"On Tuesday mornings at Planned Parenthood we receive 'sidewalk counseling.' That's the phrase our opponents use to describe carrying large posters of a mutilated, full-term fetus and yelling across our parking lot. Our patients, volunteers and staff have been receiving these counseling sessions since 1995 when Planned Parenthood began performing first trimester abortions one day a week. On rare occasions, we have had to call the police - when our locks were glued shut or when a few overly zealous protesters would trespass on our property. We have never sought their arrest or tried to press charges. Largely, we have simply tried to ignore them.

Through the years, there have been times when the taunts were less vociferous and the posters were less graphic. Protesters would pray aloud without shouting or making offensive comments to our staff or patients. Since this July, all that has changed.

On July 18, more than 50 protesters and their young children lined both sides of Peters Creek Road for a quarter mile with large, grisly posters. Protesters repeatedly trespassed on Planned Parenthood's property in cars and on foot to pursue patients. Three of the protesters' vans blocked the deceleration lane (that we were required to build for traffic safety purposes) while protesters slowly strolled back and forth across our driveway. That morning, a staff person's car was hit from behind when she had to come to a full stop in the 45-mph 4-lane road to avoid hitting the protesters. Two weeks later a second accident occurred when a driver hit another vehicle while distracted by young children displaying graphic posters in the deceleration lane.

The protesters have begun targeting race and religion. African Americans entering our building are called 'racists' and 'killers of the Black race.' A Jewish staff member is called 'Hitler', 'Nazi' and 'the owner of Auschwitz in America' while a protester waves a poster of dead Holocaust victims. Shouting protesters immediately surround anyone who steps off the bus stop in front of our building. An older couple who volunteer in our library hold each other's hands and slowly wade through the protesters as they exit the bus on Tuesdays. Of course, the worst comments are saved for our patients and our physician, who are called 'murderers' and told, 'You will die today!' These comments are interspersed with the command to 'repent' or the comment, 'Jesus loves you.'

I fully recognize our detractors' First Amendment right to protest. Years ago, I was responsible for organizing dozens of protest rallies of foreign embassies whose countries torture their citizens. Back then, we avoided blocking traffic or making racially or ethnically offensive remarks. To have done otherwise would have been counterproductive and would have denied us the moral high ground.

The anti-abortion movement is rooted in a strong moral and religious ethic, though different from my own moral and religious sensibilities. The protesters who shout and taunt patients, block our driveway, allow their own children [to] play dangerously close to the highway and who have created a public safety hazard are poor ambassadors for this ethic. They offer anger instead of love. Their Golden Rule is tarnished by their strong desire to end abortion.

This regression from love to hate has been played out in communities across the United States in the past decade. As the protests escalate, Planned Parenthood clinics often recruit volunteer escorts to assist patients. The presence of escorts can lead to even greater confrontation and divisiveness. In the worst cases, there have been rapid escalations to violence.

We have hesitated to use our trained escorts in Roanoke. We have chosen a different path by developing innovations that attempt to bridge the gap between the anti-abortion and pro-choice camps, such as adoption services, prenatal care services and the use of on-site ordained ministers to assist pregnant patients in exploring the religious and moral implications of their decisions. We are now seeing more prenatal patients than abortion patients each week and we continue to provide preventive family planning services six days a week to help couples avoid unintended pregnancy and lessen the need for abortion. Apparently, such developments are of no consequence to these protesters.

For now, we will continue to seek ways to protect our patients, volunteers and staff. Roanoke City police have been responsive by stepping up their patrols on Tuesday mornings and placing 'No Stopping, Standing or Parking' signs across the front of our property. We hope to dissuade protesters by reinstating our Pledge-A-Picket program, whereby individuals in the community pledge a dime, quarter or dollar for every picketer in front of our building. If necessary, we will begin using volunteer escorts. In fact, we will use every legal and morally ethical means at our disposal to ensure that women have access to safe and legal abortion services in southwestern Virginia.

There are good, ethical people on both sides of the abortion debate whose quiet voices are often lost amid the angry rhetoric. We all need to find ways to unify our community while seeking areas of common ground. We can start by agreeing that love, and not hate, is a far more powerful and effective force to be used by both opponents and supporters of legal abortion in our community" (David Nova, electronic mail, August 30, 2000).

David Nova is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, Inc."