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Election makes annual abortion protest more poignant

SARANAC LAKE — A month before Election Day, more than 45 people carrying anti-abortion signs silently lined River Street from Main Street to Church Street for an hour Sunday afternoon.

This Lifechain event takes place every year, but this one took on extra poignancy since the next president, to be decided Nov. 8, will get to appoint a Supreme Court justice to a vacant seat and may get to choose others as older judges retire. The court is now split 4-4 on many issues, and the new appointees could be tiebreakers, potentially even overturning the 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

For Lifechain protesters, abortion is a big enough issue to get them out on the street, but it doesn’t necessarily determine all of their votes.

Bishop Terry LaValley, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg, happened to be in town Sunday and took part in the Lifechain. That morning in his homily at St. Bernard’s Church, he said people of faith have a responsibility to vote, but he didn’t tell them whom to vote for. Asked about that at Lifechain, he urged the faithful to carefully study the issues and church teachings so they can have “informed consciences.”

In the presidential race, LaValley said he’s having a hard time deciding whom to vote for.

“I think it’s absolutely not clear,” he said. “It’s a real struggle, I know for me personally. And obviously life in the womb is sacred, but there are also life issues beyond the womb that we need to be sensitive to, that we need to be speaking about, that we need to have our votes reflect. And anybody who has a quick, short answer, I’m not sure they’ve studied the issues or the church teaching as intensely as probably we need to do.”

John Fehlner was here from Keene Valley, where he lives, and from Lake Placid, where he and his wife run a Catholic radio station, WCLP 98.3 FM. For him, abortion is a “huge” issue that determines his presidential vote.

“It is probably the pivotal issue in my life,” he said. “If we don’t protect the most innocent of people, I think our nation is going down the wrong path, and it’s really critical to the morality of our souls and our nation.

“I’m not going to vote for anybody who is pro-choice. I would only vote for somebody who would defend the quality of life. I’m not real crazy about Trump, but he at least claims to be pro-(life), and I know Hillary Clinton is definitely pro-choice, so I couldn’t vote for her.”

Floyd Lampart of Lake Clear had never been to a Lifechain before. He said the abortion issue “would affect my voting if I really knew the stance of the two candidates. I haven’t followed it too close.”

How big an issue is it for him, relatively?

“It’s right up there,” he said. “I wouldn’t entirely cast my vote on that one issue, but it would definitely come into play. If I was on the fence one way or another, and that issue was the deciding factor, I would vote in favor of that issue, abortion.”

Dylan Fezette is a 15-year-old student at Saranac Lake High School who lives in Onchiota during the week and Saranac Lake on weekends. He was at Lifechain with his grandmother and said he loved it.

“This is something I’ve always loved to do is practice my faith in the church,” he said.

He isn’t old enough to vote yet. Asked whether this annual protest is more important shortly before a presidential election, he said, “I think it’s important to do it all the time. I would be out here, I would say, at least 10 times a year if I could. I love doing this. It’s a lot of fun. You get to talk to new people. There’s plenty of things to do. It’s always good to see the bishop, too. He’s a really nice guy.”

As Vini Fallica of Saranac Lake walked by on River Street, his first reaction when asked about the Lifechain protesters was that they were “hypocrites.

“I think they don’t know the difference between being pro-life and being pro-birth,” he said. “My understanding is that they are, by and large, Republicans, and Republicans vote against child care, and they vote against health care, and they vote against family support nets, you know? So they don’t mind people having babies; they just don’t want anybody to help take care of them. I think they’d have a lot more credibility if they were willing to be responsible for the moral, financial and legal responsibilities for the births of the people.”

And if they were?

“Well, then fine, OK. You don’t want someone to have an abortion? All right, you take care of the kid. But this is not their call for someone else’s life. If they accept that, then they’ve got to be willing for other people to tell them how to live their lives.”

Fallica said adoption could be an alternative to abortion “if the mother is ready for it,” but ultimately, he said, “I think it’s the woman’s choice.

“When they (Lifechain protesters) are voting for people who support women’s health care and child care and WIC and all the rest of that instead of voting for people who shut it down, then I’ll believe they’re pro-life. Until then, they’re just pro-birth.”

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