Some Abortion Protestors Overstep Free Speech Bounds

To the editors:

I am shocked and dismayed that Jenny E. Heller (Dissent, March 16) would even begin to condone the sort of violent, intimidating protests that have occurred around family planning clinics.

It is not right when a group of anti-abortion individuals, a small minority of the population, scares people out of exercising what is currently a constitutional right. If you don't agree with abortion, that's fine. If you think it's wrong, that's your right. But don't tell me that your right to free speech enables you to harass, intimidate, and tacitly threaten with violence other individuals in society who are attempting to exercise their own rights.

In their righteous zeal, the lunatic fringe of the anti-abortion movement has forgotten their right to protest does not mean they can violently overturn a Supreme Court decision. Many in the prolife movement do understand this, and the staff of The Crimson is right in calling upon them to control the more radical elements of their movement. MICHAEL O'MARY '99-'00   March 16, 1999