Group protests Planned Parenthood meeting at Chinn library
Donnie Biggs/News & Messenger
Katie Walker, left, Marie Hahnenberg and Johanna Dasteel, all with American Life League, protest outside of Chinn Park Regional Library on Tuesday in Woodbridge. The group protested a Planned Parenthood training session for volunteers.
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By Amanda Stewart
Published: July 15, 2008
A group of about half a dozen pickets gathered in front of Chinn Park Regional Library on Tuesday evening to protest a Planned Parenthood meeting.
The protesters, many of whom held purple signs that said "Planned Parenthood Steals Souls," were protesting a Planned Parenthood volunteer training session being held inside
the library's community room.
"We're here to let people know that Planned Parenthood is not liked in the community," said Marie Hahnenberg, a researcher with American Life League, the group that organized the protest.
Planned Parenthood volunteers organizing the
training session said they had no comment on the protest.
Hahnenberg said the protesters were concerned that Planned Parenthood would be targeting young people in the training session.
According to a Web site for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, Tuesday's event was a training session for people interested in volunteering for Planned Parenthood events such as the Occoquan Riverfest, farmers' market and summer concerts.
The training session taught volunteers about the group's missions and services, its campaign for affordable birth control and specific volunteer opportunities, the Web site stated.
Hahnenberg said she and the other protesters were also concerned about Planned Parenthood meeting at the library.
"They should not be at a public library," she said.
According to the Prince William Public Library system's policy on public use of library community rooms, the library does not discriminate against individuals or groups for any reason, including "the political, religious, or social aims expressed by the individual or group, or by any group's members."
Any government agency or non-profit group can apply to use the meeting rooms, as long as the events are open to the public and no fundraising occurs, the policy states.
Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Bobcarly311 ) on July 17, 2008 at 7:31 am
planned parenthood isn’t liked in the community?
I LOVE PLANNED PARENTHOOD. they save more lives than you’ll ever know!!
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Posted by ( badger21 ) on July 17, 2008 at 6:51 am
Planned Parenthood is an organization that seeks to educate and support women. What these few deluded adults do when they protest is to devalue women and our rights. I wish these hypocrites would do something positive in the oworld, like volunteer at a domestic abuse shelter, take care of homeless children at a shelter. Instead they seek attention for themselves and promote violence against women. Non-thinkers should all stay home and hide their willfull ignorance!
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Posted by ( wellread ) on July 17, 2008 at 6:32 am
Next these evangelical pro life demonstrators will be wearing praire dresses while holding up their signs. Such repressed women. If you want to help society, go volunteer in a homeless shelter, a Title One school, or a home for battered women.
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Posted by ( mmarin ) on July 17, 2008 at 6:24 am
Thank you Planned Parenthood for all that you do in helping women get the medical assistance they need.
Thank you,
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Posted by ( NEtoVA ) on July 16, 2008 at 9:38 pm
“A group of about half a dozen pickets gathered in front of Chinn Park Regional Library on Tuesday evening to protest a Planned Parenthood meeting.“
Not to be picky, but I’m sure the group was small enough so that you could have reported the actual number of picketers. I see five people in the photo. So, were there five? Or was it seven? Saying that there were “about six” is just sloppy reporting, IMHO. If there had been “about 1000,“ I could have understood the need to estimate. “About six,“ well, I’ll assume that means fewer than ten, even if some protesters did come and go.
I’m sure what the group lacked in numbers they made up for with enthusiasm, but that doesn’t excuse trying inflate their number in the story—especially when the story received such prominent play on the front page.
I probably shouldn’t even comment on this sentence: “the protesters, many of whom held purple signs…“
Many would probably mean three or four, correct?
All this is to say that this wasn’t much of a protest, nor was there really anything much to protest given that nothing about the PP training session violated PWC public use policies for its facilities.
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Posted by ( kgotthardt ) on July 16, 2008 at 7:37 pm
A public library is….um….public, right? PP was in there talking about farmers’ markets?
Sounds like a rather odd time and place to be protesting PP.
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Posted by ( alisvolat ) on July 16, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hmmmm. I thought ‘public’ libraries were ‘public’? Meaning that censorship is not part of the equation.
I’ve been reading a lot lately about opposition to Planned Parenthood, mostly in relationship to abortion. Many folks do not know that many Planned Parenthood clinics are not abortion providers. ALL Planned Parenthood clinics do their best to prevent abortions by offering information to women on how to prevent undesired pregnancies. PP is well known for it’s confidentiality. One of the reasons for this is that EVERYONE has a secret. Sometimes it’s a small secret, sometimes not so small. Many folks have intentions that are not met for one reason or another, including folks that believe whole-heartedly in abstinence only as their birth control method. These women and men need a place to go that does not judge them because of their humanity aka making a mistake. Many times our humanity is demonized by folks that have moral standards that are not our own, this is a great reason to not discuss certain viewpoints with them. If you are a child or partner of a person that holds these standards, where would you go to ask questions and protect yourself?
To the volunteers who showed up to support Planned Parenthoods efforts to provide information regarding sexuality, congradulations on your bravery and willingness. May we all have enough courage to live up to our convictions.
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Posted by ( Sammy B ) on July 16, 2008 at 4:24 pm
The availability of family planning services has not been shown to have a significant effect on adolescent sexual activity (Averett, S.L, Rees, D.I. & Argys, L.M. (2002). The impact of government policies and neighborhood characteristics on teenage sexual activity and contraceptive use. American Journal of Public Health, 92, 1773-1778.) Still, even if the empirical evidence supported Susan’s intuition and the availability of contraception were to lead to increased sexual activity in adolescents, would we prefer more sexually active teens effectively and consistently using contraception or fewer sexually active teens not doing so and therefore having more teen pregnancies?
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Posted by ( ladybee0322 ) on July 16, 2008 at 3:55 pm
i agree with you “öpinion”. i dont think that anyone should be fighting this organization. Okay its great if your kids can talk to you aboutanything but not all kids have that bond with their parents and its not up to you to decide for them unless you want to take the responsiblilty and teach but i highly doubt you will.
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Posted by ( susan ) on July 16, 2008 at 3:51 pm
the last 3 responses were intelligently put and thank you. I understand your views and you are right the parents are not doing their jobs. I just do not believe that this is a good thing. I believe that young people are going to use this as a free tickets to have sex. I know if I had this available to me I probably would. I will continue to keep all of these young kids in my prayers. Thank you for all of your comments.
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