Dear Editor,
Hello, my name is Dawn. I wanted to share my experience with you and your readers.
Let me preface this with I am not looking to induce an ethical debate. For or against doesn't matter to me when relaying my experience to you.
Yesterday I took my 8 year old son to an appointment at LCSC Children's Hospital. We stayed at the Lamplighter, (which is a fun place for kids, I may add). After my son's appointment, the hotel shuttle picked us up.
On our way back to the hotel, we were approaching an intersection. I wasn't paying attention, until my son screamed "Oh my God!! Is that a ripped up baby?" The attached image is what my baby, and the general public, saw outside a Children's Hospital.
Did you find it offensive? Gory? Sickening? That was just one of the picket signs displayed by the protestors on the street corner. So offensive in fact, it was taken off Facebook.
We all know what an abortion is. Thrusting gore into my face rolls right off my back. I am a labour and delivery nurse. 24 years experience with babies of various gestation that have passed on. Some born in a pretty rough state. Am I calloused, or jaded? No. It hurts my heart every time, but it's my job.
Pictures of aborted fetuses are nightmarish to the general public and especially children. I wish I could have seen it first to protect my son. I had no "choice" to save him from those sights. Even the shuttle driver apologized and pulled up so that a van would block my son's view.
I was so infuriated I thought I would have a stroke!! I explained to him that that was a baby that had passed on, like the ones mommy has taken care of when I come home from work sad. He left it at that.
What happens if this happens in downtown Owen Sound?? I am all for freedom of speech and the right to assemble, but displaying gore to try and further your cause? MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is just as passionate about their cause, but they don't display pictures of bodies splattered on the highway for all to see! It's wrong. Unethical. Disturbing. Bad taste. I can go on.
How do women who have had miscarriages, stillborns, and terminations feel? It's abuse. It can worsen PTSD in some families.
Is there a way to stop the vulgar displays?
Again, this is not an ethical debate on the issue. It's about my little boy being exposed to something he didn't have to be. Their agenda and propaganda can be expressed in words.
Thank you for listening.
Dawn and Liam
Owen Sound, ON
*Update* Dawn received the following reply from the London Health Sciences Centre
"Thank you for sharing your experience Dawn. We share the same concerns. It is unfortunate our patients and visitors must see these images and messages while coming to LHSC for care. We are aware there are anti-abortion protesters at the corner of Wellington and Commissioners quite often. Since they are just off of hospital property, there is unfortunately nothing we can do about it. If in this ...case they were on hospital property, please let us know and we will alert security."
