ARTICLES

The Craziness There is Amazing

Sidewalk Counselors Tell Their Stories

By Maria Kennedy

In spite of being physically accosted at times by abortion clinic workers, a hardy group of pro-life activists gather regularly at the Planned Parenthood clinic on the corner of Alameda and Angle in San Jose.

Among those who regularly come to the clinic is Gary Pomeroy, who has been sidewalk counseling at the Planned Parenthood clinic for over ten years. Over that time, Pomeroy has been accosted by abortion clinic escorts and, at another San Jose abortion clinic, was strangled by an abortionist. On January 23, 1999, while Pomeroy was standing at a Santa Clara abortion clinic, the abortionist arrived at the clinic. "I had been there for about a half an hour," he told me in a telephone interview. "As he got out of his car, I gave him my spiel, which was that the blood of these innocent babies was on his hands. He then went inside, but later he came out the front door. He then grabbed me around the neck and he kept strangling me."

Pomeroy said that, though he called the police, the Santa Clara district attorney's office refused to prosecute his assailant. Pomeroy noted that had he strangled the doctor, "I would have ended up in federal court." Pomeroy sued the doctor in small claims court and was awarded one dollar in damages by the judge.

Pomeroy said he was happy to learn later that the doctor had stopped performing abortions.

Pomeroy has also encountered hostilities at the San Jose Planned Parenthood but says that he's not going away. "As long as I have breath, I'll be out at the clinic," he said. Pomeroy is quick to point out the little victories he has had at the clinic -- like the time when "a man in a PG&E truck drove up and told me, 'my girlfriend and I were considering an abortion, but we saw your signs and decided against the abortion.'"

Another man who often joins Pomeroy on Saturday mornings at the San Jose Planned Parenthood is Raul Gomez. Gomez was accosted at the clinic in early August by a 72-year-old Planned Parenthood worker. According to Gomez, the worker's role at the clinic was "to thwart us from talking to anyone." On August 2, Gomez was talking to someone who was leaving Planned Parenthood in a car; although the encounter was brief, the 72-year-old worker allegedly became incensed and shoved Gomez. Gomez said that he called the police because he was tired of her antics. The San Jose police department took down a report, but the Santa Clara district attorney's office refused to file charges against the worker. "The district attorney, George Kennedy, told me it would be hard to prosecute her because she was an old lady and didn't have any priors. The police had said in their report that the worker may not have pushed me intentionally. She told the police that she had observed what she called a traffic hazard and accidentally bumped me."

Although the district attorney's office refused to prosecute the worker, Gomez says that she is less hostile. "The police told her that it was not her job to manage traffic, and if she thought there was a problem, to call them." Gomez noted that while speaking to someone in a car that was in the Planned Parenthood driveway, the worker quickly approached him. When told that it is not her job to manage the traffic, the worker scurried away.

Pomeroy agreed that the Planned Parenthood worker can be very aggressive towards sidewalk counselors. "If people try to take our literature, she will put herself between their car and us. She'll even grab the literature out of their hands. She's been doing this for years. She's just obnoxious".

One encouraging sign at the Planned Parenthood clinic is the presence of the Survivors, a youth-oriented pro-life group, said Pomeroy. "Its good to see the spirit of the Lord going upon the young people -- especially because the Survivors were born when their mothers could have aborted them. Being out there challenges their faith. To stand in front of the death camps shows them the attitude of the public, who doesn't care". Pomeroy said he is heartened by their wits. "They are smarter than whips. They are so bold. It' s encouraging to an old guy like me," he said.

April, 18, is a member of the Survivors who goes out to the San Jose Planned Parenthood regularly. She graduated from high school last June and has deferred her college admission until the spring so she can work on her pro-life activism with the Survivors. April, who was interviewed for this story in late September while on the Survivors' Southern California Campus tour, said that she and her best friend Zoë regularly go to the San Jose Planned Parenthood. When asked why she went to that particular clinic, she replied, "I honestly started going to that one because the clinic workers are very aggressive; it's hard to talk to the women because of the workers. I chose that clinic because the craziness there is amazing. There is this one woman, who is older, who is there. When I try and talk to the women, she 'll scream or do what we call opera singing. She does this every time. The clinic workers cannot talk to us because so many of them leave after we tell them the truth about abortion. Planned Parenthood now has a rule that clinic workers are not allowed to talk to the pro-lifers."

The atmosphere at the clinic is not only physically, but spiritually hostile. Tom Tammy, who has been sidewalk counseling at the clinic for the past fifteen years, pointed out that others at the Planned Parenthood clinic there were bothersome. "The atmosphere there is tragic, it's not fun. There is an evil about the place. I really believe that some of the deathscorts are possessed, as are some of the workers. There was a homosexual named Jim. Then there was Crazy Mike; after a while, he started to dress like a woman and wanted to be called Michelle. He's gone now; the last I heard was that he went to New York with another transgender guy."

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