Another Washington State College Attempts to Silence Pro-Life Speech

You may recall the story out of Spokane in 2009 that AIW reported on here, here and here. It concerned the speech rights of students on the campus of public colleges.

Administrators at Spokane Falls Community College "threatened Beth Sheeran and members of a Christian student group with disciplinary measures, including expulsion, if they chose to hold a pro-life event on campus to share information with other students because the message was 'discriminatory' and did not include a pro-abortion viewpoint."

Now administrators at Olympic College in Bremerton are attempting a similar attack against pro-lifers there.

According to a press release from the Anti-Choice Project, "[f]ollowing a decision made this summer by the Olympic College Board of Trustees, the state college plans to revise its free speech policies, relegating non-students who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights to an obscure location described by the school paper as the “least visible on campus”.

The new regulations were prompted after a member of the Anti-Choice Project brought signs on campus "depicting the bloody body parts of allegedly aborted fetuses."  Despite a NYT Magazine story and countless first person testimonies from people who saw an abortion take place, nearly 100% of the mainstream jounalistic population erroneously believes that these pictures are fake. Despite four years of college and a strong commitment to Darwin and the scientific method, for some mystifying reason, the aborted fetus always remain "allegedly" aborted, or perhaps "allegedly" a fetus, in the eyes of most journalists. This confusion continues in spite of various reports and newstories detailing dead babies found in jars, refrigerators, cardboard boxes and in one case a shipping container filled with thousands of dead fetuses. You'd think people still thought Obama was a Muslim.

The free-speech zone idea appears to have grown out of the good old fashioned American management technique known as, "passing the buck". "It was really a response to the students coming to this office," said Sue Riddle, executive assistant to then-Vice President of Student Services Richard MacLennan.

From there, other time-tested American contributions to civilization such as CYA, public relations and "I'm with stupid" t-shirts took over as an ad hoc committee with the Orwellian sounding name -- First Amendment Task Force -- was formed; a committee specifically designed to do the opposite of what the name implied.

According to the Anti-Choice web site, "The Anti-Choice Project has sought legal counsel at this time." I have a feeling Beth Sheeran could give some recommendations.

Let's hope the AG's office and Rob McKenna don't decide to waste more tax payer dollars to try and silence pro-lifers and keep the truth about abortion from the public like they tried to do in Spokane.

NARAL Goes to the Capitol to Promote Abortion

Show the Truth will be meeting in St. Michael's parking lot in Olympia and leaving at 11:30 for the capitol to witness for life with graphic signs.

You are invited to join them under the usual conditions which can be found on www.SHOWTHETRUTH.org.

Please email: showthetruthwa@aol.com if you would like to participate.

Spokane Falls Community College Claims Pro-life Speech Against Washington Law; McKenna's Office to Defend College

Not to be believed, but yes, SFCC "threatened Beth Sheeran and members of a Christian student group with disciplinary measures, including expulsion, if they chose to hold a pro-life event on campus to share information with other students because the message was 'discriminatory' and did not include a pro-abortion viewpoint."

Read the whole story from the ADF who is representing the students in their law suit against SFCC.

Here's the offending flyer the pro-life students wanted posted in a display case.

What these pro-life students went through, not only with the school administration but with their faculty advisory is outrageous.

Not only were they told that their "pro-life display was 'offensive' and 'discriminatory,' they were also required to also present the opposite point of view during the event.

But here's another whopper, "Defendant McKenzie (Director of Student Funded Programs at the College) also told SFCF’s (Spokane Falls Christian Fellowship) president that Washington is a “pro-choice” state, so SFCF could not use state money for “non-pro-choice” speech events.

And it gets worse, Ms. Kurtz, a professor of English at the College and SFCF faculty advisor, told Ms. Sheeran and SFCF members that the pro-life event violated state law according to Wash. Admin. Code § 132Q-30-242. (Verified Complaint of Plaintiff: pp 10-11) She capped that information off with a lovely, “You don’t want to be expelled, do you?”

How did this woman get selected as faculty advisor to a pro-life group?!

According to the student newspaper The Communicator, the CCS (Community Colleges of Spokane) will be represented by Wash. State Attorney General's Office representative, Jerry Cartwright. Yep. That would be Rob "I will defend a woman's right to choose at every opportunity" McKenna's office.

A preliminary hearing has been set for April 29 at 3:00 p.m. at the Federal District Courthouse in Spokane. Sheeran will have the opportunity to present her case at the hearing.

I think I know some pro-lifers who are going to be paying a visit to SFCC in the near future.

Why Abortion is Legal in Washington

The myth goes something like this -- The enlightened people of Washington state, freed from the shackles of religion (especially all things Catholic), and in their infinite wisdom and goodness came together through the democratic process to support and embrace unlimited abortion for the good of all women. It was democracy's finest hour.

I think it should be fairly obvious to any unbiased observer that the "will of the people" has very little to do with the unbridled access to and promotion of abortion in this state. It should also be fairly obvious that most people do not want to support the killing of unborn children.

1) The abortion lobby has been able to buy the laws and politicians (the stupid or cowardly or power-hungry of both parties) unwilling to make any changes in our abortion laws.

2) Most people in the state are indifferent to, ignorant about or fearful to confront the problem of abortion.

3) Washington elites in business, government, media, law and education want abortion legal and they will lie, cheat and steal to keep it that way.

4) The people who have the will to change the state's abortion regime are powerless to bring about change through legislative means at this time, and

5) The Catholic Church leadership and groups within the Archdiocese of Seattle have been negligent in their duty to educate the faithful about the crime of abortion and, at some point decided that in exchange for financial largess from the state for their charitable works they would not fight the state on abortion.

Now we have the pictures to prove it.

March for Life Olympia, WA -- 2009

This slideshow is from Tuesday January 20th, 2009. Look at all the people!

Roe v Wade Day Olympia, Washington (Caution: some graphic photos are visible.)

This slideshow is from January 22, 2009 the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The pro-choice crowd did not quite gather the four to seven thousand the pro-lifers did two days before.

If the media ever got around to reporting the truth about abortion instead of marketing it free of charge, and if the government's inordinate involvement in abortion, including the millions upon millions of dollars they shovel to the abortion industry each year, ever ceased abortion would be gone in a heartbeat.

Show the Truth Washington Wraps Up Spring Tour

[We are honored to announce we have a guest blogger at AIW --Christina from Mossyrock, Washington. She is a homeschooler and a fervent pro-lifer. Christina and her family have been generously and lovingly warning the women and men of Washington about the dangers of contraceptives and abortion for many, many years. She is also a blogger at Generations for Life and we look forward to reading her wonderful insights and reporting that will help us shine the light of truth on Washington's abortion industry. God bless you, Christina! -- Mary]

Report On Our Pro-Life Tour
by Christina

The pro-life tour across Washington State with Show the Truth was absoutely great! We went from Olympia to Spokane over a period of five days, stopping at abortion mills, colleges, and universities along the way and holding signs and passing out literature.

There were seven of us teenagers along on the tour, and each of us had a wonderful time and really loved every bit of it! It was very inspiring to see all these kids taking time off school and work in order to dedicate some time and energy to saving babies. I think also that we learn very much on these tours!

One college that all of us really like to visit on our tours is The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

This college is known in Washington for some of its students who are strongly and aggressively active in furthuring the Culture of Death. By no means are all of Evergreen’s students involved in such things, but those who are have made a name for their college.

And of course these students wouldn’t all congregate at Evergreen if the college was not friendly to their cause in the first place.

So The Evergreen State College is a stronghold for the Culture of Death and those who promote it, and we love to go there and educate the students about abortion and its consequences.

If we arrive there later in the day, we will almost surely have a pretty fantastic counter-demonstration and debates with the students. During Show the Truth’s first visit to Evergreen a few years ago, there was quite an uproar. The pro-life people had their signs spray-painted and punctured, and an excited crowd of students were totally unglued about the visit. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and hopefully the students learned about abortion. And Show the Truth made a resolution to return again to Evergreen.

Since that first visit, things have somewhat smoothed out, and the students are accustomed to seeing our display. However, there are still many good discussions between us and the students. During my very first visit to Evergreen, I seriously felt like losing it! I’d never been in any such situation before, and the taunts of the students were almost overwheming. I was fifteen, and they’d say things like, “I hope that you grow up and go to college someday and learn that you are wrong”. The good thing is, I didn’t lose it, and since then I feel like I’ve come such a long way in knowing how to talk with people and keep cool and really help them with their difficulties. We always hold graphic signs of aborted babies when we are at Evergreen. We also hold a few graphic signs of live preborn babies. And I found that the students really like to see such positive graphic signs; they like to be told what they can do. While holding aboption signs, I’ve had several students come over and thank me for holding that sign instead of a sign with an aborted baby on it.

It might be a good idea during such demonstrations to have only a few signs with aborted babies and a lot of signs that show adoption and the life of the preborn child.

Another college that we were really hoping to be able to visit during this tour was Columbia Basin College in Ellensburg, Washington. This college actually has a public room inside their buildings, where people can put on educational demostrations and have great access to students who are on break from class.

Last spring Show the Truth was able to have their display inside this college, and it went wonderfully. We were able to hand out literature and fetal models to students and talk with them.

I remember two young guys coming over to our table rather hesitantly. They really wanted to see what we were doing. I said hi and kind of tried to welcome them over. They commented that I was probably wondering why they, being boys, were interested in preborn babies and pregnancy. I said, “Oh no, because you guys can be fathers!” They immediately approved of that and became comfortable. I found it very wonderful that they loved the idea of fatherhood and babies, and it was an eye-opener to see that the idea of abortion being a “woman’s issue” is only a falsehood that is forced on them; they do not willingly accept it and are eager to embrace their vocation of fatherhood, if only they would be allowed to.

We were not able to have a table inside this college again this year because the student who signed us up for last year is no longer attending that college.

When we arrived in Yakima, Washington, we went first to the Cedar River abortion mill there. Every year this particular visit is very interesting. The employees here all come pouring out of the mill to watch our demonstration. We usually have a couple of vehicles with large pro-life signs, and these really set the employees off.

Once we even had the abortion mill employees out on the street holding pro-abortion signs in retaliation to our signs! We figured that we were being really effective! There is a great little pro-life group that demonstrated outside this mill once a week. Every year they are faithfully there with us and are doing an awesome work.

And in Yakima, we always have one or more news people come out to interview us and take pictures. One of these is a Christian news station and is very wonderful and supportive of us! While in Yakima, we stayed overnight at a former seminary that is now the headquarters for Reach Youth Ministry. This is a group that does a very wonderful work of putting on retreats for young people in efforts to bring them closer to Christ. We love meeting the super kids that are in this Ministry, and they are always excited to see us.

It happened that one of the nights that we stayed in Yakima was the night for Reach’s annual fundraising dinner. We thought it would be great to go to this and give our suppot to their work. As it turned out, the dinner was spectacularly impressive and too much fun! They did a superb job on the whole thing, and everyone there (it was a full room) had a great evening! Some people gave speeches, and the Reach kids put on their own little skit. There were also some sweet little girls who put on this most wonderful little skit you ever saw! They sang beautifully and were totally confident up there on stage.

And wow! the Reach group really knew how to raise money! They gave us some great ideas for our pro-life fundraisers! We were very glad to have been able to attend this dinner and always look forward to returning to Yakima.

And now the abortion mill in Spokane, Washington. Whoa!! It’s aggressive there! We almost always have one or two aggressive incidents while we are in front of the Planned Parenthood there.

People will come up screaming at us, and stop short of physical abuse. So we keep our cameras ready, and are grateful for all the men that we have in our group!

The Planned Parenthood is situated on a fairly busy street right next to a very busy intersection, so we get great coverage for our signs. And the strange thing about this particular Planned Parenthood is that the building right next to it is a daycare center!! Why in the world?!And even stranger is the fact that the women who staff the daycare center come over to us and complain about our graphic signs. Yep, this is one of our easiest cases to argue.

I didn’t get the chance to speak with any of these women, but if I would’ve, I might have said something like, “What would you expect to see if you worked at a daycare built right next to Auschwitz?”

There is a really wonderful lady who puts on pro-life demonstrations at the Spokane Planned Parenthood every week, and she is doing a terrific job. She has definitely met with some aggressive and angry retaliations from passersby. Her husband is a lawyer and is thus able to help her very much with any cases involved with pro-life. He is also Show the Truth’s lawyer.
Several years ago, my mom was able to talk a little with one of Planned Parenthood’s escorts while we were there on a tour. A short time later, one of these escorts quit this job, and we believe that he was the same escort who mom talked with. This was very exciting and great news for us!

While in Spokane, we also stopped at Gonzaga University. We usually have a pretty good reception here. We noticed that the students there, though they don’t always agree with what we’re doing, are polite and caring. This is a breath of fresh air for us. Sadly though, I was told by a supportive student that our graphic signs are very needed at Gonzaga. I guess that a lot of students there support abortion. I expect better from a Catholic University.

One of our last stops was Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. We had a very satisfactory stop there, being able to hold signs and pass out some literature. We also were challenged by the campus security there, who said that we could not legally stand where we were standing with our signs. The director of Show the Truth handled it very well. He actually ended up calling 911 because the campus security officer was getting out of hand and needed to be put back in line. It was comical seeing the police arrive to help take care of campus security! But it all worked out and there were no arrests.

Our second to last stop was at the Planned Parenthood in Olympia, Washington. This was on Friday, when they do abortions. They usually do around eight abortions on Fridays, but on this Friday we believe that they did one abortion. We are hopeful that we prevented the other average seven!

And when we were there on Friday, Planned Parenthood actually called in counter-protesters. And one of them was the former head of NARAL!! So they must be getting desperate. It can be an interesting time at the Olympia Planned Parenthood because we sometimes encounter students from The Evergreen State College. They usually don’t give us too much trouble, but recently someone (who looks like he comes from Evergreen) wrote vulgar graffiti on the pro-life sign on Show the Truth’s truck.

Our last stop on our tour was at the Planned Parenthood in Centralia, Washington. This went extremely well, do in large part to the vast support for pro-life in this area. We were able to hand out a whole bunch of fetal models to passing cars and had an impressive display of signs in front of Planned Parenthood.

Altogether it was a fantastic tour, and we are all very pleased with it! We got to do some great work for life, and we got to meet and work with some absolutely wonderful people in the pro-life movement. We also learn so much on these tours!

Our very special thanks to all the great people who helped us, who joined us, and who hosted us at their homes on this tour, and for all the prayers for us and our work; and a very, very big thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Sauley who organized the tour. We love seeing you and working with you, and you are each a huge blessing! God bless and love you all!

And before I finish this somewhat lengthy account, let me tell you of a very unique and very wonderful little incident that happened while we were at the Planned Parenthood in Centralia. I can’t resist telling you all about it! It was one of those things that don’t happen very often, and it was also one of those things that only those in the pro-life movement get to see!

This is what happened: We all suddenly noticed that, a ways down the street from where we were standing, there was a young man standing with a cardboard sign. He had a mohawk haircut dyed pink, and was wearing black clothes with all kinds of silver chains, buttons, and other trinkets. We couldn’t see what his sign said because he was standing with his side facing us, but we (most of us) immediately assumed that he was holding some kind of sign that was against us. However, we did wonder why he was standing so far away from us.

The director of Show the Truth decided to go over and take a picture of this interesting guy. But then we saw him cross the street and shake hands with the guy and start talking. I thought, “Wow, Mr. Sauley (the director) is great at being able to talk and get along with just everybody!”

After a little bit Mr. Sauley came back and told us about the guy standing over there. He said the guy’s parents came over from Russia in the 1960’s, and his dad was a punk rocker. The guy also is a punk rocker like his dad. The guy also said that his mother hates him, sadly and strangely.

So after telling us these things about the guy standing over there, Mr. Sauley asked us, “And do you know what his sign says?” We said, “What?!” It said, Thank God Mommy didn’t abort me.