Back to the August 2004 Newsletter Index

McLeod Protest Causes Uproar

Tensions ran high on July 17 as approximately 40 pro-lifers protested against mega-abortionist Earl McLeod outside his upscale Bethesda neighborhood of Bannockburn, and his neighbors loudly protested against the protesters.

Demonstrators holding large posters, some detailing McLeod’s record of killing 150,000 to 200,000 unborn babies, others with graphic photos of aborted babies, lined the median strip and shoulders of River Road, adjacent to Bannockburn.

Pro-lifers also distributed fliers in the neighborhood, asking residents to urge their neighbor, McLeod, to stop committing abortions.

Both the fliers and a mailing to all 350 residents five days earlier recalled Bannockburn residents’ “proud heritage”:  their active support, back in 1960, of demonstrators against segregation in nearby Glen Echo amusement park.

The fliers and letters asked residents to once again join the fight for human rights—this time, for the most basic right, the right to life.

But the protesters’ appeals fell, for the most part, on hostile ears.  

Although many passing truckers pulled their air horns in support of the pro-lifers and a few other drivers gave the thumbs-up sign, angry Bannockburn residents called police with a variety of complaints.

The arriving police at first told pro-lifers on the median strip that they could not walk out onto the roadway to hand fliers to passing motorists, then ordered them off the median altogether.

“They say we have to get off for safety reasons,” said John Keck, as he walked off the median with his sign.  “But we’ve been out here for months.”

The July 17 demonstration was the fourth at Bannockburn since March.

The police cited Section 21-1113 of The Maryland Vehicle Law, which states, “A person may not place any structure, building or vehicle on a highway to sell or display any produce or merchandise if it constitutes a traffic hazard.”

“I think it’s a stretch” to say that that section if applicable, commented Defend Life Director Jack Ames.

While protesters on the median strip moved onto the side of the highway, pro-lifers holding signs at the Nevis Road entrance to Bannockburn bore the brunt of the residents’ ire.

To a driver going into Bannockburn who shouted, “Get out of our neighborhood!”  Anthony Sheehan shouted back, “Get the abortionist out of your neighborhood and so will we!

“If it was a neo-Nazi in their neighborhood, they wouldn’t tolerate him for long,” Sheehan muttered.

“Go home!  Go home!” yelled a woman in a red convertible with her daughter.

“We are home,” Kevin Davis replied; “it’s called America.”

One resident parked his silver Mercedes convertible on an access road and lashed out against Missy Smith and Janet Baker for showing pictures of aborted babies, calling the two women obscene names.

When they explained their objections to McLeod’s activities, he countered, “It’s all right to kill them; they’re not human beings.  I’m proud of him!”

Another resident, standing out on his lawn, walked over and gravely told the man, “I live here.  They have a right to be here.  Don’t call them names.”

Missy, who is coordinating the protests, explained later that she is taking her cue from the tactics of Troy Newman, whose group, Operation Rescue West, has succeeded in getting two office managers and a nurse to resign from the Wichita, Kansas, abortion mill of notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller.

“People are not proud of doing abortions or being involved in them, so shaming them and publicly rebuking them is very effective,” said Missy, noting that Newman has called 2004 “The Year of the Rebuke.”

“Our objective is to get people thinking; they’re reacting strongly,” she said.

“We’re getting under their skin, that’s for sure,” Ames agreed.  “As flawed as their reactions are, we’re touching nerves—much more so than we did the first time.  I think it’s a good thing.”