Remind Me Again, Who Are The Violent Ones?

Woman Lashes out at Survivors

by CLT Member Ashley Colantuono

Thursday we were at South Pasadena High School, which is located right across the street from a Catholic Church and school. Kortney, Shara and I were holding two signs and passing out literature.

About 10 minutes into our demonstration, I heard a lady screaming. I turned to where the traffic was located and saw a woman sitting in her car turning onto our street yelling and pointing her finger at me.

I quickly turned on our camera because I suspected she was angry at us. Sure enough she swerves onto our street and jumps out of her car. She started charging across the street and runs up to me, gets in my face and starts threatening violence against me.

At this time I screamed for Shara to call the police as I kept videotaping her. She grabbed the signs from my hands and threw them on the ground proclaiming, "a woman has the right to do what she wants with her body."

Kortney came running down the sidewalk to try and calm her down, but this lady wasn't budging. She charged down the sidewalk where Bud and Tara were setup. I warned Bud before she got to him, but it wasn't enough warning to deal with her anger. She slammed the signs into Bud while trying to yank them from him.

She started yelling in his face then turned and started down the sidewalk again. Then she turned to me and threatened to pull my facial piercing out and strangle me.

From dealing with the man from last semester, I knew to stay calm myself and try to calm her down as well. I began informing her that if she's had an abortion, there are places that could help her.

At this point she began mocking Kortney and I, telling us to pray. "Why don't you pray to God. Abortion Abortion Abortion." She also shoved Kortney and screamed in her face. She was clearly not in the correct state of mind.

When I went across the street to retrieve her license plate number, I noticed she had two small children in the back seat of her car. How can you abandon your children in your car to go yell at peaceful protesters? What a great example for those children.

By the time the police showed up she was calmed down. The police let her go and we gave our statements and let them know we'd like to file charges against her.

I forgive the woman who attacked us and our signs. I hope that wherever she is she finds hope and healing from her abortion and in Jesus Christ. I'm scared to know that someone like this lives in our society and is so angry that she would do these kinds of things.

We are not educating people about abortion to get them upset at us and physically threaten or attack us, but to simply expose the genocide that is plaguing my generation and rise up an army to attack the "pro-choice" ideology that has permeated our society.