Those who would engage in such despicable tactics serve to harm their cause and deserve no support. I would emphasize that they are subjecting not only adults, but impressionable children to such gruesome images on public thoroughfares. If these protesters feel that their presence on the street can influence others and wish to carry signs such as the one pictured in this story, few would seek to deny them that right. Their viewpoint can be conveyed without forcing passersby to look at depictions that are a form of obscenity.

The protesters would purport to have the highest regard for human life, yet they demonstrate none for the human beings that do not wish to view their posters, telling us, "What we want to show you is going to be thrust in your face whether you like it or not."

Sex is thrust in my face everyday on TV, magazine ads, bus ads etc. It is tiresome but men love it. They never seem to tire of a 1/2 naked women. Umm - why are there never 1/2 naked men? So, this group has a sign of a baby - big deal. What if your Mother chose to have an abortion? You wouldnt be able to express your comment today! Many Americans feel the same way as Joan Newman. So be it!!

Those people are Bible thumping lunatics. They scare me.

These people do not really care about children. They only want to impose their will on others. Once a child is born they obviously couldn't care less what happens to that child.

Well, all you haters.... abortion is an abomination and if it's hard to look at, well, so be it. It's a nasty truth of our society. If you support abortion, take a good look at that mutilated baby; you contribute to the horror with your support or silence.

Abortion is murder. While I agree this is extreme, but they are well within their rights to do this.

Do we think abortion is just some philosophical debate to have over cocktails at "the Club"? We should just sit sipping Cosmopolitans or extra dirty martinis and espouse "a woman's right to choose?" Abortion is the taking of a life, with real and ugly consequences. I'll respect your right to support it without resorting to calling you a murderer, but respect my right to oppose it without resorting to calling me a "Bible-thumping lunatic." And whichever side you're on, you need to acknowledge the realities of abortion.

Science decrees human life begins at conception and unborn baby is separate human being it is not the mothers body. Prochoice people do not want to acknowledge they are killing & don't want to see the reality of their view! They need to see what abortion really is! The killing of innocents!

I respect your right against a portion but that does not give you the right to thrust obscene signs in a public place where toddlers and young children have no choice but to see such obscenities. Spare me the BS of explaining the sign to them.

In addition, those women who have had to have abortions due to miscarriage don't deserve to have those memories brought back up because you want to make a point with your stupid shock factor signs. I actually agree with Oren on this one and if they had the pro life signs out there then I wouldn't care if they were out there 24/7.

There's a special place I wish these people and the Westboro baptist church would go.

I believe in free speech and these people have the right to do what they are doing. However, lets not make them out to be the angels they claim to be who care so much about children and human life. It's pretty apparent that they do care so much about the children riding by to whom they are exposing these gruesome images. They also do not care much for the mothers since they have no interest in the reasons behind why a woman would make the heart wrenching decision to have an abortion. Many people on this side of the issue don't even support abortions in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother. What about after the baby is born? Do the people holding these signs plan on taking the young mother in and financially supporting her and her child? Paying her medical expenses? Putting her child through college? I am pro choice. This does not mean that I am "pro" abortion. I do not think there is a person on this planet that is "pro" abortion. I personally do not believe I would ever have an abortion, but I do not believe it is my right, nor the government's right to make that most personal, life altering, and gut wrenching decision for another woman.

I can appreciate the sentiments expressed regarding the protection of children who would see these signs (my own children included). But then let's also demonstrate the same level of indignation and concern for the other disturbing images those same children are subjected to in our society in other settings: "F&^K Cleveland" on t-shirts being worn to Steeler Football games; obscene lyrics in music; Hollywood "stars" whose only talent is displaying various parts of their bodies in an attempt to one-up each other. And for the poster who opined "I do not think there is a person on this planet that is "pro" abortion": I beg to differ. At a minimum, every woman who has had abortion to terminate an unplanned pregnancy, or used it as the final method of birth control is most definitely "pro-abortion."

I wonder what Ms Newman thinks about contraception?

Well Bryan, you are concerned about your toddler and Ms. Newman and her group are concerned about the baby being killed. You both feel strongly. And I can see both
sides. My daughters were 7 and 5 the first time we drove by protesters with similar signs standing at the corner of Rt. 19 and Ft. Couch Road. And they asked me what they were and I had to explain in what I, as their parent, felt was an age appropriate way. But I have to say, observing as you so eloquently did in your first post that "there's a special place" for these people and the WBC really doesn't further intelligent discourse on this very emotional and heated topic.

50 million babies have lost their lives to abortion in America since Rowe v Wade. Who speaks for them, if not those who are unafraid to denouce this horror ? In the past century we have seen millions of lives snuffed out and not much denunciation or action. The Supreme Court has decided that a "privacy" right not found in the Constitution trumps the lives of innocent children. Who speaks for those who cannot, except brave people unafraid of radical criticism?

We live in a culture where TRUTH is becoming extinct and deception is becoming the norm. I am the father of a beautiful 9 year old daughter who has Down syndrome and currently 90%+ of these precious children are being identified, targeted and eliminated prenatally. My daughter Chloe has planted more positive seeds and brought more Light into the world in 9 years than most people do in a lifetime http://chloesmessage.blogspot.com/ . As genetic testing rapidly advances we need to ask the question "Who is next to be terminated in this silent eugenic movement?" What if prenatal genetic codes for autism, depression, ADHD, obesity, homosexuality (and the list goes on) are discovered and used to prenatally eliminate more individuals labeled "defective" by a culture obsessed with misguided perfection? The issue is nonpolitical and has to do with our most precious resource - Human Life. If my daughter was a field rat with a 90% termination rate the international community would be outraged. We CANNOT afford to lose individuals like my Chloe or anyone else on the list. TRUTH and LIGHT are very threatening to darkness.

As a member of the Face The Truth campaign I can tell you dozens of positive stories about babies saved from the horror of being dismembered, dissected, and brutalized by an abortion procedure. Their mothers were planning an abortion, saw the TRUTH about abortion, listened to our message and their child was saved. They stop their cars, wind down their windows and show us their precious children in the back seat. They are so grateful that we were there and they thank us over and over. It doesn't matter to us how many people hate us or call us names or are angry, what matters is the lives of those children that are saved.

Bryan, by the way, I have had a miscarriage and a still birth. i am well aware of those situations. When a miscarried baby is removed from the mother's womb he/she has already died. An aborted baby is very much alive, heart is beating, he/she starts moving spontaneously, • The pancreas is functioning and producing insulin, • Fingernails and toenails have appeared, The baby can suck his/her thumb and get hiccups.. Instead of being of afraid of people like Bob, Joan and I, please be afraid of what is going to happen to a nation who has lost it's soul so completely that killing this defenseless child can be legal and sanctioned by so many citizens.

@wake-up. Thank you for your comments. We do have facilities to help pregnant woman. As well these centers help counsel couples on appropriate ways of avoiding pregnancy....it is called chastity. If you engage in behavior created for procreation then procreate you will. Many methods of 'contraception" are abusive, risky and/or Injurious to the health of the woman. For example; many woman have been on birth control pills for years. It has been scientifically proven that they are one of the leading causes of breast cancer. http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/kah/kah_20ebookbreastcancer.html
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/kah/kah_19breastcancerpill.html
We cannot possibly deal with all the complexities of this issue in a forum. A thought to consider: Realize each abortion stops a beating heart and ends the life of a small defenseless human being. We all suffer for such a horrible injustice

@everyone who commented on the signs. We show the signs because pictures are worth a thousand words. They are the TRUTH!

@pavitalady.....The TRUTH is that if you want people to get your point....don't show a picture of an aborted fetus....show a picture of an 85 year old woman's private area

It is bad enough that we, as adults, have to be subjected to those aweful posters but I am more angered by the fact that our young grandchildren have to be subjected to seeing them. There are other ways to get your point across, without making young, innnocent children (in their parents vehicles), have to look at them. You are not helping your cause by doing this!! AND I totally agree with Oren on this one.

Larry,
Do impressionable children, the young ages of 3-7 or even 8, have to be exposed to such a violent photo/situation along the steets of their city? I think NOT.... there is plenty of time to teach them, whatever your opinion is on abortion, at a later age, when they can understand the outcome of that decision. YOU try to explain to a young child what those pictures are saying. AND..... we have no idea how many of those young children may have nightmares because of someones idea of freedom of speech.

PghPatti,

If you ... did not ... agree to kill children.

You ... would not ... have to explain "it" to your children.

You actually think it is OK to kill children? your answer is _____?

Go ahead tell them what the "grown-ups" are doing to their, once potential ,

playmates. How would that go? "Oh that's OK sweetie,we're just going to kill fifty

or sixty million of them for a few years". "I'm only looking out for you sweetie; so

you will not have to share our food, jobs, money, mates with these children.

Nobody wants "them" anyway . Aborting a live [ fetus,baby,person,human,child ]

is not "choice" it is Death by Murder. What do you tell your children that abortion is?

Might they say " what does the baby think about that? " If they have a pet that has

baby's that "nobody wants" will you show your children how to kill their pets'

children? Too graphic for you,your children? Life is that way. Death is not life.

In the past 40+ years the pro-life volunteers have had their children on their hips, in their strollers or walking beside them as we held our signs. The children understand, apparently better than some adults, that someone "broke" the baby. It makes them sad and determined that their generation will stop this holocaust.

Why don't they go show the signs where abortions are being done!

We do. A facility that does abortions is Planned Parenthood on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh. They commit their acts on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. We are there on those days. As well we are there everyday during our 40 Days for Life campaigns. They take place in the Spring (one going on right now) and in the fall. The two abortion facilities in East Liberty have closed. When they were killing children we were there as well.