Ex-Boyfriend's Abortion Billboard Ignites Free Speech Debate

ALAMOGORDO, N.M.-- A New Mexico man's decision to lash out with a billboard ad saying his ex-girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes has touched off a legal debate over free speech and privacy rights.

The sign on Alamogordo's main thoroughfare shows 35-year-old Greg Fultz holding the outline of an infant. The text reads, "This Would Have Been A Picture Of My 2-Month Old Baby If The Mother Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!"

Fultz's ex-girlfriend has taken him to court for harassment and violation of privacy. A domestic court official has recommended the billboard be removed.

But Fultz's attorney argues the order violates his client's free speech rights.

"As distasteful and offensive as the sign may be to some, for over 200 years in this country the First Amendment protects distasteful and offensive speech," Todd Holmes said.

The woman's friends say she had a miscarriage, not an abortion, according to a report in the Albuquerque Journal.

Holmes disputes that, saying his case is based on the accuracy of his client's statement.

"My argument is: What Fultz said is the truth," Holmes said.

The woman's lawyer said she had not discussed the pregnancy with her client. But for Ellen Jessen, whether her client had a miscarriage or an abortion is not the point. The central issue is her client's privacy and the fact that the billboard has caused severe emotional distress, Jessen said.

"Her private life is not a matter of public interest," she told the Alamogordo Daily News.

Jessen says her client's ex-boyfriend has crossed the line.

"Nobody is stopping him from talking about father's rights. ... but a person can't invade someone's private life."

For his part, Holmes said that during a domestic court hearing last week he pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year concerning the Westboro Baptist Church, which is known for demonstration signs and slogans that include anti-gay slurs.

"Very unpopular offensive speech," he told the Alamogordo Daily News. "The Supreme Court, in an 8 to 1 decision, said that is protected speech."

Holmes says he is going to fight the order to remove the billboard through a District Court appeal.

Catholic Education Based On Liberalism Of NCEA

Today a leading Catholic educator expressed exasperation with the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) for its willingness to feature high-profile, left-wing speakers at its national convention. On the heels of last year's keynote speaker, pro-abortion media icon Garrison Keillor, the NCEA has invited controversial Sr. Helen Prejean to serve in the same capacity this year. "This overt lurching to the extreme left-wing of American politics by the NCEA means the organization no longer represents all Catholic schools," said Dr. Kevin Roberts, who is leading an effort to start an alternative organization to the NCEA. "In fact, considering Helen Prejean's participation in the Democratic Convention in 2008, it politicizes an event that has no business being politicized." Roberts expounded on that point, saying that lay Catholics who might be described as politically conservative are constantly reminded by bishops not to be "political" or "partisan." He says, "this double standard, for many of us, is very frustrating. I don't know why the Church's sacrosanct non-profit status is not threatened by Prejean, whose public involvement has been so partisan." "The NCEA's decision to invite Keillor and Prejean is reflective of an organization that has become irrelevant--if not harmful--to the promotion of authentic Catholicism in Catholic schools," Roberts concluded. "The organization sees 'social justice' as the full extent of Church teaching, when, in fact, it is but one component. Of course, the liberals in the Church ignore that fact." "Unfortunately, the NCEA has taken the wrong side of this debate. Our authentically Catholic schools need an appropriate networking, accreditation, and professional development organization, so there will be many of us working tirelessly to build that group." Roberts pointed to the success of the Cardinal Newman Society, which has highlighted the Catholic identity problems of many Catholic universities nationwide. "The Cardinal Newman Society has changed the conversation about Catholic higher education," Roberts said. "We aim to do the same with Catholic secondary education." An extended analysis of the problem, and more information on the effort to start a new Catholic schools organization, can be found at the website of Roberts' regular internet radio show,Capitol Hill Catholic. Roberts has founded and heads a Roman Catholic school, and is considered a leading voice nationally among Roman Catholics who are concerned about the leftist lurch of some major voices in the Church. His regular internet radio show, Capitol Hill Catholic, has thousands of followers nationwide, and he is regularly invited to speak on topics of Catholic education, John Paul II's New Evangelization, and the principle of subsidiarity in the ever-growing welfare state.

Possenti Society Blast Anti-Gun Catholic Church Bureaucrats

The St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc. today ripped into gun prohibitionists in the Catholic Church hierarchy and suggested gun owners place spent cartridge casings in collection baskets as an initial form of protest.

Society chairman John M. Snyder said "the forthcoming beatification of Pope John Paul II comes as a welcome spiritual torpedo moving against anti-gun owner Catholic Church bureaucrats."

"It is ironic that Pope Benedict XV's announcement of the May 1 event came as the Catholic News Service proclaimed in an article on gun control that the 'Church firmly, quietly opposes firearms for civilians,'" Snyder added.

"It's ironic because Pope John Paul proclaimed definitively traditional Catholic teaching on the right and even the obligation, including killing an aggressor, of self-defense. He did this in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae. The late pope cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2265 that '...legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another's life, the common good of the family or of the state.' Pope John Paul stated, 'Unfortunately, it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life.'"

Snyder said "anti-gun church officials would render people incapable of defending themselves or others. It's hard to tell if these people are wicked or just plain stupid. It is hypocritical for Church officials to proclaim doctrinally respect for the right to life on the one hand and then, on the other hand, promote or support policies the implementation of which would render the defense or protection of life an impossibility.

"Devout Catholic firearm owners can let church officials at various levels know what they think of certain Vatican officials' inanity and hypocrisy. There are many ways to do this. One would be to place spent cartridge casings, preferably with primers removed, in church collection envelopes and collection baskets and in bishops' envelope solicitations for contributions. It would be good to remind them of Christ's statement, 'if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.'" (Luke 22:36)

St. Gabriel Possenti used handguns without injuring a single human being to rescue villagers of Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy in 1860 from a gang of marauders. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXNE2jBaL9o) Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920. The international, interdenominational Society seeks his official Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners. It highlights historical, philosophical and theological bases for legitimate self-defense.

CNW