Now, not only will women be harassed outside the clinics the visit by protestors, they will now potentially be harassed inside as well with images and sounds of heartbeats in what is no doubt an already difficult decision to be make.
The voracity of the attacks, and the free use of the bully pulpit by politicians and churches, enable far too many to enact their will of what is right and moral on others with little to no repercussions. In Tiff's blog Blue Oasis in a Big Red State she discusses the act of one CapMetro employee that refused to do his job based on his own religious beliefs and was rewarded for it!
Needless to say, I was just as disgusted when I read this in the paper as she was. The argument that dropping two women at an "abortion" clinic somehow violated his freedom of religion is a flimsy argument at best. His job was to drop them off at the curb, not worship at the altar of aborted fetuses or else lose his job. What went on inside the clinic was none of his concern and would have in no way affected his job status with his employer if he had just done his job as required.
Mr. Graning took advantage of the fact that CapMetro is experiencing budget woes, audits, and other financial problems and knew CapMetro's board would find it too expensive to engage in extremely expensive litigation. The attorney costs alone would be more than the settlement price of 21,000. However, CapMetro has just given other employees the green light to say ok this is an avenue to fast cash. They will be employing attorneys no matter what to either fight more litigation or to rewrite policies to prevent future lawsuits.
In return, what Mr. Graning did was violate two women's right to privacy, because they had to file a complaint with his employer. If any one had a suit to file it was the two women who were refused bus service to their intended location because of Mr. Graning's holier than thou actions.
