Matthew Stuart, 33, jogged up to the line of Syracuse University students, standing in front of the city’s Planned Parenthood Health Center, and thrust his young daughter at them, over his head.

He mumbled prayers, and as students screamed chants of “We’re not ashamed, we’re not sorry, keep your laws off our body,” a Syracuse Police Department officer stepped in and asked Stuart to move back.

“I do regret … kind of my instincts took over, my impulse sometimes gets the better of me,” said Stuart, a Syracuse resident, when later asked if he was comfortable holding his young daughter out a few inches in front of a group of counterprotesters. The counterprotesters, who were mostly SU students, rallied Wednesday night against 40 Days for Life, a national anti-abortion organization whose local chapter held a “prayer service” in front of Syracuse’s Planned Parenthood.

Organizers of the anti-abortion event declined to comment on this article. Stuart, a Le Moyne College graduate, said he attended the service to show “life is precious, life is a gift from God.”

Brandon Daniels, an SU graduate student studying communication and rhetorical studies, stood directly in front of Stuart.

“I was honestly just really disappointed that a father could endanger his daughter like that and use her as a political accessory in just a really disgraceful way,” Daniels said. “The way he was moving was really reckless.”

Students marched from campus, through Walnut Park, to the building off East Genesee Street at about 6:30 p.m., rallying against the anti-abortion group, which claims to have helped shut down 90 abortion clinics across the country.

The counterprotest was planned by Syracuse’s International Socialist Organization chapter.

Alexandra Moreo | Photo Editor

As SPD officers watched, the two groups gathered about 20 feet apart on a sidewalk in front of the clinic. Anti-abortion service attendees clustered in a circle around a man praying into a microphone, who was drowned out by students shouting “Pro-life, your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die,” and “Who’s body? Our body.”

Aside from the moment Stuart moved at counterprotesters, the two groups remained separated. About 30 students and residents gathered for the counterprotest, and about 20 people, mostly middle-aged, gathered for the service.

Alex Thevaranjan, an associate professor of accounting in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, attended the 40 Days for Life’s service. Thevaranjan said his mother originally wanted to abort him, while living in Sri Lanka. But then his grandmother convinced her not to and offered to raise him.

Thevaranjan said he wants people to understand there’s “pain” on both sides of the divide over abortion, and it’s a complicated issue.

“Let’s be sensitive to the unborn,” Thevaranjan later said.

Seif Hejazine, a sophomore physics major, meanwhile, stood with counterprotesters holding a sign that read “Abortion Without Apology!” Hejazine supports access to health care, and Planned Parenthood is vital to women’s rights, he said.

Alexandra Moreo | Photo Editor

Andrea Canale, a lifelong Syracuse resident and International Socialist Organization member, helped organize the counterprotest. As service attendees walked across East Genesee Street, packing 40 Days for Life signs into a van, Canale grabbed a megaphone.

“We need to keep coming, we need to keep doing this,” Canale said.

One anti-abortion event organizer, who declined to provide a name, said the group will be praying outside Planned Parenthood on Thursday. The International Socialist Organization is planning to meet in early November to discuss possible counterprotests for the future, Canale said.

Published on October 26, 2017 at 12:34 am

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek