Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220483
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a permanent ban on Operation Rescue demonstrations that blocked access to abortion clinics in the New York area. It was the third legal setback in two weeks for the anti-abortion group.
The justices, without comment or any recorded dissenting vote, left intact a federal judge's order barring Operation Rescue members from interfering with women entering the clinics.
"Our sole purpose is to stop these women from taking their children in," said Operation Rescue spokesman Bob Jewitt. "If we can save a child, we will do that, we will continue to do that. Injunctions won't stop us."
Abortion-rights advocates acknowledged the difficulty of stopping the protests.
"I know they will not go away," said Diana Gurieva, president of Planned Parenthood of New York City. "But the decision will strengthen the resolve of law enforcement and the lower courts to at least punish these people appropriately."
Last week, the high court voted 5-4 to leave intact a similar ban on Operation Rescue blockades at clinics in Atlanta. Also Monday, Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon secured a court order barring anti-abortion groups from obstructing access to clinics in that state.
The court's order in the Atlanta case was preliminary, in a dispute that reached the justices as a request for emergency help before Georgia courts had finished studying the controversy.
Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, said in a statement that "no court can prohibit us from rescuing babies."
"These judges have joined the heritage of Nazi judges who sanctioned the murder of the innocent. The day of judgment will hold terrifying consequences for them," he said.
Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughn, a suburban New York cleric who rebuked Gov. Mario Cuomo for supporting abortion rights, said he wondered how Martin Luther King Jr. "would have reacted to an order that told him it was illegal to continue his civil disobedience."
Bill Baird, who operates two Long Island abortion clinics, called the Supreme Court decision "a tremendous victory that recognizes women have the right to go in a building."
"But I'd like to see the courts go further and assign federal marshals to escort women in, just as they escorted blacks into buildings in the 1960s," he said.
He said he doubted the court's announcement would end harassment outside clinics. "You're dealing with religious zealots here."
Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women, said she "couldn't be more pleased" with the ruling, but she also warned abortion-rights supporters not to get too optimistic.
"This is the only victory we've had since Webster," she said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling last summer that gave states more room to restrict abortion.
by CNB