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Open House Protst Opens Eyes, Ruffles PP Feathers

Planned Parenthood of Maryland got a lot of free publicity for its May 2 open house at its new headquarters in Baltimore, but not the kind it wanted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Baltimore’s newest killing chamber!  Right here in the center of your city, hundreds of babies are being aborted every week,” Aaron Kaplan announced over a bullhorn.

Kaplan, a Johns Hopkins University freshman, was part of a 15-member group of Defend Lifers drawing attention to Planned Parenthood’s headquarters move from 610 North Howard Street to 330 North Howard Street.

As guests streamed into the Sunday afternoon open house, Defend Lifers displayed large posters of second- and third-trimester aborted babies and handed out fliers to motorists along adjacent, heavily trafficked Mulberry Street.

“We don’t want to be here, but we have to show the truth, because no one else is willing to,” Kaplan called out over the bullhorn.

“Look with your own eyes on the truth, for your eyes will not deceive you.  Even here in the United States, Nazism thrives, fifty years after our American soldiers tried to eliminate it--the indiscriminate killing of innocent lives.”

Aaron’s reference to the Jewish holocaust was especially poignant because his grandfather was a survivor of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

The reaction of passersby was overwhelmingly positive, he said:  “Some people actually parked their cars and helped us hold the signs.” Cookie Harris, who handed out “Let’s Face the Truth About Planned Parenthood” fliers to motorists, agreed.

“People were so positive!” she said.  “They were reaching out of their car windows to get the fliers, and they thanked me for them.”

Passersby who saw the posters of aborted babies were shocked; “They looked at them with their jaws hanging and their hands over their mouths,” said Cookie.

Defend Life Director Jack Ames, who was with a group holding signs along Mulberry Street, noticed that a lot of the passing cars held families, apparently on their way home from church.

“Their reactions were fantastic!  There were these incredible looks

of disbelief.  A lot of eyes were opened” about the reality of abortion, he said.

Planned Parenthood operatives and supporters reacted to the unexpected demonstration quite differently.

“Those going into the open house mostly ignored us, but some taunted us,” said Aaron.

When one passerby joined in the demonstration and held a sign about 15 feet from the door, Planned Parenthood officials threatened to have him arrested.

Planned Parenthood President and CEO John Nugent, a former Jesuit seminarian, warned Ames not to block the door.

“You could see the hatred in his eyes,” said Jack.

The Sun’s David Nitkin and Michael Dresser penned a May 4 column centering on an allegation by Planned Parenthood board chairman Daniel Clements that Mrs. Harris had transgressed all bounds of human decency by organizing the demonstration after learning of the open house through an invitation sent to her husband, State Sen. Andy Harris.

Ames, who, along with Cookie, said they learned of the open house elsewhere, noted with satisfaction that The Sun, for the first time in 17 years, mentioned Defend Life by name.

“As [pro-life leader] Joe Scheidler says, any publicity is good publicity,” he said.

“We definitely made people aware of this new site in their neighborhood,” said Kaplan.  

“The demonstration and signs probably reinforced the convictions of people who were already pro-life.  But I also think there were people who were converted by the photos.”