When the latest Dr. Seuss film “Horton Hears a Who” premiered in Los Angeles, the film was interrupted by a group of pro-life activists who cheered when the main character Horton said his famous line, “A person is a person no matter how small.” Some even began chanting the line, preventing others from enjoying the film. Once the movie had finished, the activists were outside the theater, handing out pamphlets which had been designed to look like movie tickets.

This isn’t the first instance of pro-life groups picking the most inopportune times and places to promote their agenda. Locally, they’ve protested in front of Marquette schools. These examples only reinforce a problem with many religiously motivated groups – if you’re going to exercise your right to free assembly, learn to pick an appropriate place to do it.

For any sane person, there are obvious reasons why protesting abortion at a kids’ film is a bad idea. Why would you want to warn little Johnny or Susie about the supposed moral dangers of abortion? And isn’t telling parents not to have an abortion sort of preaching to the choir? Obviously, they didn’t have an abortion, since their kids are alive and at the film. It doesn’t seem like that particular audience would really benefit from hearing this message.

As I’ve said before, it’s not like pro-life groups have the best track record when choosing when and where to spew their propaganda. For reasons unbeknownst to any logically thinking individual, many of these groups will stand out in front of schools holding signs with pictures of aborted fetuses on them.

Again, they’re telling children, sometimes as young as seventh graders, not to have abortions. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never seen a line of children just itching to get into the abortion clinic. Sure, teen pregnancy occurs way more often than it ever should, but these people have the warped perspective that waving signs with bloody fetuses on them will somehow miraculously prevent teenagers from having sex, or at least aborting a pregnancy. It flat out doesn’t make sense.

But let’s pretend for one moment that these crazies actually have a sound argument and a worthwhile reason to protest. If I wanted to protest something that was happening in my community, I would go where that something was occurring and protest it there. Like, for instance, in front of an abortion clinic. That’s where the abortions are occurring, so maybe that’s where pro-life groups should protest them.

Or if they’re here in Marquette, a town without an abortion clinic, maybe they could protest in front of a government building. Anti-war protesters gather in front of the post office on Washington Street. That’s at least a better place to protest abortion than at a school or a children’s film.

Despite my disagreement with pro-life organizations, this is America and they have a right to free speech. But just because they have this sacred right doesn’t mean they shouldn’t put any thought into how they plan on using it. If they’re going to organize and protest, they need to seriously think about when and where they’ll be doing the protesting, because it’s simply not good enough to rip off a line from a kids’ movie, especially when that line is misused. When any group doesn’t think their actions through first, much like these pro-lifers protesting abortion through “Horton Hears a Who,” they just end up looking like a bunch of jackasses. And no one wants to see that.