Anti-Abortion Activist Begins Jail Sentence for Trespassing

Abortion opponent Connie Youngkin began serving a 60-day sentence Thursday at Las Colinas Jail in Santee for trespassing at a La Mesa abortion clinic.

Youngkin, a 42-year-old registered nurse and a local leader of the national Operation Rescue movement, was convicted by a jury on the misdemeanor charge last March.

She was ordered to begin serving her sentence after the New Year’s holiday. She turned herself in about 8 a.m. Thursday for what will be her second stint as an inmate at the jail.

“I’ve got my house all cleaned and the grocery shopping done. Things are in order,” Youngkin said Wednesday from her Poway home, where she lives with her husband and three children.

When Youngkin was convicted of the sole charge in March, she was the only Republican challenging 76th District Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter in the June primary. Youngkin lost.

Because of the election, Youngkin posted bail for an appeal allowing her to remain free. She asked for a reduction in her sentence, but, because of a previous conviction, the request was denied.

Already, Youngkin has served 40 days for a 1989 conviction in San Diego for misdemeanor conspiracy and aiding and abetting charges in another abortion protest associated with Operation Rescue, which espouses civil disobedience in its fight to ban abortion.

“I don’t regret this at all,” Youngkin said. “I feel that it is very important for me to go in because right now there are five babies that are alive that have already been born that would have been aborted if we had not done what we had done.”

Youngkin was arrested with 199 other adults during an October, 1989, demonstration in front of the Family Planning Clinic offices in a Fletcher Parkway medical building in La Mesa.

More than 500 people converged on the building in the early morning in a show of support for San Diego-area abortion opponents.

Sixty-six of those arrested faced trial, and the majority were convicted by juries. Several more were acquitted during a series of multiple-defendant trials in El Cajon in January, February and March of last year.

Following those trials, abortion opponents worked to elect candidates in the November election. Youngkin was an organizer of a slate of 90 candidates for local offices. More than 50 won posts.

Youngkin said she is considering running for office in 1992.