"Every time protesters gather outside of our Locust Street health center, our patients face verbal attacks from them. They see graphic signs meant to confuse and intimidate. They are sometimes blocked from entering the building and occasionally they are videotaped. They are offered anti-choice propaganda and free rides to the closest "crisis pregnancy
center."
Staff and volunteers are also seen as targets. We are all called murderers, are lectured to about committing sins, and are told we will pay the "ultimate price" for our actions.
You can stand with others in the community against these
acts of intimidation and harassment
Here's how it works: You decide on the amount you would like to pledge for each
protester (minimum 10 cents). When protesters show up on our sidewalks, Planned
Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania will count and record their number each day from October 1 through November 30, 2005. We will place a signoutside the health center that tracks pledges and makes protesters fully aware that their actions are benefiting PPSP. At the end of the two-month campaign, we will send you an update on protest activities and a pledge reminder.
Example:
If you pledge 30 cents per protester, and PPSP has 100 protesters in October and 160
protesters in November, your donation would be 78 dollars for the entire two-month campaign.
Similar to sponsoring a runner in a charity marathon, your pledge total can be capped at a pre-set amount, if desired."
Regardless of your views on abortion I think this is such a creative way to deal with the picketing thing. I'd imagine this method could be used in other picket situations. Talk about using controversy to your advantage. The person who came up with this is a fundraising genius.
We have a store in my area that always has picketers out front. It's been going on for YEARS. The story behind the line is that a particular union wants to be let into the store---but the workers in that store have voted and told the union they don't want to unionize, they don't want to pay dues, their benefits and salaries are just peachy thank you very much. So the union is actually paying people to go harass customers, thinking that will force the store to make their workers unionize. I bet something like this would stop the problem in a weekend.
