Marshals Sent to Offer Abortion Clinic Security

Deputy U.S. marshals were dispatched over the weekend to provide security at more than a dozen abortion clinics around the country after the killing Friday of a doctor and his escort at a Pensacola, Fla., facility.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, confirming the marshals’ deployment Monday, described it as a “prudent” step. Other officials said she acted in fear that there might be “copycat” actions or that the slayings were part of a larger plot.

“We’re trying to take all prudent steps, using all the federal tools, including the clinic access legislation, to appropriately address an issue of deep concern to this nation,” Reno said.

While she declined to name the sites where marshals were sent, other federal law enforcement sources confirmed the partial list provided by the National Organization for Women. It included Jackson and Gulfport, Miss.; Melbourne, Fla.; Ft. Wayne, Ind.; Milwaukee; Bozeman, Mont; Fargo, N.D.; Mobile, Ala.; Wichita, Kan.; Des Moines, and Falls Church, Va. There appear to be none in Southern California, but additional sites are under consideration.

In Melbourne, the site of many demonstrations and scores of arrests of anti-abortion protesters over the years, the presence of the deputy marshals was signaled by a gray, unmarked government sedan parked in front of the Aware Women’s Center for Choice.

“At least for the moment, we have a feeling of security,” said clinic founder Patricia Baird-Windle, who contended that the Florida and federal governments have ignored repeated requests for protection. “I just hope it’s not too little too late.”

Reno noted that clinic slayings now have occurred twice in one city and that clinic violence “is a problem throughout the nation.”

Dr. John B. Britton, and his escort, James H. Barrett, were shot to death Friday as they arrived at an abortion clinic in Pensacola and Dr. David Gunn was killed in March, 1993, as he arrived to work at a different clinic in the city.

Justice Department officials said a federal task force had been formed Saturday to investigate the possibility of national links tying the clinic violence together and to determine whether there had been violations of federal laws, including the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994. That act outlaws obstructing, intentionally injuring or intimidating anyone trying to obtain an abortion and carries a sentence of life imprisonment in cases where death results.

The task force includes the FBI, the Marshals Service, Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Justice Department’s criminal and civil rights divisions. It is headed by Joann Harris, assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division.

Justice Department officials initially emphasized Monday that the marshals’ deployment did not signal a long-term federal police force guarding abortion clinics. “No one is talking in terms of months and years,” one official said.

But Kim Gandy, executive vice president of NOW, which urged assigning marshals to about 15 additional sites across the country, said: “We are asking that the federal marshals stay in place until the danger has passed. We believe it is critical that they not only go but that they stay until every doctor and every patient can enter a clinic without the fear of murder.”

A department spokeswoman later said the deputy marshals would not be removed until it had been determined that local measures are sufficient to guard against renewed violence. In Pensacola, the administrator of the abortion clinic where Gunn was slain 17 months ago suggested that the death of Britton might have been avoided with tighter security measures.

Both clinics employ off-duty Pensacola police officers for security on days abortions are performed. But the officers hired at the clinic where Gunn worked routinely meet the visiting doctors at the airport and escort them to the clinic, remaining outside the facility throughout the day. That practice was begun after Gunn’s killing, according to clinic administrator Sandy Shelton.

At the other clinic, Britton was picked up by his civilian escort, Barrett, while the lone Pensacola police officer hired for security reported directly to the clinic on the days abortions were performed.

At a demonstration outside the Justice Department in Washington, members of NOW and the Feminist Majority Foundation called for an independent FBI investigation into the killings of Britton and Barrett, rather than simply providing assistance to local authorities.

They noted that Paul J. Hill, who has been charged with the killings of Britton and Barrett, had circulated a petition before the shootings to drum up support for “justifiable homicide,” a term that he used to describe the killings.

An FBI inquiry should include the 20 anti-abortion activists who signed the petition that said “whatever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child,” said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Special correspondent Mike Clary contributed to this story from Melbourne, Fla.