LAKELAND The grotesque pictures are inescapable.
Standing on a sidewalk on a recent weekday morning, three men held chest-tall signs bearing bloody images of aborted fetuses. The posters drew attention to the Lakeland Women’s Health Center, the only clinic in Polk County that performs abortions, but the men also broadcast their message to drivers passing along South Florida Avenue on one of the busiest stretches of road in Lakeland.
The signs carry such messages as, “DOES ANYBODY EVEN CARE?” and “ALLOWED BY THE POLICE IN THIS CITY.”
Since opening in 1975, the clinic has regularly drawn protesters opposed to abortion. The numbers swell each spring, when local residents join the 40 Days for Life movement, a national campaign of prayer vigils held during Lent outside clinics that offer abortions.