Abortion Foes Jam White House Phones to Protest Bill

A dozen key White House offices Friday struggled to continue operating in the face of what one official called “telephone terrorism,” an organized phone-calling campaign to individual offices by anti-abortion forces.

According to officials in several offices, callers from around the country telephoned individual White House officials, most of whom have nothing to do with legislation, to protest clinic-access legislation.

The legislation, passed by Congress and awaiting President Clinton’s signature, aims at stopping violence and harassment of patients and workers at abortion clinics. Clinton was expected to sign the bill Tuesday.

Secretaries, administrative assistants, clerks and others who answer office phones spent the day answering constantly ringing phones. Officials reported that efforts to conduct business were stalled, but not stopped, since the internal White House switchboard and the main White House switchboard could be used for business calls.

In addition, some business callers dialed unaffected offices and got transferred to the desired official on unpublished numbers.

Officials said many of the callers identified themselves as being associated with the Christian Coalition, but various anti-abortion groups have been involved in fighting the legislation. Mostly what they accomplished was exhausting lower-level workers.