Graphic anti-abortion protest garners complaints
The graphic anti-abortion demonstration on Arlington Heights Road near Rand and Palatine roads for 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon generated at least 50 complaint calls to Arlington Heights Village Hall and the police department.
The Pro-Life Action League uses blown-up pictures of aborted fetuses, part of what organizers the Face the Truth Tour.
The group is engaging in eight days of picketing - they will be in Aurora and Naperville Saturday and were also in Palatine and Lake Zurich Wednesday.
Calls from people who had driven by the protest came in for at least an hour, said Diane Staggs, administrative assistant in the village manager's office. Most were upset their children had to see the pictures, she said.
Karen Zarcone, a clerk at the Shell gas station at Arlington Heights and Rand roads, said protesters were on all four corners Wednesday afternoon.
"I told them I would appreciate if I didn't have to see an aborted fetus when I come out to check the pumps," Zarcone said. "It was hurting business. Nobody wanted to pull up here."
The Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center had notified Arlington Heights police of the picketing, noting that their First Amendment right to do so has been upheld three times by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Capt. Nicholas Pecora.
The picket was largely uneventful, except one of the demonstrators said he was pushed by an irate man. Police were unable to locate the suspect, Pecora said.
Signs warning drivers that graphic images are ahead are posted, in time for drivers to turn away before children in the cars might see the pictures, said Ann Scheidler, the league's vice president.
"This is what happens 4,000 times a day every day in the United States," she said. "Children are growing up in a culture that does not value life."
The idea is to convince women driving by that they do not want to have an abortion now or in the future, she said.
Saturday's picket schedule is 9-10:30 a.m. at Planned Parenthood, Eola Road and New York Street, Aurora; 11:30 a.m.- 1 p.m. at Washington Street and Ogden Avenue, Naperville; and 3-4:30 p.m. at Fox Valley Mall, Aurora.
• Staff writer Chris Placek contributed to this report.