Abortion Protesters Target Clinic

At least four days a week, protesters gather outside a small storefront clinic in El Monte, as they have for 18 years.

Carrying placards of aborted fetuses and the Virgin Mary, they videotape, shout at and allegedly block women trying to enter the Family Planning Medical Center, which offers abortions to low-income patients.

While such scenes were common throughout Los Angeles County a decade ago, they have largely faded from the landscape--leaving the El Monte clinic to face regular opposition almost alone.

That was why the president of the National Organization for Women, Patricia Ireland, visited the clinic last week as a gesture of support.

Ireland led a short march to City Hall and a rally, where she was confronted by the tenacious anti-abortion protesters.

What resulted was a shouting match, in which Ireland, struggling to maintain her composure, was called a baby killer and a witch.

“These babies’ lives cry out from the grave and say help me!” one protester shouted.

Trying to speak above the din, Ireland echoed clinic boosters’ complaints that the anti-abortion protests have continued largely because the El Monte Police Department has failed to cite those who block the clinic entrances and intimidate patients--both violations of federal and state law.

Local civil libertarians say that if El Monte was as vigilant as the Los Angeles Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department, the opposition would dissipate.

“Whatever [El Monte police] consider their jurisdiction, they are obligated to make sure the Constitution isn’t violated in El Monte,” Ireland said.

A police spokesman said the department upholds all state laws regarding clinic access and responds to numerous calls from the clinic’s supporters and protesters every Saturday, when the rallies are the biggest.

“Our main thrust out there is to make sure people don’t get hurt and that everybody’s rights are maintained,” said Lt. Mark Sullivan. He said that most of the complaints are minor--someone being grabbed or parking too long--and that the sergeant who routinely deals with them is versed in these intricacies.

Protesters say that they do not intimidate patients, but merely pray and exhibit their right to free speech. At Friday’s protest, one of them wore an LAPD hat and draped a Los Angeles County coroner’s jacket over the rear of his car.

“People always get on me because I wear a coroner’s jacket,” said Bill Soucie, 62, of Glendale. “Hey, the coroner’s office has a gift shop down there, and I have a right to wear it.”

The clinic’s founder, Eva Winchell, complained that such official-looking garb scares potential patients, especially immigrants who speak little English and don’t understand their rights in the United States.

She said she has been facing such opposition since she first opened a clinic on Valley Boulevard in 1981. Since then, she has moved twice, within the El Monte Mall area, and the protesters have followed.

She said her patients often turn away when they see a gantlet of angry protesters in front of the door.

“We’re not a high-volume clinic,” said Winchell. “That’s why I’m surprised we get all this attention.”

Groups Monitor Protests

Kathy Spillar, national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said Winchell’s clinic is the most routinely targeted in the county. “If local law enforcement is hesitant to deal with these protests, anti-abortion groups see that as an invitation to more,” she said. “Law enforcement is key.”

Within the last two years, members of the local chapters of NOW and the American Civil Liberties Union have begun to monitor the protests on Saturdays, and routinely call police over what they see as violations of federal laws protecting clinic access that passed in the wake of a series of slayings by anti-abortion protesters. The demonstrators counter that Winchell and her supporters lie to police and harass protesters because they are elderly.

One anti-abortionist was arrested last year for obstruction and assault, and will face trial this month.

Another protester, John Hanrahan, 76, of West Covina, said the clinic gets more daily opposition because many in his group are retired and have the free time. He also said Winchell has brought some of the grief on herself by antagonizing them with repeated allegations to police.

“She and her henchmen were particularly obnoxious, so we kind of just attached ourselves to her,” he said.