8 Operation Rescue Members Get Jail Terms

Eight members of Operation Rescue on Monday each received six-month jail terms for their convictions for failing to leave a protest outside a West Los Angeles abortion clinic in 1989.

The defendants, including a 61-year-old grandmother, received the maximum terms in Van Nuys Municipal Court for the misdemeanor convictions after each rejected an offer from Judge Greg Marcus to sentence them to two years’ probation.

Marcus asked the 12 defendants, who were convicted last week in the June 10, 1989, protest at the Midland Medical Clinic, to accept probation. All but four refused.

The rules of probation require that all laws be obeyed and many of the protesters said that would prevent them from efforts to “rescue” unborn fetuses at abortion clinics.

“I can’t accept probation,” Jean Rubel, an Anaheim grandmother, said outside court before sentencing. “I can’t say that for two years I won’t go to rescue a baby. We believe so strongly in this that (rejecting probation) is necessary.”