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Veteran abortion clinic protester enduring as he nears 100
11/25/2005 Ed Langlois
Anti-abortion protester Marion Hite is so enduring —and now so loving in his recriminations — that even abortion-clinic workers have come to his defense.
The 99-year-old Portland man — a former cowboy, shepherd and logger — has sat in front of Portland’s Lovejoy Surgicenter Mondays through Saturdays for 30 years.
He turns 100 in December.
“They’re killing babies in there,” says Hite, under a blanket in a weathered lawn chair, holding a sign that reads “Stop Murder. Stop Abortion. Save the children. Please give him or her to us.”
One day several years ago, when a woman took offense and tried to wrest away his placard, staff from the clinic rushed out and told her to leave the man alone. He doesn’t hurt anyone, they explained.
Hite has not always gotten that kind of support, and he himself has been more confrontational in the past. He has been arrested from the corner five times, as various laws and clinic administrations have come and gone. He even spent a month in jail over his abiding protest and was once ordered to pay the clinic $200,000.
Once, when he was being taken away by police, his leg was injured. That crimped his ability to work, and he went to full-time protesting.
He still gets the sneaking suspicion that some motorists whiz by close enough to have a shot at him with their side-view mirrors.
But most days, Hite sits undisturbed, reading Catholic devotions without eyeglasses, giving kind but not overly zealous waves to children and parents who happen by. For single women on their way inside the clinic, he has a yearning smile. There are about 10,000 abortions in Oregon each year and usually about one in three are performed at Lovejoy.
There is no way to tell how many babies Hite has saved, but he does have proof of at least one. Several years ago, a woman walked up to him with tears in her eyes. She said that nine years ago she was walking to the clinic to have an abortion when she saw him and changed her mind. She had come to report how happy she was to have a 9-year-old daughter.
Thanks to his hearing aids, he caught her every word.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do it,” he says of his vigil, admitting that there are days when he would rather stay home. But he comes anyway, even in downpours. He simply puts up an umbrella.
Hite grew up on a small farm between Sandy and Boring. A lifelong Catholic, he was raised in the faith at St. Michael Parish in Sandy, the second oldest of seven children. His parents had come from Missouri. That may account for some of his stubbornness, he concedes.
He attended Benson Polytechnic High School and then he headed to Mount Angel Seminary, intent on becoming a priest.
He says that he was forced to leave because of an illness. “General sickness, I guess,” he says.
11/25/2005 Ed Langlois
Anti-abortion protester Marion Hite is so enduring —and now so loving in his recriminations — that even abortion-clinic workers have come to his defense.
The 99-year-old Portland man — a former cowboy, shepherd and logger — has sat in front of Portland’s Lovejoy Surgicenter Mondays through Saturdays for 30 years.
He turns 100 in December.
“They’re killing babies in there,” says Hite, under a blanket in a weathered lawn chair, holding a sign that reads “Stop Murder. Stop Abortion. Save the children. Please give him or her to us.”
One day several years ago, when a woman took offense and tried to wrest away his placard, staff from the clinic rushed out and told her to leave the man alone. He doesn’t hurt anyone, they explained.
Hite has not always gotten that kind of support, and he himself has been more confrontational in the past. He has been arrested from the corner five times, as various laws and clinic administrations have come and gone. He even spent a month in jail over his abiding protest and was once ordered to pay the clinic $200,000.
Once, when he was being taken away by police, his leg was injured. That crimped his ability to work, and he went to full-time protesting.
He still gets the sneaking suspicion that some motorists whiz by close enough to have a shot at him with their side-view mirrors.
But most days, Hite sits undisturbed, reading Catholic devotions without eyeglasses, giving kind but not overly zealous waves to children and parents who happen by. For single women on their way inside the clinic, he has a yearning smile. There are about 10,000 abortions in Oregon each year and usually about one in three are performed at Lovejoy.
There is no way to tell how many babies Hite has saved, but he does have proof of at least one. Several years ago, a woman walked up to him with tears in her eyes. She said that nine years ago she was walking to the clinic to have an abortion when she saw him and changed her mind. She had come to report how happy she was to have a 9-year-old daughter.
Thanks to his hearing aids, he caught her every word.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to do it,” he says of his vigil, admitting that there are days when he would rather stay home. But he comes anyway, even in downpours. He simply puts up an umbrella.
Hite grew up on a small farm between Sandy and Boring. A lifelong Catholic, he was raised in the faith at St. Michael Parish in Sandy, the second oldest of seven children. His parents had come from Missouri. That may account for some of his stubbornness, he concedes.
He attended Benson Polytechnic High School and then he headed to Mount Angel Seminary, intent on becoming a priest.
He says that he was forced to leave because of an illness. “General sickness, I guess,” he says.