NOW Files Antitrust Suit Against Major Abortion Foes

The National Organization for Women, citing “a rising tide of anti-abortion violence nationwide,” announced Tuesday that it has filed suit in federal court seeking to curb prominent abortion foes and their organizations.

“We believe there is a reign of terror going on, and the Justice Department is not willing to pursue this in a nationwide way,” NOW President Eleanor Smeal said.

The antitrust lawsuit, filed Monday in Wilmington, Del., names Joseph Scheidler, leader of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League; John Patrick Ryan, head of the St. Louis-based Pro-Life Direct Action League, and Joan Andrews, of Newark, Del., who is jailed and awaiting trial June 23 on assault charges stemming from an abortion clinic protest in Florida.

The lawsuit accuses the abortion opponents of mounting a nationwide conspiracy to drive abortion clinics out of business through intimidation and harassment.

It charges that such actions violate federal antitrust laws.

The suit requests an injunction barring the activists from entering clinics, vandalizing clinic property and “activities designed to harass and intimidate.”

“I’m not intimidated by this,” Scheidler said Tuesday. Ryan vowed to step up protests.

“There is no way we’re going to stop,” Andrews said.

In 1985, four bombings, 75 bomb threats and more than 200 “acts of violence” against abortion clinics were recorded by the National Abortion Federation. The latest bombing extensively damaged a clinic in Wichita, Kan., Monday.