Bush Policy Ignites Both Sides of Abortion Issue

As the abortion issue takes center stage in the new Bush administration, family planning clinics across the nation are spotting a curious dual trend--more assertive anti-abortion protesters and more willing abortion-rights volunteers.

In official Washington, the climate on abortion has unquestionably chilled. Since taking office, President Bush has voiced opposition to research using aborted fetuses, banned funding for family planning groups overseas that promote or perform abortions and has successfully pushed abortion foe John Ashcroft as attorney general.

Away from the capital, however, family planning workers are reporting contradictory trends. Workers in smaller, Bible Belt communities such as Bryan, Texas, say they’ve seen an increase in peaceful protesters--and in some cases, emboldened vandals. But at larger, urban facilities--such as Planned Parenthood centers in Houston and Nashville--officials say contributions and volunteerism have jumped noticeably since the first of the year.

Chris Charbonneau, president of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, is seeing both at once. Abortion opponents, she said, clearly have been more active since Bush’s inauguration. On the recent anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion 28 years ago, a protest was held in the state capital of Olympia--with some legislators calling for abortion restrictions.

Then, on Thursday, for the first time, Charbonneau said, “we had an anti-choice group advertising in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that they are planning a rally at one of our clinics.” But Charbonneau said her chapter also has experienced an upswing in positive e-mail, volunteerism and donations. “People are outraged about the international planning order and the Ashcroft nomination. Anyone who believed that Bush would be a moderate president now knows they have been deceived.”

In Tulsa, Okla., vandals in December slashed the tires of cars belonging to two Planned Parenthood nurse practitioners. The facilities there also have been the target of threatening phone calls and minor forms of vandalism. It’s the first damage since the clinic was burned to the ground four years ago, Chief Executive Nancy Kachel said.

And she worries it may signal a trend. “Of course, we are going to see an energizing of the far right,” she said. “You’re going to have not only political action, you’re going to have other forms of action to support that.”

Ann Glazier, Planned Parenthood’s national security director in Washington, D.C., said the organization has in fact heightened its security. And although there has been a spike in clinic vandalism since Jan. 1, that is in keeping with a pattern. Historically, Glazier said, abortion opponents both peaceful and violent are most active in the period that includes Christmas and the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.

“Right after the first of the year, 22 shots were fired into a clinic in Overland Park, Kan. The FBI and [U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] are investigating.” But if a clinic were to burn down, Glazier said, “I would say that [would be] above and beyond the traditional activity.”

In Kalamazoo, Mich., a Planned Parenthood clinic in fact was doused with fuel oil and set on fire Jan. 28. Firefighters stopped the blaze before the building was seriously damaged. The facility had not been picketed in the previous six months, said public affairs director Robert Lohrmann. It had, however, been destroyed by an arsonist in 1986.

“All we can do is speculate,” Lohrmann said. “It was a week after the Roe vs. Wade anniversary . . . and abortion was certainly in the news with Ashcroft. Who knows what motivates these things. It’s hard to think it’s a mere coincidence.”

In Bryan, a conservative Texas city where protesters regularly pray in front of Planned Parenthood clinics, demonstrations have grown louder and more numerous in recent weeks, spokeswoman Debbie McCall said.

“They’re talking about their excitement,” McCall said. “They yell out at us: ‘Just think what [Bush] has done in his first weeks. We’ll be able to shut you all down soon.’ ”

A spokeswoman for the Brazos Valley Right to Life Coalition in Bryan agreed that her group is encouraged by the changes in the nation’s capital, but she added that members would never become aggressive or take gains for granted.

“We hope and pray this will be the start of pro-life legislation, both federally and locally,” spokeswoman Diane Wachel said. But “if one calls himself or herself pro-life, that means pro-life in all respects. You can never justify anything like slashing someone’s tires or making some kind of violent threat.”

At a Planned Parenthood clinic in Amarillo, Texas, that doesn’t perform abortions, several supporters in the last two weeks have abruptly distanced themselves, spokeswoman Elaine Green said. She added that one major donor severed relations because of the group’s opposition to Ashcroft--although the donor never had objected to Planned Parenthood’s months of opposition to Bush.

Protesters also have appeared for the first time at an Amarillo satellite clinic and massed at a fund-raising tea, said security director Donnie McFarland.

And in Midland, Texas, the tiny Planned Parenthood clinic got a comparative flood of mail after it came out against Ashcroft’s nomination in a local newspaper. The office rarely gets letters of any sort--and the dozen angry ones it received last week were more than it had received all last year, spokeswoman Carla Holeva said.

Although the political frost has touched some smaller clinics, several larger urban facilities seem to be benefiting from the climate in Washington. Although the evidence is mostly anecdotal, support seems to have jumped since the beginning of January, according to officials in Houston, Chicago and Nashville.

“We’ve actually had an increase in financial and physical volunteer support,” said Kathleen Altman, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, based in Nashville. “People have specified the reason is the more conservative president.”

And in Lubbock, Texas, where protesters pray each Friday in front of the Planned Parenthood facility, a donor wrote the clinic a $5,000 check last week, Chief Executive Joe Love Nelson said. The group rarely sees a donation of more than $100.

Outside the clinic, she added, the sidewalk has been “eerily silent. The protesters haven’t shown up for two weeks.” She attributed their absence to the same climate that produced the clinic’s big check.

“I guess they feel their side is in,” Nelson said. “They can rest.”

*

Times researchers Edith Stanley in Atlanta, Lynn Marshall in Seattle, John Beckham in Chicago and Anna M. Virtue in Miami contributed to this story.