By Msgr. Noel Burtenshaw

Three picketers were arrested while parading outside Midtown Hospital on Ponce de Leon Avenue last Saturday.

According to Kyle Holland, one of the three arrested, police took the three to jail without good reason. “We were picketing as we do every Saturday,” said Kyle, a member of Maranatha, a non-denominational campus group who show up at Midtown each weekend. “The police arrived and after speaking with the security guard, asked Shelby Luse, Lloyd Gilcreast and myself to step into the squad car. He was real nice, but said it was time for the courts to settle this.”

The three were taken to the city jail and were released after being detained for 10 hours. “The officer said we would be held for about 45 minutes,” said Kyle, “but that’s not the way it turned out.”

According to the records of the Atlanta Policy Department, the three were charged with disorderly conduct. A hearing was to take place on Thursday, May 5.

Midtown Hospital is an abortion clinic in which 14 live births took place over the last three years. The Georgia Department of Human Resources issued death certificate for the 14 babies born at the hospital.

Asked to give details of what occurred, Kyle Holland stated, “A young girl, she looked like she was about 15, was coming toward the hospital with another lady. The girl was crying. We said in our usual way ‘There is another alternative.’ The older lady told us to get away. As they passed us, we said, ‘Hey, do you realize that’s your flesh?’”

Sometime later the “head nurse” came along and the picketers asked her “what about the 14 deaths,” he said.

“That’s what really upset them,” said Kyle Holland.

There were about eight people on the picket line, according to Holland. Why he and the other two were chosen for arrest and not the entire group is a mystery, says the young man.