[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Federal "hate laws" targeted at pro-lifers HR 256 and 262

Tue Feb 17 12:02:05 MST 2009

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 17 Feb 2009 AD

*

http://www.rense.com/general85/hatr.htm

Where they call good evil and evil good....

*Pro-Lifers At Greater Risk From Hate Laws*
By Harmony Grant
2-17-9

All Americans should protest the "anti-hate" bills before Congress, HR 
256 and 262, which threaten our freedom of speech. But pro-lifers are 
especially at risk of arrest and censorship for "hate speech." Incidents 
in Germany and Canada-as well as recent events in our own "free" 
nation!-demonstrate the danger of hate crime laws to pro-lifers.

Last Thursday, nine college-age pro-lifers were 
<http://survivors.la/blog/index.php?id=89>arrested and jailed in Alabama 
on charges of "criminal trespass." They were giving out literature at a 
local high school, while standing on the public sidewalk! Police 
"handcuffed and arrested all nine [pro-lifers] without warning. One of 
the team members who did not assist in the distribution of literature 
was also arrested and handcuffed so tightly that it caused her to cry in 
pain police confiscated the team's video cameras and personal 
belongings, and impounded and searched the Campus Life Tour van. The 
police also asked the team members where they were staying so they could 
conduct a search in their hotel as well."

Pro-lifers fare even worse in other states. In Oakland, CA, pastor 
Walter Hoye 
<http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=418990>faces up to two 
years in jail and a $4,000 fine for carrying a sign, "Jesus Loves You. 
Can We Help?" outside an abortion clinic. He is charged with "harassment."

Police were sensitized to Hoye and other pro-lifers by California's 2004 
"anti-hate" law SB 1234. Police in California now receive hate crime 
training called "multi-mission criminal extremism." A new category has 
been added: "anti-reproductive-rights crimes." Pro-lifers are 
automatically suspect.

<http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54125>Janet 
Folger of Faith2Action writes, "If I lived in California, I have a 
feeling my picture would be found at the local post office. If you think 
killing children is wrong, they're training people against you, too."

Since pro-lifers are already persecuted under existing statutes, we can 
only imagine how the crackdown will intensify if federal "anti-hate" 
laws HR 256 and 262 are passed. Soon all American police will be trained 
to specifically target "hateful" pro-lifers, as they already do in 
California.

No Freedom for Canadian Pro-Lifers

Persecution of pro-lifers under existing statutes demonstrates the 
ferocity of public authorities to attack defenders of the unborn. As we 
have warned all along, the plight of our neighbors in Canada-where 
federal hate laws have already shattered free speech-will soon be ours 
if we don't stop these bills. In 1994, 
<http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Bill-Whatcott>Canadian 
pro-lifer Bill Whatcott spent 6 months in jail for praying on the public 
sidewalk outside an abortion clinic. In 2003, he was sentenced to 8 days 
in jail for displaying images of aborted fetuses. Police charged him 
with "criminal mischief" and "disturbing the peace." In 2004, he was 
fined $15,000 for protesting Planned Parenthood on a public sidewalk. 
His total legal debts to date in defense of these charges, and others 
stemming from criticism of homosexuality, total at least $250,000.

In Canada, as in Europe, the government, and university administrators, 
are now speech police. Toronto Sun columnist 
<http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael

_coren/2009/02/14/8389976-sun.html>Michael Coren writes of "pro-life 
clubs defunded and barred from meeting on college property in two 
universities in Ontario, pro-life stalls vandalized in Manitoba" The 
German Law Journal explains, "Although the dangers of hate speech are 
concededly abstract, they are nevertheless seen as being real enough to 
warrant management by the government, whose task in this area can be 
termed as control of the political climate [emphasis mine]." This is the 
clear intent of hate crime laws: ultimately to control whatever the 
government defines as "hate speech," thus "controlling the political 
climate"-and silencing objectors like those who fight for life.

But more on Germany later-there's even more bad news from Canada. Last 
November, students at the University of Calgary faced police 
intimidation for their campus pro-life display. The university demanded 
that their large color photographs "face inwards"-obvious censorship-and 
threatened arrest and expulsion. The students courageously erected their 
display, which was no less gory than previous displays such as of 
torture in China.

"Under the watchful eye of numerous media cameras, the university did 
not arrest the students. But two months later, the university instructed 
Calgary police to deliver summons to these same students -- privately at 
their homes, with no media present." 
<http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/02/09/john-carpay-free-speech-dies-a-slow-death-on-canadian-campuses.aspx>This 
quote comes from John Carpay, a lawyer for the students, published in 
the National Post. 
<http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090202/CGY_Trespass_

ProLife_090202/20090203/?hub=CalgaryHome>These students have been 
charged with "trespassing" on their own campus, and will appear in court 
this Feb. 27.

Also this month, in Nova Scotia, pro-life presenters at St. Mary's 
University were commanded to disband. Protestors descended on the event, 
which was called "Echoes of the Holocaust," with "chants and yells," 
disrupting the main speaker less than a minute into his speech, yelling, 
"No hate speech in our school!"

"They continued to shout until [the speaker] was forced to type on the 
projected screen in order to get his message to the audience" Campus 
security did nothing, and then an 
<http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020906.html>administrator 
told the pro-lifers to break up the meeting! 

Federal "anti-hate" laws were not even used in every case-official 
antagonism is so great that authorities used trumped-up charges of 
"harassment" and "trespassing" to persecute pro-lifers. Hate laws turn 
this antagonism into a clubbed fist because they empower the government 
to define the pro-life position itself-regardless of any action taken-as 
"hate." That makes any pro-lifer vulnerable to prosecution the moment he 
or she takes a stand.

Hate Laws in Germany

Elsewhere, federal hate laws have already shown their practically 
exponential power. In 2007 in Ireland, 
<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20070701/ai_n19342297>a 
pro-lifer was arrested for displaying "offensive" material. She was 
detained and her "display board showing photographs of abortions was 
also seized." Police showed up after just an hour of sharing leaflets 
and collecting signatures. Apparently someone found the work "offensive." 

It is terrifying that the words "offensive," "hurtful," or "hateful" 
have now become actionable legal concepts. This alone should spring 
pro-lifers into protest against hate laws. What could be more "hurtful" 
than showing an image of an aborted fetus to a woman who killed her 
child? What could be more "hateful" than stating the truth that 
abortionists kill babies?

The simple truth about this loaded issue can unsettle communities and 
hurt feelings-and that's the point of pro-life protest! Few areas of 
public debate are more threatened by hate laws.

The <http://www.germanlawjournal.com/article.php?id=225>German Law 
Journal explains the intentional vagueness of Germany's own federal 
"anti-hate" law:

Similar to applicable provisions of international law, German statutes 
specifically refrain from requiring that racist [or other politically 
incorrect] messages lead to a clear and present danger of imminent 
lawless action before becoming punishable [emphasis mine]. A distant and 
generalized threat to the public peace and to life and dignity, 
particularly of minorities, suffices for legal sanctions irrespective of 
whether and when such danger would actually manifest itselfhate speech 
is generally prohibited-it is "speech minus" or "low-value speech," even 
if it addresses issues of high political importance.

Shamelessly this journal says German laws criminalize pure speech-even 
if it doesn't incite violence! Any speech that might create a "distant 
and generalized threat to the public peacesuffices for legal sanctions!"

Germany first picked on Johannes Lerle, an outspoken Lutheran pastor few 
people will defend. In 2007, 
<http://www.kreuz.net/article.5395.html>Lerle was sentenced to one year 
in prison for a sermon comparing abortion to the Holocaust. He was 
charged with "inciting the people." According to one source, Lerle 
previously spent 8 months in jail for calling abortionists "professional 
killers." The court said that was slander since the unborn aren't 
humans, so abortionists aren't killers.

There is controversy over whether Lerle was jailed for being pro-life or 
being "anti-Semitic." Regardless, the pastor was jailed for speech, not 
a physical crime or violent act. Tragically, his association with 
"anti-Semitism" and his alleged Holocaust denial caused most American 
Christians to either fail to defend, or retract their defense, of Lerle.

Two years previously, "In 2005, a German pro-lifer, 
<http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2211>Günter Annen, was sentenced to 
50 days in jail for saying 'Stop unjust [rechtswidrige] abortions in 
[medical] practice,' because, according to the court, the expression 
'unjust' is understood by laymen as meaning illegal, which abortions are 
not."

Throughout Europe, pro-lifers face stigmatization which will eventually 
make them as detestable as Lerle the "anti-Semite." In Britain, the 
<http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090210/bbc-to-repeat-distortion-of-pro-lifers-as-terrorists/>BBC 
this month again aired a two-part drama that portrays pro-lifers as 
violent terrorists who kidnap children and lethally inject one of their 
hostages.

These incidents in Canada and Europe pose a sober warning to the 
American pro-life movement. For the last decade, our National Prayer 
Network has faithfully warned pro-lifers that they are in the crosshairs 
of "anti-hate" legislation. Yet, many seem to view white supremacists or 
critics of homosexuality as the only ones who should fear hate laws. 
Wake up!

If you believe in the sanctity of life, you must protest HR 256 and 262 
to Congress. Call 1-877-851-6437 toll free or 1-202-225-3121 toll. Also, 
alert your pro-life organization about how hate laws can persecute and 
even destroy the pro-life movement in America. 
<http://www.truthtellers.org/>Watch our recent 10-minute video, How to 
Kill the Hate Bills - and take action.

We must rescue the lives of women and helpless, innocent babies from 
abortion. But pro-lifers must also save the freedom of the living. 
Otherwise, we will have no voice left to speak for the unborn.

Visit the Blog: www.dispel-the-illusion.blogspot.com 
<http://www.dispel-the-illusion.blogspot.com>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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