Federal judge solidifies buffer zones around N.Y. abortion clinics

By The Associated Press

07.28.00

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Abortion foes must continue to honor larger protest-free zones outside certain health clinics and doctors' offices under a federal ruling issued July 26 stemming from last year's Operation Save America demonstrations.

In his long-awaited ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara concluded that, prior to the court's April 1999 establishment of the zones, protesters had "repeatedly interfered with access to reproductive health facilities in ways that not only violate FACE (the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act), but also create significant public safety hazards amounting to a public nuisance under New York law."

The ruling converts a temporary restraining order granted just before the Operation Save America demonstrations into a more permanent preliminary injunction.

The measure — which also prohibits protesters from using megaphones or other amplifying devices — was sought by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and several western New York abortion providers, including the clinic where murdered physician Barnett Slepian practiced.

Named as defendants were anti-abortion organizations Operation Rescue, Last Call Ministries, Rescue Rochester, Lambs of Christ and Christian American Family Life Association, and 59 individuals.

"We're thrilled," said Melinda Dubois, executive director at Buffalo GYN Womenservices, the clinic where Slepian worked before being killed by a sniper in his Amherst home in October 1998. Fugitive James Kopp is sought in the shooting.

Spitzer, whose office presented 23 days of testimony over a two-month period last summer, said the ruling tailored the buffer zones to the needs of individual clinics. It demonstrates, he said, "that the balanced approach we took to ensuring a woman's constitutional right to have access to a clinic was protected and also that the right of those who wish to protest was properly respected."

The buffer zones were established as hundreds of abortion opponents prepared to converge on Buffalo for a week of protests. Fearing a repeat of the violence and hundreds of arrests that occurred at a similar 1992 event, authorities in April 1999 successfully sought to keep protesters as far as 60 feet away from GYN Womenservices and 30 feet away from Planned Parenthood in Rochester during Operation Save America.

Demonstrators, under the watch of an army of law enforcement officers, honored the buffer zones.

Following the July 26 ruling, the Rev. Flip Benham, national director of Operation Rescue, indicated that protesters might not be as compliant in the future. Referring to planned demonstrations in St. Louis later this month, Benham said, "this time we will not abide by any judicial injunction at all. We simply are going to stand where God tells us to stand."

Should the group protest in Buffalo again, he said, "there is no way we will allow the court to censor the gospel of Jesus Christ from those people who need us most."

In his 125-page ruling, Arcara cited witness testimony about death threats and other intimidation tactics used against patients and clinic employees.

In one case, a day after Slepian's murder, a doctor entering his Rochester office was told by a protester "I hope you're next, you're next," court papers show.

At GYN Womenservices, where protesters once blocked the sidewalk and clinic driveway, the new buffer zone has forced them across the street.

"For the patients and the staff it's been wonderful to have the protesters across the street," Dubois said, "and for Judge Arcara to make it permanent is a major relief for us all."

Update

Expanded N.Y. abortion-clinic buffer zones struck down
Federal appeals court says judge went too far in extending protest-free zones outside two facilities.  11.27.01

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Federal judge orders expanded buffer zones at N.Y. abortion clinics
Organizers of weeklong anti-abortion protests call court order an attack on free speech.  04.16.99