HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- A short video released Thursday appears to show pro-life demonstrator Joyce Fecteau spraying several pro-choice supporters with liquid from a squirt bottle.
The incident took place Dec. 22 outside Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives on Madison Street. Fecteau was charged with misdemeanor harassment after one of the people sprayed, Lisa Cox, swore out a warrant against her.
In a Monday interview, Fecteau told al.com the squirt bottle contained holy water blessed by a priest. She said she sprayed it because a member of the pro-choice group was burning a "noxious material" that she'd been warned by doctors not to inhale.
Pro-choice organizer Pamela Watters said the five members of her group who were sprayed on or near the face had no idea what was in the bottle. It could have been ammonia or bleach, she said.
Watters said she is releasing the video, taken by a member of the pro-choice group, to counter statements made by Father James Henderson that Fecteau was arrested for "spraying holy water on a public sidewalk."
Henderson, a leader of the local anti-abortion movement, has urged Christians to rally to Fecteau's defense and come to Huntsville for her Feb. 21 trial in municipal court.
After learning of the video this afternoon, Henderson released the following statement: "My understanding is that Mrs. Fecteau was in fact on the public sidewalk when this alleged incident occurred and sprayed the Holy Water on space that was properly reserved from the City.
"While I did not see the alleged incident, I understand she sprayed Holy Water to counter the effects of one of their smoke devices. I find it hard to believe that Mrs. Fecteau would do anything more than try to clear the air of the stench of the smoke bomb."
Watters said the smoke device was a smudge stick -- a bundle of sage and other dried herbs used in some Native American rituals. Several others who were sprayed by Fecteau plan to meet with a city magistrate Friday about also pressing charges, she said.
Click here to read more about the escalating tensions between pro-life and pro-choice supporters in Huntsville on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
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