LOS ANGELES : Panel OKs Protections for Abortion Clinic Workers
A Los Angeles City Council panel approved an ordinance Monday aimed at curbing verbal and physical attacks on workers at health clinics where abortions are performed.
The ordinance, which requires council approval, would bar demonstrators from picketing at or around a clinic worker’s home and from blockading a clinic’s doors or otherwise disrupting a facility’s operations.
“That matter will be on council agenda on Wednesday,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, chairman of the Public Safety Committee.
Opponents of abortion rights contend that such laws violate their free-speech rights and that they will take peaceful demonstrators out of the debate and leave the streets to those who advocate violence.
Councilwoman Ruth Galanter proposed tougher protections for health clinics in December, after a gunman killed two women working at separate clinics in Boston.
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