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Abortionist Mandy Gittler was responsible for the death of 24-year old Tonya Reaves at Planned Parenthood’s Near North Center in Chicago on July 20, 2012, and has performed over 15,000 abortions in her career.
On June 18, the Pro-Life Action League visited both of her Chicago abortion facilities to expose the truth about her deadly business.
Our first stop was at All Women’s Health, an abortion clinic operated by Gittler in the city’s Bucktown neighborhood. Right from the get-go, by the time we started deploying sign holders, Chicago Police were already on site.
Chicago Police Misunderstand City’s “Bubble Zone” Ordinance
Pro-Life Action League staffer Matt Yonke positioned himself with a Malachi sign a few feet from the entrance to All Women’s, and within minutes, two officers approached and told him he was not allowed to stand within 50 feet of the entrance.
PLAL staffers Matt Yonke (right) and Eric Scheidler talk with police outside All Women’s Health abortion clinic in Chicago
The officers were referring to Chicago’s “bubble zone” ordinance. But as has been the case so many times before, their understanding of it was hopelessly wrong.
In actuality, the city’s ordinance creates a 50-foot perimeter around the entrance to any health facility, within which it is prohibited to approach closer than eight feet of anyone approaching that entrance without their permission.
Matt attempted to clarify the scope of the ordinance with the officers, who then went back to their vehicle to call the city’s Office of Legal Affairs.
Meanwhile, Pro-Life Action League vice president Ann Scheidler went to find a paper copy of the bubble zone ordinance [PDF], which she always keeps in her car. Shortly after she got back to the site with the copy of the ordinance in hand, one of the officers returned, and Ann showed him the ordinance itself, which prompted him to say, rather tellingly, “That is a complicated piece of text.”
He then conceded that we were well within our rights to stand just outside the entrance to All Women’s, and went back to his vehicle.
While all this was happening, an All Women’s employee had posted a sign on the door saying, “All protestors must be 50 ft away from our building.” Seeing that, Ann positioned herself directly outside the door with a large arrow-shaped sign reading, “Abortionist” pointing right at it.
Thanks be to God, no women entered All Women’s during the entire time we were there!
As we were preparing to wrap up, the sky was quickly darkening, and we knew it was just a matter of time before heavy rains would hit, so we loaded up our signs quickly and set off for our next site a few miles away: Planned Parenthood’s Near North Center, just outside downtown Chicago.
Killed by Botched Abortion at Planned Parenthood
By the time we arrived at Planned Parenthood, it was pouring rain, so we had to wait for it to let up before setting up our display of abortion victim photo signs, arrow-shaped “Abortionist” signs, as well as signs bearing the message, “Tonya Reaves killed here by botched abortion.”
Other volunteers passed out flyers to passersby as well as clients entering and exiting Planned Parenthood notifying them that the facility has never been inspected by the Illinois Department of Public Health, and that on the day Tonya Reaves had an abortion—and later died—Planned Parenthood never called 911.
At this site we once again had numerous opportunities for conversation with passersby, with many of them thanking us for being there. The Illinois Family Institute’s Monty Larrick also conducted on-site interviews with both Ann Scheidler and her son, League executive director Eric Scheidler.
And that’s a wrap for our once-monthly Face the Truth Days for Spring 2014. Up next: our 8-day Face the Truth Tour, running July 11-19, where we’ll be visiting 24 sites in and around Chicago.
Don’t miss it!
John Jansen blogs at Pro-Life Action League.
