S.D. Police Arrest 128 Protesting Abortions

San Diego police using “pain compliance” methods arrested 128 anti-abortion demonstrators Saturday in a hallway at the Midway Medical Center, where they blocked women from entering the offices of a doctor they say performs abortions.

In a maneuver designed to trick police and counter-demonstrators, the abortion protesters picketed quietly outside three other locations in the Hillcrest area Saturday morning, allowing patients to enter. Those protesters dispersed just before noon.

While police and pro-choice advocates focused on the Hillcrest locations, another group of anti-abortion demonstrators converged about 11:45 a.m. in a first floor hallway at the Midway center outside the office of Dr. Phillip Rand, an obstetrician and gynecologist. The center is next to Sharp Cabrillo Hospital in the Loma Portal neighborhood.

By the time police and pro-choice counter demonstrators arrived, the anti-abortion goup was firmly ensconced inside the medical center hallway. They apparently prevented all of Rand’s patients from entering Saturday afternoon.

“We didn’t know. I think that’s fairly obvious,” said Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department. “We assumed the demonstration was over, but obviously they had planned this.”

Cohen said that after the demonstrators arrived, a woman who had gone to Rand’s office because she was experiencing a tubal pregnancy had to be escorted on foot to the emergency room at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital. “She was very distraught,” Cohen said.

Through his answering service, Rand said he did not enter the office Saturday and had no further comment on the day’s events.

The San Diego demonstrations were part of a nationwide anti-abortion push called “Operation Rescue,” which brought hundreds of arrests Saturday in cities throughout the country and prompted a large turnout of counter-demonstrators.

The San Diego demonstrators, who call themselves Project Rescue, are under a federal court injunction won by the American Civil Liberties Union ordering them not to block the entrances to the clinics and offices.

117 Arrested

Two weeks ago, 117 people were arrested as they tried to block access to the office of a Hillcrest doctor.

There were no federal officials on hand Saturday to enforce the injunction at the Midway Medical Center. Instead, about 60 San Diego police officers, acting on a complaint from medical center officials, gave the demonstrators at least two opportunities to leave, Cohen said.

“They have been repeatedly told they are in violation of the law,” he said. “None of them got up and left.”

Police then began a tedious process of arresting the demonstrators one-by-one and removing them from the building. After several hours, the demonstrators agreed to leave in groups of about 20.

Protesters who resisted or went limp were put in “pain-compliance holds,” Cohen said. Frequently, this involved the use of nunchakus, hard plastic handles with nylon rope strung between them. The rope is wrapped around a subject’s arms and squeezed with the handles to cause pain sufficient to make the person stand up and walk on his own. A number of demonstrators left the building walking, but groaning.

Charged With Trespassing

All were charged with trespassing and those who would not walk out on their own also were charged with resisting arrest. All 128 arrested were cited and released.

“Our goals and objectives are always the same, to prevent the killing of unborn children,” said Sylvia Sullivan, a spokeswoman for Project Rescue.

Earlier Saturday, about 150 men, women and children from Project Rescue sang religious songs and prayed as they paced the sidewalks in front of Womancare Clinic at 2850 6th Ave., and the building that houses the offices of Dr. Donald G. Byrnes at 3330 3rd Ave. They also picketed another of Rand’s offices, at 3367 4th Ave.

Photos of Fetuses

The anti-abortion protesters displayed photographs of fetuses, while about 40 counter-demonstrators representing Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women carried signs and shouted slogans at the Project Rescue marchers across the street.

Members of pro-choice groups were waiting with a long net early Saturday as the anti-abortion demonstrators arrived at the Womancare offices. The pro-choice advocates strung the net in front of the building, closing off a courtyard and preventing the demonstrators from getting close to the building entrance.

Escorted Women

“Operation Rescue’s efforts have totally failed,” said Patricia O’Neil, associate director of Womancare who, along with about 20 others donned fluorescent orange vests and escorted women into the building. O’Neil said the clinic saw its normal load of about 40 women Saturday morning.

Cohen said the anti-abortion demonstrators apparently had not prevented anyone from entering the offices at any of the three Hillcrest locations.

“All the babies who were scheduled to die today were, in fact killed,” said Dr. Robert Barron Jr., a physician who picketed with Project Rescue outside Womancare.

The anti-abortion protesters approached women as they stepped out of their cars in the near the Hillcrest locations and asked them if they were there to have an abortion. Almost immediately, pro-choice “escorts” intervened to help the women past the demonstrators.

Meanwhile, Womancare workers tried to pass out condoms to the anti-abortion demonstrators.