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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 10, 1994                   TAG: 9405100152
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HOUSTON                                LENGTH: Short

ABORTION RIGHTS GROUPS HAIL DAMAGE AWARD

In by far the largest civil award ever against the anti-abortion movement, a state jury in Houston on Monday ordered two anti-abortion groups to pay more than $1 million in punitive damages to a Planned Parenthood clinic whose business was disrupted by protests during the 1992 Republican National Convention here.

Leaders of the two groups that were ordered to pay the money, Operation Rescue and Rescue America-National, said they would never do so and vowed to appeal.

But the fact that the seven-man, five-woman jury made such a large award in a conservative state like Texas had leaders of abortion rights groups contemplating lawsuits in other states. Abortion-rights advocates around the country hailed Monday's ruling as a new legal tool and said they believed the threat of huge monetary damages might do far more than the threat of jail to deter many abortion opponents from blocking access to clinics.

Under Monday's order, Operation Rescue must pay $350,000 and its leader at the time of the protests, Rev. Keith Tucci, was assessed $150,000. Rescue America must pay $355,000 and its national director, Don Treshman, was told to pay $155,000.

- The New York Times

by CNB