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Anti-Abortion Activist Has Knife Put To Throat After Harassing Woman Going Into Building
11/27/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
In Duluth, young anti-abortion activist Leah Winandy had a knife put to her throat after she decided that it was more important to try and interfere with a woman walking into the Duluth Building for Women than to even notice or discover whether or not the woman was walking into the building to visit the Women’s Health Center, which does provide abortions. There are a total of nine tenants in the building, and most of them provide other services. Even the Women’s Health Center provides services such as cancer screenings and other health related services. Among the tenants of the building is a Lesbian Center called Aurora, and a sexual assault help center.
Leah Winandy and her mother Sarah Winandy were outside the building as normal harassing anyone who was going into the building. In this case, the woman that Leah Winandy chose to harass was Mechelle Tallulah Hall, who brandished a knife that she carried in her purse and informed Leah Winandy not to approach or speak to her. When Ms Hall was almost beyond earshot, Leah Winandy spoke out saying “Don’t do this! Fear God!” Upon hearing this, Ms Hall turned and walked back to Leah Winandy and held the knife to the younger Winandy’s throat. At this time, Ms Hall stated that she was mentally unstable. Leah Winandy was not harmed, but only frightened.
None of the reports on this incident mention that Ms Hall is or was pregnant, nor do they mention that she worked for any of the tenants. She may have been visiting the coffee house inside the building, or one of the other services. In the wake of the murder of George Tiller, it should not be surprising that many of those who have business inside a women’s health clinic, be it for an abortion or many of the other services, may feel threatened by the very presence of often overzealous pro-life activists outside the clinics. While Ms Hall did express regret for her actions while being arraigned, she felt threatened enough at the time to snap.
According to Sarah Winandy, she and her daughter go to the Building for Women every week because “God has called us to be there to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring glory and honor to Him…We are there because it is what God wants us to do. He has sent us there, He has made the way for us to be there.” These are, of course, the sentiments of Scott Roeder who shot and killed George Tiller in his own church. Rather than devoting time and money to helping the women who feel that they need to have an abortion care for others, the Winandys spend days outside the building harassing people in a climate that is getting more and more hostile towards them. Sarah Winandy on her blog states that there were fourteen women who went into the building to have an abortion, but that would be impossible to prove since the building’s facade indicates that the entrances to each different tenant is within the building and not accessible directly from outside.
It would certainly be easy for a woman who is visiting the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault to feel further victimized by the harassment from these two. Certainly someone who has been victimized in a sexual manner might lash out and hurt the new victimizer.
The “interview” with Leah Winandy mentioned at its beginning the murder of James Pouillon. The attempt to portray the murder of Pouillon as martyrdom has not been based on reality since Pouillon was known for being overly agressive and targeting teenage girls for his harangues. His eldest son, also named James, stated that Pouillon was part of the pro-life movement in order to harass and attack women, and that he did not actually care about abortion.
“He did this to stalk, harass, terrorize, scream at, threaten, frighten, and verbally abuse women. He had a pathologic hatred of women: his mom, my mom, everyone. After my mom finally left him and he lost his favorite punching bag the violence and abuse that was always contained within our 4 walls was unleased on the people of Owosso. My dad used the pro-life movement and 1st Amendments foundations to defend him, support him, and enable him. He fooled them all. He was at the high shool because my niece was there, and female family members were always his favorite targets. Again, my dad didn’t care about abortion. He wanted to hurt people, upset people.”
This, of course, shows the danger of the pro-life movement in that it does have a large number of people who do not seem to care for the well being of women in general, and may have major issues regarding women as a whole.
Interview with Young Pro-Life Counselor Threatened with Knife to Throat
Knifing suspect: What I did was wrong
Women’s Health Center & Building For Women Duluth MN. Extraordinarily Cruel To Unborn
James M. Pouillon criticizes father, slain pro-life activist James L. Pouillon, in online post
Welcome! The Duluth Building for Women is…..
Why Do We Go To The Building For Women In Duluth MN. Weekly?
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7 Responses to Anti-Abortion Activist Has Knife Put To Throat After Harassing Woman Going Into Building
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Dawn
February 18, 2010 at 9:36 am
What happened to the update I posted on here yesterday? It seems to have disappeared??? For those who want all the information — according to the Duluth newspaper (available online), Hall recently thanked the woman she attacked for being there because she changed her mind about having an abortion and feels she would have regretted it for the rest of her life if she had gone through with it. The woman was there to save lives and she did.
Dawn
February 18, 2010 at 11:17 am
The article I read did not mention pyschiatric care, but I have to disagree with the idea that what a woman says about her emotions and decisions should not carry much stock with anyone if she’s receiving care from a pyschiatrist. Part of being a feminist is acknowledging the voices of all women, whether or not they say what we want them to. Her feelings three months after the incident are part of the story.
As for the woman who was attacked, I don’t know her and don’t know what her neighbors said, beyond that her mother homeschooled and “got into people’s business,” whatever that means. Women who express strong opinions and don’t comply with all societal norms are not always liked by everyone. I doubt that her neighbors were qualified to decide that mother or daughter needs pyschiatric care. I wouldn’t do what they do but I understand why they do it . Many pro-life women help women in crisis so they don’t feel pressured to choose abortion, btw.
Steve Kellmeyer
November 27, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Ummm… actually she WAS going in for an abortion.
The police arrested her inside the abortion clinic.
http://www.lifenews.com/state4602.html
BTW, why is it that people who support abortion are so much more violence than people who oppose it? After all, every woman who has been killed by a boyfriend/husband for refusing to abort is an example of a pro-lifer killed by a pro-abort. Murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.
I understand that the homosexual lifestyle is pretty violent, but I’m surprised that you are so indifferent to having a knife held to a woman’s throat for ANY reason.
So, how’s that “pro-woman, pro-choice” canard working out for you?
Sei
November 27, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Mr Kellmeyer,
Thank you for passing along the information that she was arrested inside the Women’s Clinic. I will point out that there is nothing in that particular article that indicates that Ms Hall was either pregnant or had gone in for an abortion. The Women’s Clinic inside that building does have a fair number of different services that it offers.
I will point out that while I do sound indifferent to the fact that the young lady was threatened with violence, that your side of this has often used violence and intimidation in order to push people out of a legally obtained procedure without many of you so much as signaling your displeasure regarding that. In point of fact, people in the anti-abortion rights group are still, to this day, defending Roeder as a hero despite the fact that he murdered a man and glorying in the death of a man who was, from his family’s account, a deranged woman abuser.
I would like to point out that you and the article you linked both make the same assumption that Ms Hall was in there for an abortion. The clinic offers cancer screenings as well. Even if she was there for an abortion, the fact that the younger Winandy decided to confront an obviously angry and defensive woman seems rather stupid to my way of thinking. Had Ms Winandy actually shut her mouth and turned away, none of this would have happened.
Mr. Kellmeyer, despite your thin attempt to paint “pro-lifers” as the victims of more murders by “pro-abortionists”, I would like to make it incredibly clear that there are usually far more reasons involved than the refusal to abort a feotus. Usually you are talking about an abusive relationship where the man has abused the woman for a long time. Typically, the man is not killing her because she refuses to have an abortion, but because he got angry because she burned dinner. I am sorry, but that is a lame attempt to inflate your numbers and the numbers of those who are violently opposed to you.
I am also surprised that you say that the homosexual “lifestyle” is pretty violent. Would you care to elaborate? I have never been the victim of a violent crime, nor have I ever hurt someone in anger. Most of the gays and lesbians I know are pretty peaceful people, though we are just as susceptible to the same passions as anyone else. Do you believe that gays and lesbians are busy raping and beating their partners? If you do, then I believe that you are sorely misinformed.
As for my tone of indifference, I am a coldly logical woman most of the time. I am attempting to repair the damage that you and yours are doing to this story by trying to portray the actions of Ms Winandy as heroic since she decided to speak to a woman who had already brandished a knife, informed her not to speak or come close to her. Ms Hall, from the descriptions that I read, may indeed be mentally unstable. If I had been in Ms Winandy’s shoes, I would not have spoken up no matter what. But, then again, with many fundamentalist religions martyrdom is more important than an adult life, is it not? After all, there are many Christian faiths who feel that giving ones life for the “cause” is more important than saving the life of one’s self or another. Ms Winandy showed the common sense of a stunned lemming. She chose to put her life at risk, and had she died, she would have known that her death would transform her into a martyr.
I will not crack a joke here about what is she going to do with the virgins when she gets to Heaven. I will tell you this, if these two women would put in as much energy into helping and saving the living, then we would have little use for these clinics. Saving and helping women to not need an abortion is more important, in my mind, than trying to put a band aid on the disembowled patient known as society. Make life better for women and for adults in general, and there will be no need for these clinics.
Solve the problem, don’t treat the symptom.
While I have no doubt that you and your own would like to debate me further, I will be on the road the next couple of days and will not be available to debate you at all. It will be up to the graces of our other writers to debate you if they so wish. When I return to my home, I will be deleting my spam folder where all of these replies go, and that will be the end of this whole thing as I do not intend to get into any further protracted debates with you on this issue.
Sei
November 27, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Thank you, Paula. Even if they were correct about her being arrested inside the clinic itself, they have nothing to suggest what the visit was about since the clinic offers a variety of women’s health services. They have jumped to that conclusion that she was there for an abortion. Of course, they do not seem to differentiate the reality of the building housing many different businesses from the fact that it houses one women’s health clinic. Then again, they do not tend to care about details like that.
Jessica Sideways
November 27, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Why is it that these people have to be insensitive pricks to harass anyone going into a particular office building. I know they can be thrown out if they were inside the building protesting but instead of just going away since you would be harassing others not even there for an abortion, they decide to harass everyone.
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