Abortion Foes Rally Outside Clinic

About 30 anti-abortion protesters picketed a family planning clinic in Ventura on Tuesday, one of a series of rallies scheduled during Easter week across California. Mostly women and children attended the peaceful rally at Family Planning Associates, a clinic offering a complete range of gynecological services, including abortions.

Joy Warren, 16, a veteran of several protests, attended the rally Tuesday.

“When you go to a rescue you come back different, you realize abortion is spiritual war, not just a political war,” she said. “I think it is for the good; I’ve grown each time I’ve been to one.”

Unlike rallies across Southern California last year, Tuesday’s event, sponsored by Operation Rescue, drew no counterdemonstrators from abortion rights groups.

“Operation Rescue is going down the tubes,” said Nicolette Worley, the Ventura-Oxnard coordinator for the National Organization for Women. “They can’t sustain themselves; they don’t represent the mainstream.”

Worley said NOW prefers spending its time and effort in the courtroom and in the Legislature, getting representatives elected who are in favor of abortion rights.

Several picketers said they were offering sidewalk counseling to women who were not aware or unsure of their decision--a claim denied by clinic officials.

“People in this community know we are here and the service we perform,” said Carrie Lafata, clinic manager. “They come to us for a specific reason; they don’t call us when they are unsure.”