Abortion protest on tour

Bob Shemeligian

Monday, Oct. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

In 1989 a member of Operation Rescue found the tattered remains of two aborted fetuses in a dumpster outside a Houston medical facility.

Since then, members of the Dallas-based anti-abortion group have displayed color, poster-size photographs of the fetuses during demonstrations across the nation.

The group stopped Sunday in Las Vegas as part of its 33-city National Show the Truth Tour.

"We want to show these pictures to those who casually call themselves pro-choice," Operation Rescue member Jeff White said at a demonstration Sunday afternoon on Sahara Avenue near Commercial Center Drive.

Some motorists yelled obscenities, and others turned their heads away as White, 37, of Arrowhead, Calif., and two dozen others held up the gruesome photographs.

"I'd like to think of myself as pro-choice," White said. "But this isn't about choice. It's about the humanity of a child."

Demonstrator Renee Marple of Boulder City said she underwent an abortion years ago, and has always regretted it.

"I guess it was just a matter of convenience to me, but that's no excuse," Marple said. "I'm against abortion -- and I've had to learn about it the hard way."

Dan and Leigh Schmucker of Las Vegas also held up photographs.

"I hope you publish one of these in the paper," he said. "Abortion needs to stop."

Father David Hoff of St. Paul's Charismatic Episcopal Church in Henderson also held up a photograph.

"The message is right here," Hoff said. "This is definitely a human life, and I'm here to speak out for the unborn who do not have that option."

Two other protesters who said they wanted to speak for the unborn were 13-year-old Debra Hale and 12-year-old Meagan Deppa, students at K.O. Knudson Middle School.

"I don't believe in abortion," Hale said. "If a woman gets pregnant and she doesn't want to raise the baby, then she should put the baby up for adoption."

"Abortion is wrong," Deppa said. "There are other choices."

As the girls spoke, White, the Operation Rescue leader, held his poster high in the air for all motorists on Sahara to see.

"We're doing this to show people that this is the reality of abortion. This is what happens to a child."

And the ultimate fate of the two aborted fetuses in the photographs?

"We gave them a funeral service and a burial," White said.

Anne Golonka, president of the Southern Nevada chapter of the National Organization for Women, noted that Nevadans voted overwhelmingly in 1990 in favor of reproductive choice.

"This mandate from the people of our state gives clear direction to all interested parties and eliminates any need for confrontation," she said.