Feminists, Anti-Abortion Activists Clash in Square

Classic feminist chants drowned out Bible quotations as out-of-state religious fundamentalists clashed with local feminists over abortion Tuesday in Harvard Square.

The dueling demonstrations next to Out of Town News in Harvard Square drew attention from summer crowds of tourists, individuals on their lunch breaks and Harvard Summer School students.

The Milwaukee-based anti-abortion organization Missionaries to the Preborn brought their traveling demonstration of “preaching to the preborn” to Harvard Square as part of a two-week protest tour through six northeastern states.

Tuesday marked Missionaries to the Preborn’s first trip to Harvard Square and—after receiving little support for their anti-abortion message—most likely their last, according to the group’s leader Pastor Ralph N. Ovadal.

When local feminists like Emily Hall, a board member of the Boston chapter of the National Organization for Women and a staffer in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences registrar’s office, found out about the anti-abortion demonstration earlier this month, they organized their own counter-protest.

“Abortion is still safe and legal, and we are here reminding people of that,” said Stacey Montgomery, an abortion rights supporter and member of the Lesbian Avengers.

The pro-abortion rights demonstration included members of several local women’s and feminist groups, including clinic escorts from a local Planned Parenthood clinic who protect people entering clinics from demonstrators. Many of the participants were passersby who came upon the demonstration and joined in.

“I’ve had a lot of people come up and ask me what was going on, and when I told them, they just started chanting,” Montgomery said.

Several newly arrived students at the Harvard Summer School Program were among the pedestrians who became protesters.

“I think it’s great for summer school students to see this,” Hall said. “It shows what a vibrant community it is.”

Most passersby declined to take anti-abortion brochures or to stop to look at their posters of aborted fetuses. Passing cars honked horns and their drivers shouted statements of support for the feminist groups.

“Obviously other pastors have not been standing up for God’s law here, because this is a cold and wicked environment,” Ovadal said, holding his copy of the Bible.

“Given their perspective, I take that as a compliment,” Montgomery said. “I’ve always felt that Harvard Square was the warmest and friendliest environment.”

While the two groups mostly remained separate and did not directly interact, some anti-abortion demonstrators did engage the other side.

One member of Missionaries to the Preborn told supporters of abortion rights that the Sept. 11 attacks were a result of God’s anger about abortion, echoing the televangelist Jerry Falwell’s comment after Sept. 11 that “The abortionists have to bear some of the burden for this because God will not be mocked.”

Missionaries to the Preborn is not affiliated with any churches or organizations in Cambridge or greater Boston. Instead, the group takes a small number of activists and tours around the country, holding anti-abortion protests in a number of locations. The group has done 200 similar protests over the last seven years.

But counter-protesters questioned the group’s effectiveness.

“I think there is a legitimate pro-life point of view, but I haven’t heard that at all today,” Montgomery said. “These are the lunatic fringe.”

Four members of the Missionaries to the Preborn declined comment, referring all questions to their leader, Ovadal.

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be reached at skier@fas.harvard.edu.