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		Points of View Bill Fink April 30, 2002 Guest Column and Photos © 2002 Bill Fink Published with Permission

Planned Parenthood Protester Profile

HOUGHTON -- What motivates a person to display graphic signs of aborted fetuses during Houghton's traffic rush? Here is what I learned when interviewing one of these anti-Planned Parenthood protesters.

Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles on anti-Planned Parenthood protesters by Keweenaw Now guest columnist Bill Fink. See below for related articles in the Michigan Tech Lode and the State News of Michigan State University. The Daily Mining Gazette reported on Monday, April 29, 2002, that the Michigan Senate is scheduled to take up a bill (passed by the Michigan House of Representatives in December) on state funding for family planning services.

Erik Niemela, 21, of Chassell, displays a graphic anti-abortion sign to traffic crossing the Portage Lake Lift Bridge on Feb. 8, 2002. (Photo copyright 2002, Bill Fink Communications)

1. What is your name? Erik Niemela.
    
2. How old are you? 21.
    
3. Where do you live? Chassell.
    
4. What church, temple or mosque do you attend? I don’t think that’s relevant.
    
5. Are you here today as an official representative of that congregation? No.
    
6. Why is it important to you that women not have the freedom to make their own reproductive health decisions? Because God is the only person who has the right to give and take life. [And how does that relate to women’s reproductive health decisions?] Because this is murder. [Ok, "that" being abortion is murder?] Right.

Erik Niemela, 21, of Chassell, stands with his abortion protest sign at the south end of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge on Friday afternoon, February 8, 2002. (Photo copyright 2002, Bill Fink Communications)

7. What do you hope to accomplish by being here today? The reason we show these signs is so people will know what a child looks like after an abortionist has finished with it.
    
8. Why is it important to you that such graphic signs accompany your protest? Because, like I said, it’s important that people know what a child looks like after an abortionist has finished with it.
    
9. What would you like to say to the parents passing by, as they try to explain to their own children in the car, about what these signs show and why people would want children to see them? It’s important for children to know that this is wrong, and I think that if the children ask, "What are those?" it should be very simple to say, "That’s a child and someone murdered it."
    
10. How do you, in your personal life, assure that children, born into family situations where they are not wanted, are protected from abuse and neglect? [pause] I guess [pause] [No answer? No response?] Basically, I guess that’s [trailed off].
     
11. Aside from issues involving abortion, how do you feel about the other reproductive health and family planning services provided by Planned Parenthood? My opinion is that Planned Parenthood doesn’t do a whole lot of good at all. First of all, what you refer to as sexual activity and such, is only to be between a man and a woman that are married to each other. Anything else is fornication or adultery. And furthermore, as far as birth control measures, again I would say that God is the only one. He knows how many children he wants to give to a person. And for myself, I’m not married, but if I was, I would think that God would far better know how to plan my family than I ever could.

Editor's Note: See links below to articles in the Michigan Tech Lode concerning the anti-Planned Parenthood protests as well as an editorial on women's right to free choice. Links to a January 8, 2002, article in the State News of Michigan State University and to the April 29, 2002, Daily Mining Gazette article follow. "What's in a sign?" (MTU Lode, April 23, 2002)   "Planned Pickets follow PP" (MTU Lode, April 17, 2002)   "Pledge-A-Picket campaign to make money off protesters" (MTU Lode, March 20, 2002)   "Abortion should be a woman's right" (MTU Lode, April 24, 2002)   "Planned Parenthood faces funding cutbacks" (MSU's State News article of Jan. 8, 2002, on bill passed in Michigan House last December)   "Family planning bill before Senate legislation" (Daily Mining Gazette, April 29, 2002)

Learn more about the author of this guest column, Bill Fink.

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Note: Views expressed by our guest columnists are not necessarily the views of Keweenaw Now.