Abortion Foes Say Protesters Act Up : Law: Operation Rescue members want activists opposing them prosecuted for indecent exposure. They demonstrate at court, appeal to City Council for support.

When Operation Rescue is not grabbing headlines with huge demonstrations that often draw hundreds of people, its members settle for smaller actions--routine, weekend prayer vigils and weekday “Minute Man Rescues” in front of abortion clinics.

But for the past year, these militant abortion foes say they have been increasingly outraged by the antics of counterdemonstrators.

Members of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, spit on, kiss and stick needles into Operation Rescue members and then shout “Welcome to the world of AIDS,” claims Bill Soucie, a Glendale abortion foe.

Some ACT UP members push and shove Operation Rescue members, while others drop their trousers and moon their opponents or lift T-shirts to expose their breasts, he said.

Operation Rescue members are fed up, Soucie said, and they are asking police and the district attorney’s office to prosecute the offenders for indecent exposure.

Two weeks ago, Operation Rescue members went to El Monte to march in front of Rio Hondo Municipal Court after the district attorney dropped charges stemming from a June 29 rally at Clinica Eva on nearby Valley Boulevard.

Tuesday, they plan to lobby the El Monte City Council for a sympathy vote for their cause.

“They do this to us all the time, and they’ve been getting away with it,” said Monika Moreno, of Operation Rescue in Anaheim. “But we’re not willing to take it anymore.”

Vicious lies, respond ACT UP members.

Referring to allegations that his group’s members kiss or spit at abortion foes or stick them with needles, David Barton, an ACT UP member in Orange County, said, “I have never heard of that being done, and I’ve gone to a lot of these demonstrations.” As for the pushing and shoving, it happens on both sides, he said.

Nudity, however, is another matter, Barton said.

“Sure, it’s militant behavior,” he said. “These people are so offensive to us, we do whatever we can to offend them.”

Barton and other ACT UP members say Operation Rescue is making a legal mountain out of a molehill of flesh.

“It doesn’t happen often enough for us to be concerned about it,” Barton said. “They’re wasting taxpayer money, and time, because they can’t handle (seeing) a naked body.”

The nudity brouhaha is just the latest battle in what has become an ongoing war between the two groups.

ACT UP joined abortion supporters nearly two years ago when AIDS activists realized that demonstrators against abortion and family planning clinics were the same ones heckling them at “Gay Pride” parades, Barton said. ACT UP members lobbying for more health care also realized that the issues were similar for abortion rights supporters, he added.

Now, members of ACT UP and Operation Rescue regularly confront each other, said Judy Kristel, an ACT UP member from Fullerton.

Despite attempts at secrecy by Operation Rescue members, ACT UP has often been able to discover the location of predawn rallying points and tries to confront opponents there first.

Later, on the road to the clinics, ACT UP members often will pull their cars ahead of the Operation Rescue caravan and brake to a crawl, Kristel said.

Once at the clinic, it’s a race to get to the doors first. Then it’s whistles and shouting against prayer and hymn-singing; round blue signs reading “Keep Abortion Legal” against round red signs inscribed with “Save Unborn Babies.”

Nudity is sometimes just a spontaneous action, said Kristel, who exposed her breasts at the June 29 demonstration. Her action and that of three others who exposed themselves was videotaped and the tape given to El Monte police for possible prosecution.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. James Prudhomme last month decided not to file charges, a decision that outraged Operation Rescue members, who asked that Prudhomme’s supervisors take another look.

Richard Sullivan, an administrator in the district attorney’s office, reviewed the case and backed Prudhomme. Misdemeanor violations of state law on indecent exposure require exposing of genitals, touching of genitals or buttocks, or the intent to sexually arouse, he said.

“What’s the difference between this and your high school mooner?” Sullivan said. “It’s that kind of thing.”

Operation Rescue members say they are not satisfied and now may pursue civil lawsuits while appealing to the El Monte City Council for support.

“This is scary,” Soucie said. “It means (ACT UP members) could come into our churches and drop their pants.”

But ACT UP members scoff and say such statements underline Operation Rescue members’ fears.

“It’s fear of sex; hatred of their own bodies,” Barton said. “These people are just repressed.”