Cross posted at:
Ms. Magazine Blogs, The Smeal Report
As of Thursday, July 20th, the anti-abortion wingnut group Operation Save America headed by looney-tunes Flip "the Flipper" Benham, has pretty much managed to offend anyone and everyone in Jackson Mississippi.
Pro-choicers
Gays
The Constitution
The Supreme Court
Churches
Schools
Medical Centers
The Police Department
Hospitals
The Press - Clarion-Ledger
...in other words, anyone within earshot.
Norma McCorvey ("Roe" in Roe v. Wade) lit the ceremonial match at an Evangelical church to burn a Koran, a gay flag, copies of Supreme Court decisions they don't like, and BURN THEIR BRIDGES.
Tomorrow, they will picket a Jewish Temple.
The news of their 8-day occupation of Jackson is now so irrelevant that it wasn't even on the frontpage of the local newspaper's website this morning. I had to dig through the Metro section to find any mention of it. And, the national press has largely ignored them.
This morning, Flip and his 50-person contingent harassed the clinic for a while. The patients had already been seen and discharged BEFORE they got there.
Now, let's talk about these 50 people. At least 20 of them are relatives of Flip, who have no choice but to follow him around. The other 30 are comprised of alot of grubby looking middle aged white men and some young kids. These numbers are really pathetic. In previous Summer Invasions staged by Flip and OSA, they have been able to draw in the hundreds. This is really a fiasco for them as they roam around town looking for innocent targets to harass.
This afternoon they held a memorial for a "traveling fetus" in the park near the Capitol. The Clarion-Ledger story is here.
It just gets more bizzaro and more bizzaro each day.
This past Tuesday, the anti-abortionists lost in court in their attempt to get a TRO against the Jackson police:
A federal judge Tuesday denied anti-abortion protesters' request for a temporary restraining order against the Jackson Police Department for alleged First Amendment violations.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge William Barbour Jr. came on the fourth of eight days of planned rallies by Operation Save America, a national anti-abortion group, aimed at shutting down the state's last abortion clinic in the capital city.
The anti-abortion demonstrators also destroyed a Koran and gay flag. Story is here.
The day ended relatively quietly in contrast to the prior two days that netted 14 arrests of anti-abortion protesters.
There's really nothing much to say about Wednesday. The clinic saw patients, there were a few protesters, and the rains came down mid-afternoon and ran them off. They also spread out their protests throughout the city, thus totally aggravating the entire town. They even picketed a high school.
The situation can be summed up in this Clarion Ledger article HERE.