Operation Rescue Plans More Protests

The militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue will return next Saturday to pray, sing and block the entrances to Southland abortion clinics.

Leaders predicted that at least 1,000 demonstrators, including fresh recruits, will participate in sit-ins planned for 70 cities throughout the country, said Ken Tanner, executive director of the Operation Rescue Southern California branch, a regional base for the New York organization.

Without out-of-town support, including the leadership of Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, Tanner said, “I think everyone will stand up and notice this is a local thing.” Joseph Foreman, the group’s national field director, will supervise the Southern California demonstrations.

Both abortion rights activists and police are bracing for a repeat of 3-day March campaign that resulted in more than 1,000 arrests.

Friday Night Rallies

In law enforcement agencies “people just shrug their shoulders, shake their heads and say, ‘Here we go again,’ ” said Orange Police Department spokesman Timm Browne. “I personally believe,” he said, that this is one issue “that the bulk of society wishes would go away.”

As in the previous protests, demonstrators will be told at a rally the night before where to congregate on the morning of the protest, when the targets will be announced. There will be two rallies at 7 p.m. Friday. One will be at the First Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. in Pasadena; the other, at St. Norbert Catholic Church, 300 E. Taft Ave. in Orange.

Abortion rights activists say they plan to remain on the offensive and will be awaiting the opposing side Saturday at clinics in Cypress, Tustin and Orange where abortions are scheduled.

Local activists said they have sent flyers announcing the April 29 demonstrations to 600 volunteers who defended the clinics last month. About 100 more who called in to offer help are being contacted by telephone this week, said Barbara Martinez, coordinator of the North Orange County National Organization for Women.

“It’s easy now,” Martinez said of getting support. “People come to us. They’re motivated and mobilized.”

Because it has inflamed pro-choice advocates with its blockades, Operation Rescue has helped galvanize abortion rights proponents, who sent nearly 500,000 supporters--including a 40-member contingent from Orange County--to a rally in Washington April 9.

Operation Rescue’s three blockades in March in Cypress, Long Beach and Los Angeles drew large placard-waving crowds and took on a theatrical air with the appearances of celebrities and politicians as well as tactical gamesmanship, secret convoys and spies with portable phones. Operation Rescue’s Garden Grove office building was vandalized, and a smoke bomb was tossed into the group’s rally at Melodyland in Anaheim. As a result, organizers have moved their offices to secret places, Tanner said.

Arraignments

The 373 protesters arrested March 23 at Family Planning Associates Medical Group in Cypress will be arraigned Wednesday in Municipal Court in Westminster on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly. Most of the cases are expected to be resolved that day without trial, said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Weinberg.

In Los Angeles, 771 protesters arrested in a blockade of the Family Planning Associates on Westmoreland Avenue were arraigned Friday on misdemeanor charges of trespassing, obstructing a public way and failure to disperse. So far, 110 have pleaded no contest to the charges, receiving a 6 months’ summary probation during which they are barred from joining protests in the city of Los Angeles only.

Randall Terry and four other leaders also arrested in that demonstration will face misdemeanor conspiracy charges when their cases come to trial.

Abortion Statistics--Information about the numbers of abortions performed in Orange County and about abortion services appears in Orange County Life, Page 2.