ARTICLES

Neighborhood Pickets

ONE ABORTIONIST GONE, THE OTHER DEFENDED

On January 22, the 26th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, the California Life Coalition and Operation Rescue West cosponsored a candlelight vigil on the sidewalk in front of Family Planning Associates abortion clinic in La Mesa; more than 100 participants showed up. The following day these groups scheduled a morning of prayer, picketing, and sidewalk counseling at the clinic, followed by a house picket of abortionist Robert J. Santella.

The California Life Coalition's February/March 1999 newsletter reported that since at least October Santella has been picking up abortion days at Family Planning Associates abortion clinic in La Mesa.

Veteran pro-lifers who participated in the January picket of Dr. Santella's house described neighbors as the most hostile they had encountered in nearly ten years of residential picketing of San Diego-area abortionists. Usually, they explained, one or two neighbors will express support for the pro-lifers. Not so this time, in this neighborhood. Fifteen pro-lifers arrived in Santella's Talmadge neighborhood in high spirits because a young woman had been dissuaded from her abortion that morning in front of the FPA clinic. They brought their aborted-baby posters and signs displaying Dr. Santella's name, address, and occupation. Santella did not appear to be home at the time; some demonstrators said they saw a woman at the house. Four young to middle-aged men from the neighborhood immediately confronted the demonstrators. The men told them that they were proud of what Santella did. "It's not a child until it's born," one man claimed, in an exchange with picket leader Troy Newman. "It has no way of thinking; it has no way of being." Another of the four began jumping up and down, made an obscene gesture at me, and walked to within a few inches my face; he backed off when I threatened to call the police. While one demonstrator prayed aloud, "Jesus Christ is Lord," one of them jeered, "Work it for me, baby!"

Within about fifteen minutes two San Diego police officers arrived. The men, along with a few other neighbors, thronged around the two officers and accused the pro-lifers of "harassing all the neighbors and standing in the middle of the street." The two officers explained that a city ordinance permitted such activity. As they processed through the neighborhood on the sidewalk, the picketers were followed by one or more of the four men. These residents took it upon themselves to tear up fliers they found. "Where's the dog?" one was overheard asking. "Let's get him to go bite a pro-lifer."

Pastor Adlai Mack of Christians United in the Word of God Church in Mission Valley said he participated in the demonstration because "I owe Jesus Christ a great debt ... therefore, out of gratitude to Him and obedience to His Word, I'm protecting life...."

Twenty pro-lifers showed up on February 20 to picket the Point Loma neighborhood of Dr. David Priver, an abortionist who has served on the board of Planned Parenthood. Priver was the president of the San Diego County Medical Society in 1997. In an ad Priver placed in the June 24, 1998 National Coalition of Abortion Providers newsletter, he claimed having performed more than 20,000 abortions.

One of Priver's next-door neighbors told the pro-lifers that Priver had moved out of the neighborhood a few months earlier. While the would-be demonstrators then gathered in prayer, they were approached by an 18-year-old man, who told Newman and others nearby that he had seen these signs at his school and elsewhere and was "sick of the signs." He expressed ambivalence about abortion, and when the conversation ended, he asked Newman to pray for him. Public records indicate that Priver's house sold for $635,000 on July 15, but the grant deed was not recorded until September 30. A call to his San Diego office on February 22 indicated that he is still in practice and, said the receptionist, he performs abortions every day.

What impact have other house pickets in San Diego had? Newman is optimistic, "After three pickets of Dr. [Karl] Seligman, he quit the trade; he retired. Dr. Jack Dym quit and moved to L.A.... The average age of abortionists is 59." Other San Diego-area abortionists whose homes have been picketed over the last several years include Priver, Myron Schonbrun, and James Long. Dr. Long, another abortionist at the La Mesa, was picketed at his San Diego condominium on August 29 and moved out of San Diego by September 7.