Abortion Opponents Line Streets to Join in National Protest

Anti-abortion activists lined intersections in Orange County on Sunday, symbolically linking up with groups throughout the country that held an hourlong “National Life Chain.”

Organized by church congregations, demonstrators were scheduled to gather between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. in at least nine locations around the county to hold signs and kneel in prayer at intersections marking the borders between cities, sponsors and police said.

Fullerton police estimated that about 400 people took part in the anti-abortion demonstration at Orangethorpe Avenue and Harbor Boulevard in that city. Officers said the protesters linked hands and stretched for several blocks, causing curious motorists to slow down and watch, but triggering no arrests.

Police also said there were demonstrations in El Toro and Buena Park, but had no estimates of the number of participants. Other protests were scheduled for Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Orange and Tustin.

In Costa Mesa, more than 300 people lined the intersection of Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue.

Bev Cielnicky of Fountain Valley, a spokeswoman for the Costa Mesa demonstrators, said that 10,000 signs printed for the protest had been distributed through county churches.

The purpose of the nationwide event, she said, was “to make a statement just to stop the killing.”

Many of the printed signs advocated adoption. For pregnant women, Cielnicky said, adoption “is hard, but it’s a positive option and it often has a positive outcome,” when birth mothers are later reunited with their children.