one life, one choice
activism for both sides
by valerie hisam
"F*** you,” escapes from the mouth of a driver
as he speeds by, splashing rain and mud onto
the nearby sidewalk where Mark Spaeth stands.
Spaeth is calm and gives a chuckle as Daniel
Pott politely yells, “We love you,” back.
The small group that accompanies them goes back to
talking and praying, as they are huddled against the wet
and cold that seeped into Fort Collins overnight.
Spaeth, Pott and their group are not just any
bystanders mingling in the heavy down pour in mid-
September. Instead, they have a goal that can only be
accomplished standing outside of 825 S. Shields St.
To some, it’s just another building sandwiched
between the college campus and the many local
restaurants. But 825 is home to the Fort Collins
Planned Parenthood and Abortion Center. And today
is Friday, one of the two days the clinic performs
abortions.
As more cars rush by, Spaeth remains happy
and talkative with the other activists, even as cars
drive by honking their horns—some in protest and
some in support—while others choose to yell out
obscenities and give the infamous finger.
“We get that a lot, shouting and the finger,”
said Spaeth, a Loveland resident who has been
an anti-abortion activist for more than 35 years.
“Maybe we are touching their conscious. All we
want is for them to think.”
Spaeth usually stands outside of the Planned
Parenthood clinic every Friday, holding a sign
and minding his own business as the rest of the
city rushes by him.
“I want them to think carefully—what all
50 million kids could have contributed to this
country,” he said. “They could have been the
next Beethoven, cured cancer or controlled
nuclear fusion.”
Pott, a junior construction management
major and a member of the Fellowship Catholic University Students, agrees with Spaeth, and
doesn’t mind dedicating what little extra time he has
toward something he believes in.
“It’s a sacrifice of time, and as a student, is hard to
do,” he said. “It is worth it to actually stand for something.
And it starts with just talking.”
Pott, along with his fellow FOCUS members, are not
disturbed by the usual ruckus produced outside of Planned
Parenthood, instead he hopes that someone will drive away
thinking about what he deemed “the biggest human rights
issue ever.”
“It is good to get a standpoint on both sides of an issue,”
said Katy Glennon, a junior pre-vet major and member of
FOCUS. “This goes for anything that people don’t agree
upon.”
Pott and Glennon have only recently joined Spaeth in their
mission of advocating anti-abortion. But within their short
amount of time, they said that they have actually learned more
about this issue from just watching and sometimes dialoguing
with other people.
The anti-abortion group, Justice for All first brought
dialogue, according to Glennon, to her attention. Based out
of Kansas, Justice for All travels all over the Midwest and
demonstrates their position with large, graphic posters of
aborted fetuses to help spread the word about abortion.
“A lot of people don’t care what you have to say, like the
people that just drive by and flash the bird,” Pott said. “In this
setting, it allows you to [have a] dialogue and get people to
have an opinion.”
Director for Field Operations for Justice for All, Tammy
Cook along with her crew were stationed in the Plaza from
Monday, Sept. 29 through Thursday, Oct. 1. The large posters
along with “free speech” boards were placed in the Plaza for the
four days, while students made their opinions heard or tried to
skirt the Plaza to evade the posters.
“When you learn and start listening to what someone says
you have a better dialogue,” said Cook, who has dialogued 48” on the exceptionally warm day. Shulman and her team
of abortion rights Voices for Planned Parenthood student
organization members were in the midst of a crowd debating
over this large human rights issue revolving around Justice for
All’s posters and graphic displays.
This time, students aren’t praying and standing outside a
lone building hoping to change someone’s mind, instead they
are hoping to give choice back to women and men.
“We advocate for reproductive rights and health of women
and men,” said Shulman, a junior human development and
family studies major as well as the co-president for VOX at
CSU. “We spread information about contraceptives and sex
education going back to the good old grassroots effort of wordof-
mouth.”
Jessi Atha, a sophomore biology major and VOX member,
couldn’t agree more with her cohort Shulman, but took, what
she deemed, “a realist view on the matter.”
“People are going to have sex,” Atha said. “There is no
denial of it.”
VOX at CSU is a student organization that advocates for
the ideas that Planned Parenthood has had for almost 100
years. According to Kinsey Hasstedt, the field organizer and public affairs official for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky
Mountains, the main goal for Planned Parenthood and its allies
is to educate and advocate for abortion rights legislation to
promote quality comprehensive health care for women, teens
and kids.
“These people cannot be the only ones with a voice,”
Hasstedt said. “People don’t have to be judged. And I’m here
to stand up for them.”
Hasstedt works closely with VOX at CSU and other schools
across the state to raise awareness and provide them with the
necessary tools to get their point across. But in no way, Hasstedt
said, do they, or anyone associated with Planned Parenthood,
engage with other protestors and groups rallying around the
abortion topic.
“We don’t engage,” she said. “It’s not our mission. Instead
it is to be available and willing to talk to people, and provide
the education and facts. Folks that aggressive with those kind
of methods aren’t going to change.”
As students, faculty and staff saw when Justice for All was
here, there were more than enough students willing to dialogue
with Justice for All, but there were also many that refused to talk
with them, and instead, turned to other advocating tactics.
On Oct. 1, students organized a sit-in for abortion rights
because there was word that so many students were unhappy
with the Justice for All display. For hours, students sat in the
Plaza just talking about anything and also gaining a lot of
attention.
The sit-in group delayed the setup of the posters for nearly
an hour and was able to convince Justice for All to take down
their exhibit for one day the next time they are at CSU to see
if they have just as effective communication.
“We believe the display was too loud, and the size, intensity
and offensiveness was too much,” said Melisa Panagakos,
a junior political science major who had a hand in helping
organize the sit-in. “You can’t have a positive and effective
voice when only one voice is being heard. The sit-in was a good
way for students to come together and talk about it.”
Although Cook has seen it all in her many years traveling
with the Justice for All exhibit, she said that even when people are mad and defensive and clearly support the opposing side,
treating them with respect has gone a long way. Her main
goal is for people to learn, but she also hopes that people find
“hope, respect for the other side of the issue, and that a life
might be saved.”
According to Thomas Crews, a sophomore psychology
major who participated in the sit-in, when you advocate it
doesn’t matter whether you are for or against abortion rights
because “it is important for us to express our views in a peaceful
manner and make sure our voice is heard.”