Mayor tells anti-abortion group to get out of Fredericton

Last Updated: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 | 10:39 AM AT

CBC News

Fredericton's mayor says an anti-abortion group should "get back to Ontario" after angering many people by displaying large photos of aborted fetuses along busy streets — but the activists vow to continue a Maritime tour.

Brad Woodside said he received two dozen phone calls at home on Monday night from residents who were furious that the city allowed the demonstration. Dozens of activists lined main streets in Fredericton showing the graphic images on placards that were about 1½ metres in height.

The mayor said his office also fielded dozens of calls about the display.

Woodside said he spoke to city police, who also reported receiving hundreds of angry phone calls. But they told him the city couldn't take any legal action against the Ontario-based anti-abortion group Show the Truth.

The group took its photos to the city's private Morgentaler abortion clinic on Tuesday morning, which prompted clinic director Judy Burwell to call police.  

Burwell said the pictures were offensive and misleading. "They have these huge pictures they say is an aborted 10-week fetus and it's not. It's much further along than that. It's probably a fetus from a miscarriage and they've doctored the photos."

Protests planned for other N.B. cities, Halifax

The group continued its demonstration in the city on Tuesday before moving on to other communities in the province — Moncton, Edmundston and Saint John — and then heading to Halifax.

'They know exactly what they are entitled to and what the law is probably better than anyone that was driving by there, and that's why they can't be moved....' — Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside

Woodside was frustrated that he couldn't do anything to stop the demonstration in the provincial capital.

"They know exactly what they are entitled to and what the law is probably better than anyone that was driving by there, and that's why they can't be moved, or they didn't do anything that was criminally wrong," he said.

"I find that shocking. You put up a sign that shows where strawberry [picking businesses] are and the city is all over you. But yet people can line the streets with graphic pictures like that and nobody can do anything."

Forced to explain photos to children

Karen Robertson, who lives in Fredericton, was driving her children to the medical clinic on Regent Street when she saw the series of graphic photos of bloody, dismembered fetuses.

'I resented that I had to answer the many questions that she put to me about these pictures. I resent the fact that they were exposed to these horrible graphic photos.'— Karen Robertson, who had to explain the photos to her five-year-old

Robertson said she was angry that the photos were in view of her five-year-old daughter.

"I resented that I had to answer the many questions that she put to me about these pictures. I resent the fact that they were exposed to these horrible graphic photos."

Group makes no apologies

Rosemary Connell, the co-ordinator of the anti-abortion group, wasn't making any apologies for using graphic photos to get attention.

"The pictures are upsetting. It's a horrible sight to see the remains of an aborted child."

Woodside said he had no problem with people expressing their opinions, but felt the group's tactics were unacceptable.

"It's not the issue, it's the message: they've taken it a bit too far," he said. "And it's time for them to get back on their bus and get back to Ontario."