New Security Precautions, Police Patrols : Abortion Clinics on Alert Since Arson Attack

Last September, when Dr. Carol Roberts learned that there had been a fire at the Birth Control Institute, her first thought was that a forgotten cigarette might have caused the blaze.

But when she saw the damage from the early morning blaze, she knew that a long-smoldering cigarette wasn’t the culprit. The clinic director remembers saying to herself, “Well, it has finally happened.”

The Sept. 13 fire at the El Cajon Boulevard clinic was the 14th arson attack against abortion clinics nationwide last year, and the first in California.

The Metro Arson Strike Team reported that the fire was started about 4:30 a.m. with a flammable liquid. Because no one except the arsonist was there, no one was injured in the blaze, which destroyed three rooms and caused about $80,000 in damage.

Besieged by Media When the Birth Control Institute reopened two months later, Roberts found that her life had suddenly changed. The modest clinic was the focus of attention from the news media. And the notoriety has not died.

“I’m lucky if I get one thing accomplished during the day,” she said. “Last Monday was the first day that . . . not a member of the press called.”

Since the Birth Control Institute fire, abortion clinics in San Diego are working more closely with police and other law enforcement agencies to beef up security. The clinics have installed alarm systems and added security guards. Their staff members are watching everyone who enters or even approaches the clinic more closely.

Staff members have plenty of reason for concern. Two weeks ago, Womancare, Planned Parenthood on College Avenue and California Woman’s Medical Clinic received bomb threats. No bombs were found.

Roberts said the Birth Control Institute has installed a high-tech alarm system with sound monitoring, plus smoke and fire detectors. Floodlights have also been installed around the building, she said.

The clinic has about 1,000 clients a month, the same number as before the fire, she said, and less than 20% of them come for abortions. No attacks have occurred since the clinic reopened.

The center does not attract as many picketers now as it did last summer, when anti-abortion marchers ranged from a dozen to more than 100, she said. In July, clinic officials obtained an injunction that prohibits members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship from picketing near the clinic’s entrance.

“Now we have a few stray picketers on Saturday morning, but that’s about it,” Roberts said. She added that the staff is “a little bit more cautious now” of strange people hanging around the clinic.

Since the fire, the San Diego Police Department has increased patrols around all abortion clinics in the city. Police Lt. Ron Seden said the department is monitoring the activity of those who assemble at clinics. Police also have urged clinics to install strong locks and windows that are not pried opened easily.

Clinic staff members have been advised “to keep their eyes and ears open to strange or questionable activity, and to let us know when anything of this nature is taking place,” Seden said. The most important thing staff members can do, Seden said, is “be willing to identify (suspects) and assist us in the prosecution, and be willing to get involved.”

The Birth Control Institute long has had a contingency plan of a fire drill-type evacuation and a list of people to call if something severe happens to the building. “I think we feel very well protected at this point,” Roberts said.

From two to 80 picketers still congregate on the sidewalks near the California Pregnancy Counseling Service Inc. on Alvarado Road, said a manager at the clinic who would not give her name. The picketers, who usually come on weekends, have not caused any major problems, she said.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have advised the clinic’s staff members to call the bureau or police if they receive any strange-looking letters or packages that could be letter bombs.

The clinic also has a security guard on duty during the weekends and has had an alarm system for several years. California Pregnancy Counseling Service has not received any bomb threats, the spokeswoman said, adding that “We’re not anticipating any problems.”

During September and October, she said, picketers who were members of the Rev. Dorman Owens’ Bible Missionary Fellowship Church would verbally “threaten both the patients and the employees they came in contact with. People were getting quite upset.” Many clients said they were not coming back until that group was gone.

In December, California Pregnancy Counseling Service obtained a preliminary injunction from San Diego Superior Court that restricts protesters from Owens’ church and the Independent Baptist Church from congregating in the clinic’s doorway.

“Picketers we get now do not use those abusive verbal tactics,” the spokeswoman said. The number of clients coming to the center has remained the same, she said, but she would not give any figures.

A few clients “call and ask us if we have picketers, fearing that there might be some sort of violence,” she said. If the clinic were damaged, patients would be transferred to an affiliate office in Los Angeles or Orange counties. The clinic also has a private doctor for emergencies, she said.

All Visitors Screened After the fire at the Birth Control Institute, Womancare Health Center on 4th Avenue installed an alarm system and hired a security guard, said director Cindy Pearson. All people entering the center are screened to make sure they have appointments or valid reasons for being on the premises.

The center photographs everyone who pickets the office and shares the pictures with local law enforcement officials, she said. San Diego police have visited the center and advised the staff to trim trees and shrubbery so a terrorist would have no place to leave a bomb, Pearson said. Clients have been advised that they might be harassed as they arrive at clinic, she said, and volunteers have been recruited to escort clients through picketers.

“We are very outspoken about the fact that we are determined to protect our clinic,” Pearson said. If the clinic was damaged, “we have a tentative agreement with other clinics to use their facilities,” she said.

Pearson said although she has not detected paranoia among staff members, “I would definitely say that people are on the alert. They have a positive response to the threat.”

Staff members were calm during the latest bomb threat because they realize that “it’s an easy way to disrupt our business,” Pearson said. “We, of course, took it seriously, but no one was upset.”

Womancare had about 15 to 50 picketers four times a week from June to October, she said. The clinic obtained an injunction in late September that restricts picketers to the other side of the street.

“It (the injunction) lessened the really vicious emotions that would show,” Pearson said. The picketers would shout such phrases as “I’m gonna laugh on Judgment Day when I see your face and you’re burning;” “Your clinic’s gonna burn in a lake of fire,” and “God has a furnace for sinners, and he’s gonna turn it up extra hot for you,” she said.

The clinic still gets about six to 50 picketers on weekends, she said. Womancare serves about 500 clients per month, and about one-third of them come for abortions, Pearson said. The picketers have not caused a decrease in the number of clients.

Jim Stathes, an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said, “We’re working very closely with (the clinics) and are giving them the benefit of our experience.” The federal agency is doing everything it can to protect the clinics, Stathes said, but “we can’t patrol the places around the clock. We know that and they know that.”