THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 23, 1995 TAG: 9501230071
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
On the 22nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, people on both sides of the debate demonstrated Sunday outside the Hillcrest Clinic.
Yet, while the clinic - intended target of a gunman's bullets just three weeks ago - has become prominent in the increasingly violent national debate, Sunday's demonstrations were low-key. Each side basically staked out its turf and voiced its views, passionately but peacefully.
``Pro-Life is a lie, they don't care if women die,'' a group of mostly teenage abortion-rights advocates chanted as they stood at one end of the well-worn strip cut in the grass by abortion protesters every week.
At the other end, some of the feet that have helped cut that path were at it again. With them, anti-abortion leader Donald Spitz, armed with a bullhorn ``Stop the killing . . . the babies want to live,'' he shouted at the building. Then, turning toward his youthful opponents, ``Turn from your wicked sins and come to Jesus.''
Just to insure that both sides kept it peaceful, about a half-dozen marked and unmarked police units were at the clinic, on the 1600 block of E. Little Creek Road.
``What we try to do is let you have your say and let them have their say with no violence,'' Officer R. McNeil told the young demonstrators as he cautioned them about where they could and could not walk.
About 15 to 20 people turned out for each side.
``People are literally afraid to walk on this sidewalk and use their First Amendment, free-speech rights,'' said anti-abortion activist Darlene Donnelly, 37, of Norfolk. ``People are afraid of being arrested,'' she said, explaining the small turnout.
The teenagers scored one small victory over their opponents. When Spitz used his bullhorn, two youths questioned whether it was legal. Police said it wasn't and warned Spitz that he could not use any ``sound amplification.''
Spitz complied without argument. The youths shared high-fives and grinned.
As testament to how long this battle has been waged, there was an informal passing of the torch Sunday as Judy Tazewell - who has often demonstrated in support of a woman's right to choose - watched quietly from the seat of a van as her daughter took up her place in the protest.
``Among my friends there is a lot of agreement'' on the abortion issue, said Tazewell's daughter, Amanda Stephens, 18. ``But in my school there is a lot of confrontation, especially with the results of the last election.''
Stephens, a senior at Maury High School in Norfolk, carried a handwritten sign: ``If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a baby?''
Her mom said she was proud, both that her daughter was interested in social issues and that she had taken up the pro-choice cause.
``I'm tickled that we have agreement on so many issues,'' Tazewell said.
Corey O'Hern, 16, helped organize the abortion-rights advocates, calling his connections within other movements, including animal protection causes. He said it gave voice to people who are forgotten in the rhetoric of the two extremes in the divisive debate.
``Extremists on one side are blowing up clinics and killing people,'' said O'Hern, a junior at Kellam High School in Virginia Beach. ``And some pro-choice people are really militant, too.''
O'Hern said not enough people understand the meaning of Roe vs. Wade, in which the Supreme Court ruled that states could not forbid women from having an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. He also said he wants to organize a group to promote reproductive rights.
The pro-choice contingent was actually welcomed by one of Hampton Road's most tireless anti-abortion protesters.
``As long as abortion clinics look like armed camps with protesters and police cars . . . it doesn't make abortion look safe and easy,'' said Lillian M. Rogers, 37, of Suffolk. ``We don't want abortion to be considered normal and business as usual.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
Norfolk Police Officer R. McNeil cautions demonstrators about where
they can and can't walk outside the Hillcrest Clinic on Sunday.
Corey O'Hern, 16, right, helped organize the abortion-rights
advocates.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION DEMONSTRATION ABORTION CLINIC PRO-CHOICE
PRO-LIFE by CNB