Say Anything Blog

Free speech for me, but not for thee...

San Francisco - Bay Area abortion-rights activists say a Roman Catholic group's advertisements on hundreds of BART trains and in scores of stations -- attacking the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision and asking "Abortion: Have we gone too far?" -- have gone too far in a region known for its progressive politics.

Many of the ads have been torn down or defaced since the campaign began three weeks ago.

"I think every woman has noticed them,'' said Suzanne "Sam" Joi, a member of Code Pink, a social justice and anti-war group. "I couldn't believe BART would allow something like this. Why are they doing this?''

The ads began appearing in BART trains and stations the day after Christmas. According to BART spokesman Linton Johnson, 280 of them appear in BART's rail cars and 48 larger versions are displayed in stations. The Respect Life Ministry of the Oakland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church paid $43,200 for the ads, scheduled for display through the end of the month.

BART officials say they had little choice but to post the ads, given the free-speech provisions of the First Amendment. The transit district also has a policy of accepting point-of-view advertising and has displayed other political material -- including advertising from its employee unions during last year's contract talks.

Code Pink is the same group responsible for heckling the President at his innaugural speech a year ago (after receiving tickets from congressional Democrats). So, to them, shouting down the President during a speech is just fine and dandy, but don't you dare try to advertise a political viewpoint they disagree with.

Of course, Code Pink isn't the only leftist group getting in on the action:

Some supporters of abortion rights have called BART to complain about the ads and demand their removal. The political Web site http://www.indybay.org urged activists to call BART and members of its Board of Directors to register their discontent. As of Thursday, the transit agency had received 29 complaints, Johnson said.

Critics of the ads also seem to be taking matters into their own hands. Hundreds of the ads have been defaced with markers, had stickers placed over them or have been torn down and ripped up, according to Monika Rodman, coordinator of the group that placed the ads.

"The defacement has taken to religious epithets, profanity, everything you can think of,'' she said. A billboard at the MacArthur station in Oakland was torn to shreds, she said, and mini essays were written on others.

So many of the ads have been destroyed, she said, that a supply of a couple of dozen extras has been exhausted, and the ministry has ordered reinforcements from its printer. The group, which funded the campaign through donations, according to Rodman, is also asking BART's ad agency, CBS Outdoor (formerly Viacom Outdoor), for extra display time to compensate for the vandalism.

Classy.

san francisco, code pink, abortion, indybay.org, respect life ministry