Protests will go on, anti-abortion groups vow after courtroom loss

The Associated Press

04.21.98

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CHICAGO -- Opening the door for claims across the nation, a federal jury relying on a racketeering law aimed at the mob said threats and violence used by anti-abortion leaders amounted to extortion.

Defense attorneys immediately promised an appeal of Monday's landmark decision that could cost the movement millions of dollars. Anti-abortion leaders said protests would go on, though one said demonstrations may become more "prayerful."

"This is the biggest courtroom defeat for the anti-abortion movement ever," said Fay Clayton, a National Organization for Women attorney who fought to keep the class-action lawsuit alive through 12 years of pre-trial skirmishing.

The jury of two men and four women returned its verdict against activists Joseph Scheidler, Andrew Scholberg and Timothy Murphy, as well as two anti-abortion groups, the Pro-Life Action League and Operation Rescue.

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry originally was named in the lawsuit. But already facing $169,000 in court awards from two other lawsuits, he settled with NOW in January and was no longer part of the case.

The defendants played a major role in organizing clinic blockades that sometimes flared into violence. But they said they are against violence and shouldn't be blamed for the excesses of others.

They were sued by NOW and two clinics that have been the targets of some of those demonstrations.

Following a six-week trial before U.S. district court Judge David Coar, the jury found that the defendants banded together in a nationwide extortion campaign based on violence and threats designed to force clinics to close.

The jury awarded nearly $86,000 in damages, but the amount will be tripled to $258,000 because the lawsuit was filed under the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations law, known as RICO. And perhaps 1,000 other clinics across the nation will now be eligible to seek triple damages.

"They want to bankrupt us--there's no question about that," Scheidler, executive director of the league, said as he left court.

The 1970 racketeering law was intended to fight organized crime but has been used against business in recent years. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1994 that RICO could be used in a class-action suit against the anti-abortion movement.

"RICO is terribly flawed, fatally vague and overbroad," said one defense attorney, Tom Brejcha. "Combined with use of federal or state statutes against those who would engage in peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience, RICO tramples the First Amendment."

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago called the decision "unjust" and said the archdiocese might join in the appeal.

"The decision in this case effectively equates freedom of speech with racketeering," he said. "If the courts had been used to stop the organized sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the South in the '60s, there would have been no civil rights movement."

Coar scheduled a hearing for Wednesday at which he is expected to discuss a court order to curb violence at clinics.

Coar barred abortion-rights attorneys from introducing evidence that they claimed would tie the defendants to more than a decade of bombings and arsons at clinics around the country. But he allowed them to tell jurors of doctors and patients being grabbed, pushed, struck with protest signs and threatened.

"A jury of six men and women saw through the thugs' shameless attempt to pervert the First Amendment," NOW President Patricia Ireland said.

Scheidler said the verdict wouldn't deter the movement from pushing ahead with demonstrations.

"We're still going to be at the abortion mills, probably in greater numbers, but in a more prayerful spirit," Scheidler said.

He said the most militant protests have ended in recent years and that lately demonstrators have begun to hand out rosaries and ask potential patients to pray with them.

"We wanted to come out as a legitimate force in America and not as racketeers," Scheidler said. "There is no honor in being a racketeer and we're not racketeers."

The damages were awarded to clinics in Milwaukee and Wilmington, Del., for security measures required after violence flared outside their doors.

After the verdict, Wendy Crew, an attorney for New Woman All Women Clinic of Birmingham, Ala., said the clinic may seek triple damages under the ruling. A security guard was killed and a nurse seriously injured there Jan. 29 in the first fatal bombing of a U.S. abortion clinic.

There have been no arrests.

• Attorneys for pro-life activists deny 'conspiracy' accusations 3.6.98