
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994                   TAG: 9404280214
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MELBOURNE, FLA.                                 LENGTH: Medium

ABORTION CLINIC IN SPOTLIGHT AT HIGH COURT

The modest house doesn't look much different from its neighbors along Dixie Lane except for its extended driveway and paved parking area next to the front door.

For 17 years, the Aware Woman Center for Choice has served thousands of women seeking abortions.

And for 17 years, it has been the target of ministers' sermons, angry pickets, zealots who have threatened doctors and staff and destroyed property - and people who walk in silent protest or kneel and pray on the sidewalk.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will review a Florida court order that created a protest-free ``buffer zone'' outside the clinic. A ruling is expected by late June.

The case pits the free-speech rights of abortion protesters against the rights of women seeking abortions and of abortion clinic employees to be free from harassment, intimidation and other illegal conduct.

``We have worked for years to get everyone to understand the seriousness, and the conspiracy, involved with these anti-abortion groups,'' said clinic owner Patricia Windle.

``For so long, we were unable to convince people that it is the same leaders - nomadic carpetbaggers - who are simultaneously pulling their dirty tricks and violence at clinics across the country.''

The court order resulted from a 1991 lawsuit filed by the clinic against Operation Rescue.

Among other things, the judge barred Operation Rescue members and supporters from entering the clinic's property, blocking access to the clinic, picketing within 36 feet of the clinic's property line, and approaching anyone within 300 feet of the clinic seeking its services.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld the injunction last October, saying, ``The First Amendment must yield when protected speech substantially interferes with the normal functioning of a public or private place.''

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the other way, saying the injunction protecting the clinic is ``viewpoint-based'' and likely to be unconstitutional.

Keith Tucci, the former head of Operation Rescue who directed the campaign against the clinic, said protests in Melbourne will continue.

Anti-abortion protesters may be on the defensive, however. On Tuesday, congressional negotiators resolved differences between House- and Senate-passed versions of a bill that would make it a federal crime to block or damage abortion clinics or intimidate patients or staff. The compromise now returns to the House and Senate for final votes.

The legislation is partly a response to the fatal shooting a year ago of Dr. David Gunn outside his Pensacola abortion clinic.

Operation Rescue spokeswoman Wendy Wright denounced the proposed legislation. ``If you take away peaceful forms of protest, you open the doors to those who hide their actions, the violent fringe people,'' she said.

by CNB