Pro-choice people in Chicago should be embarrassed by the comments of Lori Lightfoot of NARAL in the Tribune article ”County Hospital wary of abortion opponents” (Sept. 20). She is quoted saying that the size of the abortion protest showed ”what the majority of people in Chicago and Cook County feel about a woman`s right to choose.”
If support for a cause is to be judged solely on the numbers of people who turn out to demonstrate publicly, then I have a question: How many abortion supporters were there? Nowhere in the article is any number, or even comparative adjective, given. But on the television news coverage that night, I saw many more abortion opponents than abortion supporters. By 10 p.m., the live broadcast from the scene used only abortion opponents as background for the reporters; my guess is there weren`t enough abortion supporters around.
Regardless of the politics, it cannot be said that those who demonstrate are the only ones who support a cause. In fact, the public demonstrators are only the tip of the iceberg, and their numbers do not have a direct correlation to the numbers of (or the strength of support among) non-demonstrators.
Demonstrations serve to keep an issue in the public consciousness; they must not be used as ammunition in a ”numbers makes right” ideological battle.
