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Sunday, May 17, 2009 12:00 AM

Randall Terry is no match for Obama

The man who destroyed the antiabortion movement with his extremism is trying to use the president's visit to Notre Dame to advance his cause, but he will fail -- again.

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  • Saturday, May 16, 2009 06:41 PM

    what Randall Terry et al don't seem to get with this particular protest...

    ...is that people's unwillingness to look up to him as a martyr for being arrested is not about abortion, Obama, the Catholic Church, or Notre Dame. It's about public versus private property. Terry et al will not be arrested for expressing their beliefs, but for trespassing on Notre Dame's campus.

    Terry is an American citizen with the right to free speech and the right to peaceful protest. As distasteful and counterproductive his chosen method is (wheeling around a baby carriage with a bloodied doll inside), it does fit the parameters of free speech and peaceful protest...so long as he is protesting on public land. Were he being arrested for doing this on a public sidewalk in South Bend, he'd have a point about government censorship of his beliefs.

    BUT, neither he nor anyone else has the right to hold a protest on private property without the property owner's permission. Unless he wants pro-choice groups to be legally allowed to picket on his church's property, he needs to quit claiming that he's in moral right here. the He can't even claim that this particular protest, unlike the abortion clinic blockades of the 1980s, has the potential to protect any baby in immediate danger of abortion.

    In short, Randall Terry is going to get arrested in order to promote not the pro-life movement, but to promote Randall Terry.

    And that--even though I'm pro-life myself--disgusts me.

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