Bombing Hits Newport Beach Abortion Clinic

A bomb shattered the windows of a Newport Beach clinic that performs abortions early Friday morning. The blast injured no one, but rattled nerves and stoked fears about the increasing nationwide trend toward violence against abortion clinics and doctors that perform abortions.

Police were called to the Family Planning Associates clinic in the 4500 block of Birch Street, about a block from John Wayne Airport, about 7 a.m. after employees arrived to find two 40-square-foot windows flanking the front door destroyed.

The explosion at the one-story brick building occurred while the clinic was closed overnight. Its usual 8 a.m. opening was delayed several hours, forcing some patients to go to the clinic’s branch in Orange. But by late morning, business was running as usual and by early afternoon the windows were repaired.

Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said the timing of the explosion was lucky.

“No one was injured, but there was definitely the potential for injury if someone had been inside of the building or had been passing by,” Gonis said.

There were no suspects in the bombing, and Gonis would not say whether any notes or other clues had been left behind that might offer any leads. Police bomb experts were called to the scene, but said it could be weeks before they could identify what type of explosive had caused the damage.

A handful of protesters have been picketing and distributing leaflets several times a week outside the clinic, which offers abortions as well as a range of other medical services for women.

A suspected arson fire outside the clinic’s front door in the middle of the night inflicted $9,000 in damage to the lobby in July, 1992, but no other violent episodes have occurred there, said Michael Monji, an administrator with Family Planning Associates Medical Group, the Long Beach-based organization that runs the Newport Beach clinic.

Family Planning Associates, headed by Dr. Edward Allred, runs 42 clinics in California, including the one in Newport Beach and four others in Orange County. It is the biggest provider of abortion services in the state, and possibly in the nation.

Allred could not be reached for comment, but Monji shrugged off the blast in Newport Beach.

“It’s part of the business,” he told reporters outside the clinic. “Someone set off a device. We don’t know who could have done it. We’ve had demonstrations but no threats.”

Representatives from both sides of the abortion debate immediately posed theories about who was responsible.

“I think there is no question that an extremist in the anti-abortion movement did this,” said Barbara Jackson, director of communications for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties.

“It’s part of an orchestrated, nationwide campaign of violence against health care providers. It’s just common sense . . . it’s not reasonable to even question whether it is (a) completely random (attack).”

But Sue Finn, spokeswoman for Operation Rescue of California, said from the group’s Anaheim office that there are many people who could have a motive to attack a family planning clinic, ranging from pro- or anti-abortion activists to “a disgruntled boyfriend of someone who had an abortion” or an owner who wants insurance money.

Both Jackson and Finn decried the attack. They said violence is not the way to address such a heated issue. Each had her view of why such violence has mounted.

“The whole culture of violence has been ratcheted up significantly in 1993, perhaps out of frustration of extremists in the anti-choice movement . . . over what they have not been able to accomplish,” Jackson said.

“There is not a sentiment in the pro-life group that violence is the way to change the issue,” Finn said, adding that Operation Rescue was founded on the principle of nonviolence.

“(But) across the nation, as the government and the police are trying to crush nonviolent, peaceful pro-life activism, it is our belief that that is going to push people into feeling that if we can’t do things peacefully, we are going to have to do something.”

Nationally, abortion rights leaders saw the bombing as another indicator that violence is increasing against abortion providers. Anti-abortion advocates denounced the bombing and said such acts only hurt their cause.

“We support free speech rights but not violent actions like clinic bombings or shootings which promote violence and detract from our philosophy, which is compassion for the women and protection for the children,” said Myrna Gutierrez, spokeswoman for the Chicago-based Americans United for Life, a legal arm of the anti-abortion movement.

Marcela Howell, executive director of California Abortion Rights Action League South in Santa Monica, countered that anti-abortion organizations are always quick to place blame.

“The anti-choice (leaders) constantly blame extemporaneous individuals, but incidents like this clearly show a pattern of violence and vandalism against abortion providers,” Howell said.

According to a study done by the National Abortion Federation, excluding the Newport Beach bombing, there have been 36 bombings and 80 incidents of arson at abortion clinics in the United States and Canada since 1977.

The killing of a Florida doctor and the wounding of a Kansas physician--both of whom performed abortions--earlier this year fall into this pattern, Howell and other abortion supporters said.

Dr. David Gunn, 47, was fatally shot March 10 as he got out of his car at the women’s clinic he operated in Pensacola, Fla. On Aug. 20, Dr. George Tiller was shot and wounded as he drove away from his abortion clinic in Wichita, Kan.

In response to Gunn’s death, Democratic congressional leaders, with the backing of Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, introduced a bill that would make damaging abortion clinics or harming abortion doctors a federal crime.

The proposed Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act would outlaw using force, the threat of force or physical obstruction to intimidate people from obtaining or providing abortion-related services and would also make it a federal crime to damage or destroy a medical center because it provided such services.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the bill later this month.

Outside the Newport Beach clinic Friday morning, most employees, waiting for police to reopen the clinic, declined to talk about the bombing. But they did not appear bothered. Many sat on lawn chairs on the sidewalk in the sun, talking and laughing while sipping soda and reading books or newspapers.

Two employees of the pharmacy inside the clinic said they were eager just to get back to work. They and other employees from nearby businesses said they never felt threatened by demonstrators.

“I just saw some picketers out here yesterday,” said Pat Roach, who works for a nearby insurance company. “I’ve seen women standing out there with their babies. They usually don’t cause any problems if you don’t mind having to look at the pictures of fetuses that they hold up.”

But a woman who works at a business next door to the clinic said the incident definitely bothered her.

“I’m glad it’s over,” said Pam Winkler, controller for the Allison Co. “It’s a little nerve-racking to come to work in the morning and see yellow police tape up all over the place.”

Times staff writers Lily Dizon and Catherine Gewertz contributed to this report.