5050 San Bernardino Street
5C Students Speak about Free Speech and the Power of Images
David Daleiden
Last Updated: 12/29/09 Section: Opinion
Just past the Interstate-10 freeway, nestled among the oak trees and sidewalk of our neighboring town to the south, Montclair, sits a little, unassuming-looking tan building at 5050 San Bernardino Street. It looks just like any other building in the Montclair's surrounding medical plaza-high school students walk past it on their way to school in the mornings, community members take bus stops adjacent to it throughout the day, and tenants rent apartments right across the street from it.
But there is also something unusual about the site at 5050 San Bernardino Street, and like many things in life, only once you stop and peer closer do you begin to see the cracks in the pristine façade. The people walking into this building look devastated, and come out looking no happier. There is an incinerator-furnace with a tall, black chimney in the back of the lot. And although this building identifies itself with the friendly, enlightened-sounding name, "Family Planning Associates Medical Group,"-which almost makes one think of baby food or parenting classes at first-there is a sign on the door that warns, "No children allowed." You see, the building at 5050 San Bernardino Street is an abortion clinic.
On some of the days when abortions are being performed at FPAMG in Montclair, though, there is one feature that sets the clinic apart from all the other buildings in the area. On some abortion days, large, full-color photographs of aborted fetuses line the sidewalk in front of FPAMG, placed there by demonstrators. The photos are gut-wrenching: one shows a fetus lying in a pool of blood, its mouth open, its intestines spilling out of a tear in its stomach, and there is the label "10 weeks"-indicating that this abortion, like nearly 90% of all abortions in the United States, took place in the first trimester of pregnancy.
On September 8, the Montclair City Council was asked to ban the display of graphic abortion images in front of FPAMG. Resident Liz Harari addressed council members during public comment, asking if there was a way to restrict the display of the photographs, citing the disturbing nature of the images: "One photo is showing the intestines of the child with all the blood," she said, and then indicated that the photos hadn't bothered her until she had children of her own. It's obvious that someone would be strongly affected by those images-but it is much less obvious why someone would not be equally affected by the fact that those photographs document the act that takes place three days a week, twenty to fifty times each day at 5050 San Bernardino Street.
But there is also something unusual about the site at 5050 San Bernardino Street, and like many things in life, only once you stop and peer closer do you begin to see the cracks in the pristine façade. The people walking into this building look devastated, and come out looking no happier. There is an incinerator-furnace with a tall, black chimney in the back of the lot. And although this building identifies itself with the friendly, enlightened-sounding name, "Family Planning Associates Medical Group,"-which almost makes one think of baby food or parenting classes at first-there is a sign on the door that warns, "No children allowed." You see, the building at 5050 San Bernardino Street is an abortion clinic.
On some of the days when abortions are being performed at FPAMG in Montclair, though, there is one feature that sets the clinic apart from all the other buildings in the area. On some abortion days, large, full-color photographs of aborted fetuses line the sidewalk in front of FPAMG, placed there by demonstrators. The photos are gut-wrenching: one shows a fetus lying in a pool of blood, its mouth open, its intestines spilling out of a tear in its stomach, and there is the label "10 weeks"-indicating that this abortion, like nearly 90% of all abortions in the United States, took place in the first trimester of pregnancy.
On September 8, the Montclair City Council was asked to ban the display of graphic abortion images in front of FPAMG. Resident Liz Harari addressed council members during public comment, asking if there was a way to restrict the display of the photographs, citing the disturbing nature of the images: "One photo is showing the intestines of the child with all the blood," she said, and then indicated that the photos hadn't bothered her until she had children of her own. It's obvious that someone would be strongly affected by those images-but it is much less obvious why someone would not be equally affected by the fact that those photographs document the act that takes place three days a week, twenty to fifty times each day at 5050 San Bernardino Street.
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