Pro-Life March Draws Some Council Opposition

The petition, as it appears on the council agenda, provides little insight. The Diocese of Trenton, it explains, requests to hold its annual march from St. Anthony’s Church through areas of Red Bank with a final destination of Newman Springs Road.

Typically, items like this, reasonably requests to hold bingos and raffles, or to hoist banners over Broad Street and hold peaceful public events, are given the rubber stamp treatment. It’s what wasn’t detailed in the agenda, however, than rankled two board members Wednesday night. Council Members Jaunita Lewis and Ed Zipprich voted against allowing the march citing its actual motivations as a pro-life rally with a final stop and protest at the Planned Parenthood facility in Shrewsbury.

As a father to a daughter, Zipprich said he would not approve of the walk given its real intentions. The Catholic Church, he said, has made Planned Parenthood facilities, and by proxy women’s rights in general, a target for their religious agenda. He also referenced recent proposed legislation in Virginia, prompted largely by the religious right, that would require women considering abortions be administered a sonogram via transvaginal probe.

Zipprich read his opinion before the audience, which included the Komen foundation’s decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood facilities under religious pressure before giving it back after the ensuing public outcry, all while under the mystified stare of Mayor Pat Menna, who looked at times equally shocked and bewildered at the proceedings. Despite support from Lewis, the march was approved by council majority 3-2.

“I made this decision in light of what’s gone on recently,” Lewis said, defending her voting position. “Planned Parenthood provides a lot of services to women who don’t have health care and cannot afford health care.”

Councilwoman Kathy Horgan, a staunch women’s rights advocate, defended her yes vote by explaining that all groups have the right to assemble. The freedom of assembly is recognized in the first amendment of the Constitution, along with the freedom of speech and religion. The right to protest is also considered an inalienable human right by several international organizations.

It’s unclear what the legal implications for the borough would have been had the march not been approved.

“In approving their right to march, that does not mean I approve of what they do in regards to Planned Parenthood,” she said. “This is the United States of America. I don’t have to agree with them but as long as they’re peaceful (there can’t be an objection).”