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Apr 29, 2007

Graphic photos spur city response

Parents say shocking anti-abortion images in San Mateo are traumatizing children

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

San Mateo City Attorney Shawn Mason is exploring what the city can do to address people’s concerns about anti-abortion activist Ross Foti’s habit of displaying graphic pictures near St. Matthew Catholic School.

Foti uses poster-size images of aborted babies, Jesus and other religious symbols to protest five days a week at San Mateo Planned Parenthood on Palm Avenue. The posters are mounted on his truck, which he parks outside the church most Thursdays when he goes there to pray. Children see the graphic pictures when their parents drop them off for school at the parish.

Mason said the parents have lobbied the city to intervene.

“I’ve been candid with the parents that his activity certainly involves significant issues regarding the First Amendment and free speech,” Mason said. “We are concerned. We share the concerns of parents about the impact these images have on children.

“I would not recommend that the city take any action unless we were very comfortable and confident that we were not violating his First Amendment rights.”

Mason said he expects to have a better idea about the city’s options within the next month.

Parents say the pictures have traumatized their children. They met with Foti and St. Matthew officials earlier this week in an effort to resolve their differences. They have asked him to at least cover the truck-mounted posters.

“We really want this resolved and obviously he is not going to do this on his own accord,” said Jan Brown, a parent of a fourth-grader at St. Matthew. “We thought he would have a change of heart and he is not going to, so we need to find other options.”

Brown said her son dreads going to school on Thursdays because of the posters.

Foti has said he would cover his posters if the church’s clergy agreed to talk about abortion at least once a month during Sunday Mass. He said he would also like his fellow parishioners to protest with him, but that would not be a condition of covering up the posters.

“It’s something that should be done,” Foti said of his request that abortion be discussed at Mass. “It’s not blackmail.”

Rev. Anthony McGuire said abortion is something the church talks about and he does not believe it is appropriate to invite the parishioners to protest with Foti.

“We certainly are against abortion,” said Ken Boegel, the principal at St. Matthew Catholic School. “It really comes down to the effect those poster have on the children.”

But Foti has successfully defended his protesting practices in other cities, and he parks his truck in a public area by the church. In 1998, a federal court ruled in his favor when Menlo Park tried to quash his anti-abortion tactics at a clinic.

“A lot of people use these posters and we get complaints, and we deal with them,” said Katie Short, Foti’s attorney with the nonprofit Life Legal Defense Foundation. “You could ban obscenity, defamation or something like that, but just the idea of (banning) something that is graphic or upsetting is not going to work.”

http://www.redwoodcitydailynews.com/article/2007-4-29-sm-foti-folo