Hundreds Are Arrested in Anti-Abortion Protests

Hundreds of anti-abortion protesters were arrested in several cities Saturday as they blocked women from entering abortion clinics one day after the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.

Protesters in Washington, D.C., glued shut the doors of an abortion clinic, chained themselves to a homemade metal blockade and used cars and a “human wall” to block entrances at other clinics.

Police arrested 165 people for blocking one Washington, D.C., clinic. Another 147 protesters were arrested outside three other clinics in the city.

Dallas police arrested about 30 anti-abortion protesters Saturday morning after they went inside the A to Z Women’s Health Center, turned off the electricity and blocked the entrance to the clinic.

In Philadelphia, nearly 60 anti-abortion pickets seeking to blockade two downtown women’s clinics were arrested after skirmishes with abortion-rights protesters seeking to escort women inside, police said.

And in Milwaukee, 15 protesters were taken into custody after some tried to block the doors to an abortion clinic.

On Friday, President Clinton signed a series of executive orders that removed restrictions placed by his Republican predecessors on abortion counseling and medical research using fetal tissue.

Clinton’s actions were cheered by the medical community and abortion-rights advocates.

“I feel like I have just had the shackles taken off of me,” said Dr. Pamela Maraldo, president of Planned Parenthood. “I feel like the President took the White House out of the dinosaur age on this issue.”

In Augusta, Me., a crowd of 2,000 staged an anti-abortion protest.

“God help the politicians who have gone with the popular sway of the pro-abortion movement to get elected,” Pastor Ron Durham of the Abundant Life Church of Bangor, Me., said.

The clinic blockades were carried out a day after tens of thousands marched to protest the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.