Abortion: August 2007 Archives

BY MIKE CETERA

It may have gotten overlooked with the state budget battle still raging, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a bill into law Tuesday that allows for public funding of stem cell research, including controversial embryonic stem cells.

The plan would award grants to scientists and allow "therapeutic cloning" for cell research. The full text of the bill can be found here.

Local bill sponsors include House Minority Leader Tom Cross, Rep. Patricia Reid Lindner and Sen. Linda Holmes.

BY DAVE PARRO

*** UPDATED Aug. 17

The battle over the Aurora Planned Parenthood clinic will escalate tonight as the pro-lifers hold a press conference and rally and pro-choice supporters protest the protesters and show support for the facility.

There's been no shortage of debate over the far East Side clinic, but the public displays have been relatively timid so far in the form of an ongoing prayer vigil. That's likely to change as the two sides come face to face at the Prisco Community Center.

The police will have an increased presence there as a precaution, but hopefully the situation doesn't get out of control.

BY MIKE CETERA

Aurora resident Al Signorelli asks an important, if somewhat loaded, question in comparing the response to Planned Parenthood's new clinic with how the community responds to violence: When will residents show the same passion and become outraged when a young man or woman is slain?

From Signorelli's call to OpenLine:

While (abortion) always elicits passion on both sides, it totally amazes me that crime and violence, our safety, and most importantly that of our children, does not. Where are the protesters when the bullets are flying and people are killed on our streets? What about those lives? Where is the outrage?

TRAVIS HAUGHTON / BEACON NEWS
A 40-day vigil organized by Our Lady of Mercy Church started Thursday
in front of the new Planned Parenthood clinic in Aurora.

BY DAVE PARRO

A 40-day vigil started today outside a Planned Parenthood facility on the far East Side of Aurora that is scheduled to open next month. So far, the protesters have been praying, sprinkling blessed salt on the grounds and quietly demonstrating on Oakhurst Drive.

There are very few protest signs out there today, and none of them show graphic pictures of aborted babies. It has been civil so far, but there are also no workers or clients to confront yet because the clinic hasn't opened its doors.

These pickets are certainly protected as free speech, but is there a most effective way to protest abortion and the clinics that provide it?