Rally, march take aim at proposed abortion clinic

JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher

      PORTLAND — In hopes of stopping the city government from selling publicly owned property to Planned Parenthood, a new Christian activist group held a protest rally and march last month in the vicinity.
      Rev. Clenard Childress of New Jersey, a nationally known African-American pro-life activist, was featured speaker both at a special service Suinday afternoon, May 20, at Irvington Covenant Church, and then at a prayer rally several blocks away at the Planned Parenthood site. He sought to encourage the approximately 100 in attendance, who marched from the church to the property at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Beech Street.
      “It is not popular to take the position that you’ve taken, but your conscience tells you that it is right,” said Childress.
      He said only the committed action of Americans who are grieved over abortion can stop what he described as an ongoing slaughter of unborn children — a practice that he claims especially targets minorities.
     “You are the continuation of the civil rights movement,” he told his fellow protesters.
      The rally and march were organized by a new pro-life activist group, Precious Children of Portland. Its web site is www.pdxlife.org.
      The Portland Development Commission, the city’s urban renewal agency, recently voted 4-1 to approve Planned Parenthood’s relocation to the heart of the city’s African-American neighborhood. At recent hearings, the commission strongly advocated for the proposal. Commission members said the neighborhood needed the agency’s sex education programs, 140 new jobs and a new building with retail space in an otherwise blighted area.
But opponents raised strong and sometimes emotional objections to the abortions that Planned Parenthood would perform at the new facility.
      Bill Diss, a Benson High School teacher and Beaverton resident who helped organize and lead the rally, cites Planned Parenthood statistics that show an African-American woman is four times as likely as a white woman to have an abortion. He said Planned Parenthood is moving its headquarters from an area with about 1 percent African-American population to a neighborhood with about 43 percent.
      That point was not lost on Harold Burke-Sivers, a deacon at nearby Immacu-late Heart Catholic Church, who also spoke at the event.
“The most critical threat to our existence is abortion,” said Burke-Sivers, who is African-American. “If we continue to kill ourselves through this egregious abuse of our freedoms, there won’t be enough of us around for any of us to notice.”
      In its coverage of the commission decision, The Oregonian noted that while many black church leaders oppose the abortions, there are some supporting the clinic. Among them is Rev. Chuck Currie from Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in outer Northeast Portland Currie said his predecessor served on Planned Parent-hood's board and the United Church of Christ's official position is pro-choice.
      On the other hand, evangelical Christians aren’t the only religious opponents to the Planned Parenthood move. The proposed abortion clinic site is next to a Muslim community center where, Diss noted, followers of that religion pray for life. A spokesman for the Muslim center also attended the service at Irvington Covenant and termed “reprehensible” any proposal to place an abortion facility on a street named after “the great humanitarian Martin Luther King.”
      Diss noted that Alveda King, niece of the slain civil rights leader, visited Portland recently and spoke to a gathering at Benson High. According to Diss, King said her uncle would not have wanted an abortion clinic on a street named after him.
      Also speaking at the church service was Esther Riplinger of Oregon Right to Life’s “Silent No More” campaign. She told the abortion opponents that they can help women victimized by abortion to find new life through faith and compassion.
     “You can be the healthy component that we need in our communities,” she said.
In a letter to local pastors, Diss outlined his reasons for being so strongly opposed to Planned Parenthood’s efforts.
     “As a teacher in Sunday school and public schools, I love all of my children,” he wrote. “I do not want them to be harmed sexually or involved with abortion. Sexually active children are many more times likely to turn to drugs and suicide. It also hurts them later in life to bond to a spouse and raise a family.
     “I firmly believe He is calling all of Portland of every faith to help ... Are we going to help the children come to Jesus, or are we going to let the mayor, commissioners and Planned Parenthood harm our children and kill their souls?”
      Childress said the churches of America absolutely must take a strong stand against abortion, or the nation risks God’s judgment.
     “If you know anything about innocent blood, after a while, God shows up,” he said to those assembled at the church. “You are the only people that can get this nation through this.”
      The web site for Childress’ ministry is www.blackgenocide.org.