Abortion Protests Held at 9 Clinics; No Arrests

Hundreds of anti-abortion protesters, doggedly shadowed by pro-choice activists, staged a series of boisterous, hit-and-run demonstrations on Saturday at nine medical or family planning clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties that ended noisily but peacefully.

Police reported no arrests in the far-flung demonstrations that targeted clinics in Inglewood, Long Beach, Orange, Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in what organizers called the most sweeping anti-abortion protest to date in Southern California.

But anti-abortion protesters were met at each stop by an equal number of vocal, pro-choice advocates who moved quickly from one demonstration site to another, seeking to keep clinics open. Although police reported a few altercations between the rival groups, the two sides dueled primarily with protest signs, verbal attacks and rival chants.

Afterward, leaders of both camps claimed their goals Saturday had been accomplished.

“We were able to shut down clinics today,” said Pastor John Behnke, a spokesman for Operation Rescue, the New York-based organization that sponsored the demonstrations. “This was without a doubt the largest rescue because we were able to cover all these sites . . . and babies were rescued.”

But Kathy Spillar, national coordinator of the Fund for the Feminist Majority, disputed Behnke’s contention that clinics were forced to close.

“Operation Rescue tried a lot of new tactics today,” Spillar said, “but we were able to outsmart them the entire way, keep clinics open and keep patient (appointments).”

Orange to Sherman Oaks

Spillar, whose organization is part of a coalition that has rallied against the anti-abortion activists, said pro-choice demonstrators confronted members of Operation Rescue at nine sites ranging from the city of Orange to Sherman Oaks.

The largest gathering was at a pair of women’s medical clinics located within two blocks of each other on Pico Boulevard about 10 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. Police closed the major thoroughfare as nearly 1,000 people, divided nearly evenly between pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates, surrounded clinics at the Pico Women’s Medical Group and the Women’s Medical Center of Los Angeles.

One of those who showed up at the Pico Boulevard protest was Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, who is on trial in Los Angeles Municipal Court with four others on trespassing and conspiracy charges stemming from a similar anti-abortion protest last March.

As he walked among the crowd, Terry was both the target of jeers and insults from pro-choice demonstrators, who encircled him, and shouts of encouragement from supporters who jostled to stay near him.

At one point, the crowd pressed so closely around Terry that his supporters hoisted him to a rooftop parking lot to get him away from pro-choice demonstrators.

Protection Declined

Los Angeles Police Officer Tom Garvin said he offered protection to Terry, which he declined, after police received an erroneous report that he “was being held hostage” by the unruly crowd.

The incident underscored the tense atmosphere at some of the protest sites. At the HER Clinic on Figueroa Boulevard in Los Angeles, several pushing and shoving matches erupted as the crowd swelled to about 300.

“We saw more confrontations between people,” said Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon. “They seemed to be more agitated against one another. The (officers) all reported that, in every location.”

At the Family Planning Assn. Medical Group building in Inglewood, about 200 Operation Rescue protesters dispersed after police warned them they faced arrest. And at the Family Planning Associates Medical Group clinic on Westmoreland Avenue west of downtown Los Angeles, about 125 protesters who staged a sit-down demonstration outside the clinic were moments away from being arrested before leaving, police said.

Last June, Los Angeles police arrested about 250 protesters and used a martial arts-like device to break up the demonstration.

Times staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.

* RELATED PICTURE: Part I, Page 1