The Washington Times
October 29, 1996

Abortion sides find Common Ground
Familiarity used to end contempt

By Joyce Price
The Washington Times

For years, much of the communication between activists on both sides of the abortion issue was limited to screaming and shoving matches outside abortion clinics.

But Saturday the two sides met at American University to discuss limits on abortion activism where they could agree on the issue.

"It's much easier to scream at a total stranger than someone you've talked to for several hours and come to understand," said pro-choicer David Sobelsohn of Southwest Washington, who escorts patients and physicians into abortion clinics.

Mr. Sobelsohn and other members of the 2-year old group Common Ground of the nation's Capital are part of the national Common Ground Network for Life and Choice.

It is a project of Search for Common Ground, an independent nonprofit organization that helps both sides of the abortion issue search for workable solutions.

"It's fair to say we don't agree on RU-486," an abortion pill, Mr. Sobelsohn said during a break in the meeting, attended by nine members of the local Common Ground group and three staffers for its parent network. "But we're moving toward agreement on some things.

"Most of us feel that the methods of protesting abortion that have no effect are unacceptable. If it doesn't reduce the number of abortions, why do it?"

Pro-lifers differ as to what constitutes proper and improper protest activism. John Cavanaugh-O'Keefe, a pro-life advocate from Laytonsville, raised some eyebrows as he described picketing the home of a Maryland doctor that performs abortions.

That concerned Frederica Mathewes-Green, a pro-lifer from Baltimore. "When John talked about picketing the doctor's residence, I sort of cringed, she said. "I sometimes feel I don't quite fit the mold."

Mr. Cavanaugh-O'Keefe acknowledged having qualms about the picketing but he said he thought it was warranted so that the doctor's neighbors would learn about his practice.

"I don't like it. I really feel mixed about it," he said, but the doctor "stopped doing late-term abortions…and I think the way we did it was good, and I'll do it again."

Chris Currie, a pro-lifer from Washington, said the media wrongly portray the pro-life community as monolithic. "But on this issue, there has to be a lot of dialogue among pro-lifers themselves on what are acceptable limits of activism," he said.

"We're often very reluctant to engage in actions we'd prefer not to engage in. There were things I felt uncomfortable doing. I would have liked to have walked away from them, but I couldn't. My conscience wouldn't let me."

He said that some pro-lifers operate on the "justice principle" meaning they believe they can "engage in some violent activities to prevent more serious violence from occuring," namely, abortion.

Mr. Cavanaugh-O'Keefe said that he opposes "all violent" tactics and any approach that's disrespectful to another person." From a list of clinic protest strategies discussed at the meeting, he cited firebombing and gluing shut clinic doors as unacceptable.

"Operation Rescue said people should be nonviolent, but it's crystal clear that their 1989 definition meant to them, ‘I won't hit anybody today,' " he said.

Mary Haggerty of Frederick, Md., said she took part in an Operation Rescue-sponsored blockade of a greenbelt abortion clinic six years ago but found it an unpleasant experience.

"For me, all abortions are very violent, and I saw violence outside the clinic to be a lesser violence, so that was the justification for me to participate," Mrs Haggerty said. She and other protesters were arrested for blocking clinic entrances.

"After being escorted to the police station, I felt very uncomfortable that some pro-lifers continued to give problems to the police. That dissuaded me from getting involved in that group," she said. She later organized a 2,000-person "life chain" along a road in Frederick.

Mr. Sobelsohn said that noisy, violent protests can harm pregnant women by causing them to have spontaneous miscarriages.

He and Liz Joyce, a pro-choicer from Silver Spring, said pro-life activists too often leave the interests and concerns of the pregnant woman out of the equation in their quest to save an unborn baby.

"Both groups would like to reduce the number of abortions," Mrs. Joyce said.

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