Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993 TAG: 9301300116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ABORTION FOES TAKE OUT AN AD
An anti-abortion group plans to publish Sunday the signatures of 1,900 Lynchburg-area residents who want Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge to abandon plans to establish a clinic in the Central Virginia city.The Lynchburg chapter of the Virginia Society for Human Life purchased two full pages in the city's daily newspaper, the News & Advance.
"Our goal was to gather about 1,000 names, but just within the last several days it has snowballed," said Kathryn Shaw, chairman of the city's society chapter.
Shaw said the canvassing effort was designed to show Planned Parenthood that its pro-abortion-rights stand would not fly among the citizens of Lynchburg.
"It is definitely abortion. That is what people are objecting to," said Shaw. "They [Planned Parenthood] are no longer the family planning organization that they once The canvassing effort was designed to show Planned Parenthood its pro-abortion-rights stand would not fly among the citizens of Lynchburg. were. They are the main promoters of abortion in this country."
Kathryn Haynie, executive director of the Roanoke-based Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, said Friday the group is considering establishing a center in Lynchburg only because some residents have requested it.
The Blue Ridge organization services an area that extends north to Staunton and Charlottesville and south into the New River Valley. The Lynchburg facility would be a similar to clinics operated by the Blue Ridge chapter in Blacksburg and Charlottesville.
"We have been responsive to an invitation extended by a very significant number of people in Lynchburg to work toward establishing a Planned Parenthood center there," Haynie said. The main focus would be on family planning and sex education.
Haynie claimed a "very small and shrill minority," including the society and some right-wing fundamentalist leaders, are behind the effort to quash the center.
"If they think a group of signatures is going to keep Planned Parenthood out of Lynchburg . . .," she said. "It's not Planned Parenthood wanting to come to Lynchburg, it's Lynchburg asking Planned Parenthood to come work with it."
Haynie said Planned Parenthood does not perform abortions at its Roanoke clinic and has no plans to do so in Lynchburg if a center opens there.
Shaw said the signatures that will run in Sunday's newspaper reflect a cross section of the community who are opposed to Planned Parenthood's stand on abortion and its support of the Freedom of Choice Act in Congress.
"We have people from all walks of life," she said. "We have politicians that have signed; we have professionals, academics, people who would be recognized as leaders in the business community."
Shaw declined to reveal any names until the ad appears.
Those who agreed to have their names appear in the two-page advertisement made an average $3 donation to defray its cost, she said. A full-page ad in the Lynchburg paper costs $2,958 daily and $3,084 on Sundays.
The newspaper's executive editor, William Cline, said the abortion issue has been debated widely in the community.
"It has certainly been an issue of point-counterpoint on our editorial pages," said Cline. "And we have written stories as well."
Haynie said the canvass by the Society for Human Life follows Planned Parenthood's own signature drive in November. Planned Parenthood took out a similar advertisement shortly before the Nov. 3 election "reminding people about choice and reproductive issues."
"It can't do anything but help us," said Haynie. "The fact of the matter is that Lynchburg is as pro-choice as any other community in Virginia."
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.