CHICAGO (CNS) - A federal judge in Illinois issued a
nationwide injunction against abortion protesters, prohibiting them from
blocking, obstructing or impeding women from entering abortion clinics. U.S.
District Judge David Coar's ruling, handed down July 16, stems from a
six-week trial that ended in April 1998 in which the National Organization
for Women and two abortion clinics sued the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action
League and other defendants, including league head Joseph Scheidler,
Operation Rescue, and activists Andrew Scholberg and Timothy Murphy. The
almost 13-year-old NOW suit charged that the defendants had created a
climate that encouraged using violence to prevent women from going into
clinics to obtain an abortion. The basis of the suit was the federal
anti-racketeering statue known as RICO.
A jury handed down a guilty verdict and awarded the clinics more than $86,000
in damages. Jurors found defendants guilty of interstate conspiracy to close
abortion clinics by crossing state lines to commit felonies, including threats
of violence.
In the next phase of the lawsuit, Coar heard oral testimony and accepted
written materials on a request to enjoin the defendants and anybody else in the
country from engaging in civil disobedience at an abortion clinic. The July 16
ruling is the outcome of that phase of the suit.
Coar said the defendants are prohibited from blocking access to abortion
clinics, damaging or trespassing on their property or threatening employees or
clients of the clinics. The injunction was set to cover a period of 12 years.
The injunction specifically allows demonstrators to peacefully carry picket
signs or make speeches on public property in front of a clinic; speak to
individuals who are approaching clinics; hand out literature on public property;
and pray on public property. Scheidler said in a statement that the award of
damages was based on the jury's finding that unknown persons associated with the
Pro-Life Action League and Operation Rescue were responsible for responsible for
the clinics having had extra expenses for security.
In a separate statement, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests
for Life, said the injunction rightly prohibits violence and threats of
violence. "Yet I know nobody in the world more opposed to violence than the
defendants in this case," he said.
He said the ruling "actually vindicates what we do in the prolife movement"
and thanked the judge "for making it crystal clear that we have a perfect right
to these activities."
