ARTICLES

Life Chain Nearly Doubles

Police Chief Begs Off

By Stephanie Hopping

Though the San Diego police officers who monitored this year's Life Chain were polite and cooperative, the event received a far different response from police chief David Bejarano. A few months ago, on his KOGO radio show, Roger Hedgecock asked Bejarano why he marched in this summer's Gay Pride Parade, which celebrates the radical homosexual movement. Bejarano defended his participation as being part of the police department's "diversity outreach." Hedgecock then asked Bejarano if he would participate in a pro-life event. When Bejarano replied that he had not been invited, Hedgecock challenged his audience to issue such an invitation. The challenge was picked up by the California Life Coalition, which sent him a written invitation, dated September 4, to attend its October 1 Life Chain as "an honored guest." Bejarano declined the invitation and referred it to detective Larry Lindstrom of the police criminal intelligence unit.

The Life Coalition's Cheryl Sullenger received a call from Lindstrom, who informed her that, although she probably didn't know him, he knew her well, had followed her around for years and had recently seen her picketing vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman's San Diego campaign stop. He then queried her on the significance of October 1 and Balboa Avenue, the Life Chain's traditional site. "I explained to him that it's an annual event and we've done it the last several years on Balboa Avenue because it's a busy street," Sullenger told a News Notes reporter. "Once he was satisfied that it was a pretty routine thing, he referred my letter to the Northern and Central Divisions. And then I was contacted by one officer from each division. One of them said they had faxed around about this event and no one could ever remember having to go to it. It's always such a mellow event that we don't need them. Then they decided that it was not a big deal. They did have officers out watching it." According to Sullenger, on his radio show, Hedgecock reported Bejarano's treatment of the invitation.

Whereas the local secular news media ignored last year's Life Chain, it displayed considerable interest in this year's, as it occurred days after the government's September 28 approval of RU-486, the abortion pill. The Life Chain press release noted, "San Diego was one of the original U.S. cities where clinical trials were conducted on the abortion pill, RU-486." Several local media outlets interviewed Sullenger on September 27 and 28. Channels 5, 6 and 10 covered the Life Chain.

For the first time, the San Diego area's two evangelical Protestant newspapers, the Christian Times and Good News, Etc., and the Catholic diocese's Southern Cross donated ad space for the Life Chain. Sullenger attributed this year's higher attendance to the RU-486 approval, the newspaper ads, and help from pastor Gary Cass (of West Hills Christian Fellowship) with recruiting new church sponsors. This year, between 800 and 1,000 pro-lifers lined Balboa Avenue between the 805 freeway and Genesee Avenue, holding "RU-486 Kills Children" placards, in addition to the usual Life Chain "Abortion Kills Children" placards. (There were about 500 participants last year.) Sullenger noted an increase this year in individuals or families, rather than members of a church or organization. Spotted among Life Chain participants this year was one Catholic monk in his habit. Otherwise, no Catholic clergy or religious who could be identified by their clerical garb showed up.

While participating in the Life Chain, Troy Newman, Operation Rescue West director, commented on the RU-486 approval: "My personal survey, when I counsel women at abortion clinics, is that most women are, at the average age of abortion, 10 to 12 weeks, which is too late for this baby poison. Secondly, only one-third of the ob-gyns queried that are not doing surgical abortions will be willing to prescribe RU-486. Once they begin to administer this baby poison, what they're going to have to do is be willing to mop up the 15 percent failure rate. I think what it's going to do is separate the good guys from the bad guys. There's a dream out there that more people are going to start doing abortions, on behalf of the feminists. I think anyone who wants to be an abortionist is already an abortionist." Another Life Chain attendee commented, "Sadly, I think what they're [the pro-abortionists] hoping is to convince all these doctors that, if enough of them do it [prescribe RU-486], they can be invisible."

This year's Life Chain was immediately followed by a "Vote Pro-Life Rally" in nearby Lindbergh Park, which attracted about 100 participants. Pastor Cass, who is also a member of the Grossmont school district board, hosted the rally. Four pro-life candidates for local offices gave campaign speeches, and the California Pro-Life Council appealed for volunteers to help distribute pro-life candidate slates. A Channel 10 news van was seen at the rally.

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