, like pro-life factions, have both been energized since Trump became the nation’s president.
Similar demonstrations, pro-and-con Planned Parenthood, occurred Saturday in many cities in Minnesota and elsewhere in the nation.
As demonstrators hoisted their hand-made signs along East St. Germain Street in St. Cloud, many vehicles sped past, some of the drivers loudly blaring their horns, but it was not evident if they were honking with agreement or disagreement – or in support of or against the two factions of demonstrators.
The Planned Parenthood Clinic at 451 E. St. Germain has for many years been the site of peaceful demonstrations by anti-abortion groups. The Feb. 11 demonstration, too, was peaceful and civil, with some of the people in the differing camps exchanging respectful – if opposing – words.
Those who attended were motivated by a number of organizations or budding movements, two of the main ones being “40 Days for Life,” “Protest PP Coalition,” “Defend Planned Parenthood” and “Expect Resistance.”
Karen Knafla of Sartell said she was happy to be at the demonstration to rally for the pro-life cause. Standing on the sidewalk with her sign, she said she had demonstrated many times in front of the Planned Parenthood St. Cloud clinic and intends to keep doing so in the future.
Brianna Garrison of St. Cloud, standing just 10 yards from Knafla, said she organized via Facebook to rally demonstrators for Defend Planned Parenthood. Garrison works for a company that raises funds for non-profit entities.
“On Facebook, it started with inviting people to attend this event, and it just grew and grew,” Garrison said. “On our RSVP Facebook page, at first 50 people signed up (to participate in the demonstration). And about 200 more people said they were interested in it. These people here show the amount of solidarity we have in St. Cloud.”
The St. Cloud Women’s Center at St. Cloud State University also encouraged many people to attend the demonstration in support of Planned Parenthood.
Betsy Murphy of St. Joseph carried her sign with a message that read “I am Pro-Choice and Pro-Life.” Murphy helped organize the pro-Planned Parenthood organizers who hailed from St. Joseph, Avon, Albany and elsewhere.
Murphy handed the Newsleader a written statement outlining the goals of the defenders for funding.
“It’s all about what we can do today and every day to support people who are feeling frightened and discriminated against,” her note read. “We train in non-violent resistance – how to listen and interact without letting anger and emotions flare up. And we learn how to become more culturally aware and proficient. Awareness. Kindness. Action.”
Other participants, both pro-choice and pro-life, were from a variety of area cities, including St. Cloud, Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls and Cold Spring.
During the demonstration, the people in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood tended to gather in groups assembled to the east and west of a long line of people there to defend the organization. Most “defenders” were highly visible because of the bright-pink signs they carried, scrawled with messages: Real Men Defend PP, Protect Women’s Health, Resister (heart) hood (a pun on Sisterhood), 77 Percent of Anti-Abortion Leaders are Men; 100 Percent of Those Men Will Never Become Pregnant.
Proponents of defunding also carried signs with large messages: Defund Planned Parenthood, I Regret My Abortion, Choose Life, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Planned Parenthood Lies to You.
At times, the sounds of chanting and prayers mingled in the air.
“My body, my choice! My body, my choice!”
“Jesus, protect and save the unborn . . . Our Father who art in heaven . . . Hail Mary full of grace . . . “
The people in the sidewalks included children and even a couple of pet dogs.
Heidi Shub of Sauk Rapids held a sign she drew showing fallopian tubes with one of the tubes “flipping the bird,” so to speak. She and her husband, Dan, were there to defend Planned Parenthood. In one hand Heidi held her sign, in the other she held her 5-month old daughter, Clementine. Son Hawken, 3, held up a small sign he had scribbled himself while his mother was creating her sign the night before.
Brody Hagemeier of St. Cloud spoke on behalf of many of the defunding group.
“It’s time to show our strength,” he said in an interview with the Newsleader. “There is so much opposition to life. That’s why it’s very, very important for us to show our message of the sanctity of life.”
Hagemeier is a senior student at SCSU and president of SCSU College Students for Life.
Background
Nationwide, Feb. 11 was planned by anti-abortion activists as a day to “Rally to Defund Planned Parenthood,” and rallies took place in scores of cities throughout the nation.
Talk of defunding Planned Parenthood by the Republican majority in Congress gave impetus to the movement. However, ironically, that same effort at defunding also galvanized Planned Parenthood defenders, at some rallies greatly outnumbering the anti-abortion groups that showed up. That occurred in St. Cloud where defenders appeared to outnumber defunders by 2-1; and in St. Paul where defenders numbered several thousand and defunders totaled a couple hundred.
Many defenders at the rallies noted they were demonstrating not just for Planned Parenthood but against current efforts to repeal Obamacare.
Even though at some rallies defunders and defenders were separated by barriers, there were no reports of nasty or violent behavior and the competing sections got along amicably for the most part, according to news reports.
Planned Parenthood
The St. Cloud Planned Parenthood clinic does not perform abortions. However, it can refer clients to other clinics that do offer abortions, such as one in St. Paul.
The federal and state funds allocated for Planned Parenthood are not allowed to be used to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger because of the pregnancy. However, anti-abortion activists have long argued the ban is disingenuous at best because when clinics receive state and federal funds for non-abortion services, that money frees up other funds to be used for abortions.
Abortion has been a passionately contentious topic throughout American history, especially contentious ever since the Supreme Court in 1973 legalized a woman’s right to an abortion in the case known as Roe vs. Wade, although the high court did leave open the option for regulations or laws regarding the third trimester (last three months of a pregnancy).
The forerunner of Planned Parenthood began 100 years ago this year when Margaret Sanger opened a birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, N.Y. That became the American Birth Control League and in 1942, its name was changed to Planned Parenthood.
There are about 650 Planned Parenthood clinics in the nation that serve an estimated 2.5-million clients per year. The clinics provide a wide range of services that include contraception methods, sex education, cancer screenings, diagnosis and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases, vasectomies for men, sterilizations for women, pregnancy tests and – at some clinics – abortions. Four of five of Planned Parenthood clients are at or below the federal poverty level. Many foundations help fund the organization, as well as some federal funding, which was made possible when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act in 1970.
According to a Planned Parenthood report released in 2014, Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 abortions that year. The organization claims only 3 percent of its total services are abortion-related. Opponents, however, claim it’s 94 percent of their services. Fact-checking organizations claim both percentages are inaccurate, with the actual figure of abortions being closer to 12 percent of all Planned Parenthood services.
Abortion opponents noted Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortion in the nation. The organization and its defenders, however, claim it’s the largest “abortion preventer” because it provides contraception services, vasectomies and sterilizations to those who request such services.
Opposition to the organization has at times turned violent, with many clinics vandalized, firebombed or attacked by gunmen, in some cases killing Planned Parenthood employees and wounding others.
The deep divisiveness concerning Planned Parenthood was expressed by Trump when he was campaigning for his successful run for the presidency. The organization, he said, does “very good work for millions of women,” but he added that federal funding should be discontinued if Planned Parenthood continues to offer abortion services.
Even though there were passionate differences of opinions, many demonstrators held amiable conversations with one another at a gathering in front of Planned Parenthood Feb. 11 in east St. Cloud.
Patsy Murphy of St. Joseph (center), one of the organizers of a Defend Planned Parenthood faction, demonstrates Feb. 11 in St. Cloud. At left is Laurie Leitch of St. Cloud and at right is Joanie Robinson of St. Cloud.
A pro-life contingent shows its signs to passing motorists in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in east St. Cloud Feb. 11. Second from left is one of the pro-life organizers of the event, Brody Hagemeier, a student at St. Cloud State University.
The Dan and Heidi Shub family of Sauk Rapids demonstrate in favor of Planned Parenthood at a rally Feb. 11 in front of the clinic in east St. Cloud. Mother Heidi Shub is holding her sign and her baby, Clementine. At right is son Hawken, 3, who holds the sign he created the night before.
Bright hot-pink predominated among defenders of Planned Parenthood during a demonstration Feb. 11 in east St. Cloud in front of the organization’s clinic. Pro-life demonstrators who want Planned Parenthood to be defunded also demonstrated from 10 a.m.-noon that morning. Second from left is Breanna Garrison, St. Cloud, who helped organize the pro-Planned Parenthood demonstration.
Three pro-life demonstrators make their views known via their signs in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic Feb. 11 in east St. Cloud. From left to right are Gene Bechtold, Bowlus; Frank Ringsmuth, Waite Park; and Rita Reker, St. Cloud. Reker and Bechtold are sister and brother.
Pro-life demonstrators march to demonstrate in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood at its clinic in east St. Cloud. The rally also drew many defenders of Planned Parenthood.
