Abortion heat
Rally at women’s clinic raps City Council plan for patient escorts
AN ANTI-ABORTION demonstration at a women’s health clinic in Queens on Saturday turned into a protest against the City Council’s plan to provide escorts for patients entering such facilities.
About 80 people sang hymns and held signs condemning abortion outside the Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica.
Many of the protesters slammed the escort program announced by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to protect patients at abortion clinics.
Msgr. Philip Reilly of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Jamaica described Quinn’s program as onesided government intervention.
“It doesn’t make sense. She’s supposed to be my representative,” said Reilly, who organized Saturday’s protest. “If she wants to do that, she should resign.”
On Friday, Quinn (D-Manhattan) announced that the City Coun- cil will begin deploying volunteers on Nov. 1 to help protect patients at abortion clinics.
“Having this program will help ensure women’s safety,” Merle Hoffman, president of the Choices clinic, said of the Council’s Clinic Protection Program.
“Women should have the right to make their choices without people praying for their souls,” said Hoffman, who was joined by about 15 supporters in front of her clinic Saturday for a counterdemonstration.
Helen Rosenthal, 51, of Manhattan, stood at Hoffman’s side, and said, “Society should do everything it can to protect women.”
Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women in New York, said the escorts were long overdue. “It’s vitally important that women are able to come here without being threatened,” Ossorio said.
But Reilly scoffed at the accusations that he and other anti-abortion protesters were a danger to clinic patients. “That’s nonsense,” Reilly said. “That’s unbelievable. It’s a straw man they build up.”
He insisted he and his group conduct only “peaceful, prayerful protests.”
Antoinette Wolske, 69, a retired nurse from Howard Beach, Queens, interpreted the city’s escort program — which Quinn insisted would not require taxpayer money — as a government endorsement of abortion.
“This says it’s okay to have an abortion, and it’s not okay,” said Wolske. “We should not have this idea promoted.”