Free to offend

For years, Terence Hughes and his ardent band of anti-abortion protesters have picketed health clinics and hospitals carrying photos of bloody fetuses, a pro-life message with death as an exclamation point.

Disturbed by the gory display, Elliot Scott lined up beside Hughes Saturday at two Bangor medical facilities to protest the protestors with his own visual aids — pictures of nude women clipped from adult magazines. Thoughtful debate devolved into a figurative street fight, with First Amendment rights used as bludgeons. Freedom of speech became a battle of signs.

And when sex goes up against violence, guess who gets pummeled?

Scott now faces a Dec. 15 court date for his public display of lewd material. Hughes’ gruesome exhibit is untouched by the law. Eliciting sexual response in public may be a crime but causing revulsion is not.

True, if the debate is on abortion, the fetus photos have a relevancy Scott’s pin-ups do not, since fetuses are germane to the abortion issue — they, in fact, are the issue. But the intent of this particular aspect of the pro-life vigils has never been to elevate the discussion, to lead to informed decisions but to shock. Scott merely tried to shock the shockers. The sorry sum of these two wrongs is that innocent passersby now can’t go about their business without looking at dead fetuses or naked women.

While Hughes and his followers should be respected for their convictions and admired for their diligence, it’s time to put the photos away. Hughes regularly assails the pro-choice crowd for using images of abortion-clinic murder scenes to paint all pro-lifers as blood-thirsty zealots. The vast majority, of course, are devout, prayerful individuals who believe abortion is wrong.

But in the same way, the vast majority of folks who drive by or even go into medical facilities are not there to get abortions. If Hughes objects to his side being portrayed as doctor killers, perhaps he should stop treating the entire population of the Bangor region as baby killers.

Scott, too should be respected for his convictions and admired for acting upon them, but responding to an offense with an offense is not the way. And the petition drive he’s planning is a wasted effort. City ordinances don’t make much of a dent in the U.S. Constitution.

The Bill of Rights was built to last, it will not be destroyed by photographs, grisly or girlie. But freedom of speech suffers in a shouting match. It should not be placed on a pedestal, but neither should it be tossed in the gutter.