Abortion issue surfaces at Palatine parade

The issue of whether to allow an anti-abortion group to carry a banner with the image of an unborn child has returned for the Palatine Jaycees.

The Jaycees denied the Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life group permission to walk in Saturday’s parade after determining the photo of a fetus they intended to display on a banner was inappropriate. They made the same decision in 2011.

Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life representatives say the ruling is unfair. In 2011, co-founder Martin Kelley called it a double standard that attempts to silence the “pro-life” community.

Jaycees spokesman Bill Pohlman noted that parade rules allow the organization to review what will be carried on the route and officials thought that the image was not right at a family event.

The Jaycees suggested a variety of substitutes as it normally does when similar issues crop up, but the PACRL members refused to consider alternatives, Pohlman said.

“It’s the Fourth of July, and we’re celebrating Palatine and our independence, not someone talking about their own agenda. We’ve got kids lined up along the side of the street; it’s not the time for their parents to have explain to them what the picture is,” he said.

“Changing the photo would defeat the whole purpose of expressing our point of view that life does begin at conception,” Kelley of Inverness told the Daily Herald in 2011. “It’s a preborn baby, not a picture of an aborted baby.”