Abortion Rights Group Reports Rise in Threats Against Doctors

Death threats against abortion doctors rose during 1994 even as other forms of violence and harassment aimed at abortion clinics declined, according to a survey released by an abortion rights organization Tuesday.

One of four abortion clinics reported that their doctors and staff members received death threats in 1994, making it the fastest growing form of harassment aimed at clinics and their staffs, according to the survey by the Fund for the Feminist Majority.

The survey of more than 300 clinics was released just as a federal grand jury was meeting outside Washington to investigate a possible conspiracy behind the recent wave of anti-abortion violence.

The grand jury is working with the new Justice Department task force on anti-abortion violence, which was established after the murder of a physician and his bodyguard in Pensacola, Fla., on July 29.

The task force is taking advantage of the new Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances law that gives federal law enforcement officials broader jurisdiction to investigate anti-abortion violence.

John Burt, a leading anti-abortion protester from Pensacola, reportedly has been called to testify before the grand jury. Abortion rights groups said that Burt has links to Paul Hill, a Pensacola anti-abortion leader who was convicted in the shotgun killings.

The survey found that 17% of clinics experienced an increase in death threats after the Pensacola murders.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said that the decision by the Clinton Administration to place U.S. marshals at some clinics around the country has helped to reduce the level of violence aimed at clinics.

But she said the increase in death threats demonstrates that, because extremists are finding it more difficult to attack heavily guarded clinics, they are targeting doctors and clinic staff members personally.

Overall, the survey found that 51.9% of clinics experienced one or more types of violence or harassment in 1994, including death threats, stalking, chemical attacks, bombings and bomb threats, invasions, arson and arson threats and blockades. That total was slightly higher than in 1993, when 50.2% of clinics surveyed reported incidents.

Anti-abortion leaders dismissed the survey as biased and misleading. Patrick Mahoney, a spokesman for the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said that the Fund for the Feminist Majority inflates the figures by lumping acts of violence together with peaceful forms of protest.

“Any study not independently confirmed and done by a group like the Feminist Majority does not accurately reflect what’s going on,” Mahoney said.

In a related development, the Justice Department filed its first civil lawsuit under the clinic access law seeking “substantial” money damages from six defendants already convicted of blockading an abortion clinic in Milwaukee and two others allegedly involved in the action.

The six were convicted Nov. 15 by a federal court in Milwaukee in the first criminal application of the clinic access law. They are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 13.

Thomas P. Schneider, U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, noted that his office had promised last June to enforce the new law aggressively.

The government’s civil suit seeks to intervene in a pending damage suit brought by the clinic involved--Affiliated Medical Services Clinic. The private suit is limited to $5,000, unless actual damages suffered by the clinic are greater. But the government is seeking a larger penalty--actual damages for all parties, including Milwaukee’s police and fire departments, and civil penalties of $10,000 from each defendant.

The government is also asking for an injunction to bar the defendants from taking part in any further clinic obstructions.

The Justice Department suit alleged that the eight defendants constructed blockades at the two entrances of Affiliated Medical Services. Inoperable cars were parked in front of each entrance, with two defendants chained and locked inside each of them.