I recently attended a rally sponsored by “40 days for life” and “I stand with planned” representatives who encouraged participants to bring “noisemakers, signs, music and smiles.” My expectations of holding my pro-choice sign while dancing to music with a smile on my face was quickly replaced with holding my phone to record nearly two hours of shouting, belittling, cursing and threats of physical harm by about a quarter of the “planned” attendees who seemed to believe it was the most effective way to silence the pro-life advocates <\/p>\n
The “40 days” members responded with a couple of them engaging in short, heated discussions while the rest spent their time praying, displaying their pro-life signs and peacefully voicing their opinions. The very thought of being affiliated with the aggressive participants’ behavior from “I stand with planned” is appalling. Their actions further supports the Christian nationalist claims that pro-choice advocates are far left, radical extremists.<\/p>\n
How can we have a dialogue with those we disagree with or successfully reach out to those who are becoming disenfranchised with Christian fundamentalist ideologies while being viciously confronted by a small number of pro-choice protesters? My hope is that, regardless of our differing viewpoints, that everyone will be allowed to express their opinions without fear of intimidation or harm.<\/p>\n
Rod Amburgy <\/strong><\/p>\n Everett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently attended a rally sponsored by “40 days for life” and “I stand with planned” representatives who encouraged participants to bring “noisemakers, signs, music and smiles.” My expectations of holding my pro-choice sign while dancing to music with a smile on my face was quickly replaced with holding my phone to record nearly two hours of shouting, belittling, cursing and threats of physical harm by about a quarter of the “planned” attendees who seemed to believe it was the most effective way to silence the pro-life advocates <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3361,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1020,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-886681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/heraldnet.com\/2026\/03\/13\/letter-each-sides-of-abortion-debate-must-respect-speech-rights-of-other\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Letter: Each sides of abortion debate must respect speech rights of other","url":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/03\/13\/letter-each-sides-of-abortion-debate-must-respect-speech-rights-of-other\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/03\/13\/letter-each-sides-of-abortion-debate-must-respect-speech-rights-of-other\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Letters","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"none"}],"creator":["none"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"HeraldNet.com","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-03-13T08:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-03-13T08:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-03-13T08:32:00Z"},"rendered":"