Last Thursday, anti-abortion advocates protested at Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville, Maryland. The protestors, who carried signs displaying the picture, phone number, and full name of a sixth grader’s father, who rents a condo to the Germantown Reproductive Health clinic, have been trying to shut down the Reproductive Health Services clinic since December, when Dr. Leroy Carhart began performing later term abortions there. The signs labeled the girl’s dad “a baby killer.”
The condo owner, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect the safety of his children, told the Washington Post, “It’s horribly outrageous that they’re going out in front of a middle school. It is way crossing the line. I very much respect the right of the protestors to do so in front of the clinic, or the steps of Capitol Hill, or the courthouse. But in front of a middle school is really not an appropriate place to do anything except protest for better teacher wages or the school budget.”
In August, about 100 anti-abortion protestors launched of week of morning protests, called the Summer of Mercy, outside the Reproductive Health Services clinic, and previously, two anti-abortion groups began renting the condo across the parking lot from the clinic to open a “counseling center.” Some groups have focused on this clinic since Dr. Carhart, who worked with the late Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, announced that he would be performing abortions there.
The Reproductive Health Services clinic offers comprehensive family planning, male sexual health care, education programs, and abortion services, including specialized care in late abortion cases.
Dcist.com 9/13/11; Washington Post 9/12/11; Feminist Daily Newswire 8/1/11, 4/1/11, 12/6/10
