347 Arrested at Protest Over Abortion

Nearly 350 people attempting to prevent women from having abortions on Good Friday were arrested outside a city health center during a peaceful demonstration by activists on both sides of the issue.

Police said about 800 people, both opponents and supporters of legal abortion, demonstrated outside the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women. The opponents of abortion, praying and singing, were surrounded by an even larger and more vocal group of abortion rights advocates who chanted and yelled obscenities from behind police barricades.

Clinic Director Jean Hunt said most of the 20 abortions scheduled Friday were performed despite the protest.

Protest organizers nevertheless insisted that no abortions were performed.

Police began making arrests about 11 a.m., lifting anti-abortionists onto stretchers and carrying them into buses. The 347 protesters were taken to a temporary holding facility at Family Court where they were issued citations for blocking a public highway and released.

Attorney Philip Berg, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor as an abortion rights advocate, attended the demonstration.

Michael McMonagle, a spokesman for the opponents of abortion, said the Good Friday demonstration is traditionally the group’s largest of the year. He said it is held at the Blackwell clinic because most others are closed for the Christian holiday.