$5,000 Fines Urged in Abortion Protest

Attorneys for a coalition of pro-choice organizations said Monday that they will ask a federal judge to fine anti-abortion protesters an estimated $5,000 each for allegedly violating a court order during a series of demonstrations at California women’s clinics last month.

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima set a June 6 hearing to determine whether the protesters were in contempt of his order prohibiting them from blocking the entrances to clinics during 10 demonstrations that were part of “Operation Rescue.”

But defense lawyers said Operation Rescue leaders would challenge any contempt citations and vowed to carry out more civil disobedience during about 70 demonstrations planned for the National Day of Rescue on Saturday.

“There’s a crisis coming on where the orders of this judge are going to have to be applied against some pretty significant portions of this country,” said Robert Sassone, an attorney for Randy Adler, head of one of the organization’s affiliate groups.

“I expect April 29 you will probably see more Americans arrested than were arrested in the entire history of the civil rights movement,” Sassone said.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union foundations of Southern California and San Diego said they have proposed fining individual demonstrators $5,000 for each violation of the court’s order and organizations $10,000 for each violation, in addition to assessments for damaged property and attorney fees.

The plaintiffs, including the National Abortion Federation and a variety of family planning groups, said demonstrators repeatedly violated Tashima’s preliminary injunction by blocking the entrances to clinics last month during demonstrations in Los Angeles, Cypress, Long Beach, Escondido, Chico, Fresno, Oakland and elsewhere.

Pattern of Conduct

The protesters, they argued, “have engaged in a deliberate and persistent pattern of conduct which demonstrates nothing short of a total disregard for the harm their activities cause to the plaintiffs and to the court’s authority.”

ACLU lawyer Carol A. Sobel argued it is “imperative” for the court to impose civil contempt sanctions against the protesters, most of whom, she said, have been promised by Operation Rescue leaders that they face little more than “a mild slap on the hand” for their activities.

Sassone said he will argue both that his client, Adler, was not in contempt of the court’s order and that the order itself was so vague that it was unconstitutional.

But he said the protesters are also basing their arguments on a higher law.

“The vast majority of people who call themselves Christians are never tested, and when they are really tested, some will give up everything, rather than their faith,” he said. “You can’t just say to someone who’s starving, ‘Bless you, my brother, I hope someone gives you some food.’ This is going to put the people of America who claim to be Christians to a test.”