When Abortion Protests Turn Terrorist : New laws seek to curb picketing aimed at individual homes

The March 11 shooting death of Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Fla., by an anti-abortion demonstrator continues to reverberate across the nation. In California, a state legislator is responding with a proposal to curb picketing that targets individual homes.

But Tustin--where the home of a family planning clinic director has been targeted by anti-abortion demonstrators--isn’t waiting for the Legislature to act. The Orange County city joined half a dozen or so California municipalities that have adopted ordinances restricting such picketing while still allowing peaceful demonstrations in residential neighborhoods. These restrictions are appropriate responses to the harassment perpetrated by some activists whose clear aim is to terrorize clinic personnel who are offering abortion services within the law.

In the wake of the Gunn murder, Naomi Hardin, director of Doctors’ Family Planning Clinic in Tustin, told the Tustin City Council that she feared for her safety and that of her family.

Anti-abortion demonstrators have for years targeted Hardin’s clinic, but in recent months demonstrations have been staged in front of Hardin’s Tustin home.

Fashioning a law that both preserves the right to privacy in one’s own home while upholding free-speech rights is not easy. In this, Tustin had the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1988 upheld a Brookfield, Wis., ordinance restricting the right of abortion opponents to demonstrate at homes.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the majority, said the Brookfield ordinance passed constitutional muster because it focused only on picketing directly in front of a person’s home while leaving open numerous other ways for protesters to convey their message. They can, for example, parade down the street in front of houses, including the home of someone they want to target. But, O’Connor said, “The state’s interest in protecting the well-being, tranquillity, and privacy of the home is certainly of the highest order in a free and civilized society.” Well said.

Among the California cities with ordinances using these guidelines are Glendale, Burbank, San Jose and Davis, all of which acted in response to anti-abortion demonstrators. Santa Ana and Los Angeles County have similar ordinances.

A measure by state Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier) would make California the first state to adopt guidelines allowed under the Brookfield case. The bill deserves support.

New laws obviously are needed to make clear that although demonstrators definitely have a right to protest, they are out of bounds when they seek to harass by targeting people in their own homes.