THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406110333
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: 940611 LENGTH: Medium
But the money is almost impossible to collect, and abortion rights groups are beginning to acknowledge their frustration in trying to find assets owned by groups like Operation Rescue and Rescue America.
{REST} ``The amount of judgments is probably more than $10 million, but the amount collected has to be less than $40,000,'' said Roger Evans, the litigation director of Planned Parenthood.
``Nobody can find the money to lay their hands on. It's all cash, it's all small amounts, and they have other organizations collecting their money for them.''
On May 9, a Houston jury ordered two anti-abortion groups to pay more than $1 million in punitive damages to a Planned Parenthood clinic disrupted by protests during the 1992 Republican National Convention.
The previous week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to interfere with the $8.2 million a jury awarded to a Portland, Ore., clinic.
There has been a string of smaller judgments and contempt fines in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
It is impossible to determine exactly how much money anti-abortion groups have. Not only is it hard to assess the degree to which different groups are linked, but, especially since the judgments began, new groups have formed quickly, done some fund-raising, then disappeared.
The groups themselves acknowledge that they are operating differently since the judgments began. For example, a supporter who might once have made a large cash contribution might now donate airline tickets.
What is clear is that almost everyone who is anyone in groups that have blockaded abortion clinics seems to have become judgment-proof.
They may have rearranged their assets to place them beyond reach, putting their house or car in a relative's name. Others had few assets to begin with.
Either way, it is difficult to collect judgments.
Allene Klass, the administrator of the Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, which won the $8.2 million award, said her clinic had collected only about $20,000 from the 34 individuals and groups ordered to pay damages.
``What we've gotten so far doesn't even begin to cover our attorney fees,'' she said. ``We're getting little dribbles.''
Anti-abortion leaders like Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, who estimates that there are judgments of about $500,000 against him nationwide, say they have no assets worth taking.
``I know I don't have the money to pay them,'' said Terry, who has a radio talk show in Binghamton, N.Y. ``I don't have anything. My wife has owned our home for years before there were any judgments, so in case I was assassinated she'd at least have something.
``My shoes are two years old. The only piece of furniture we've bought in 13 years is a bed. I do travel, but let's say I fly to Houston and a local Houston person puts the ticket on their credit card. That doesn't mean I have money.''
{KEYWORDS} ABORTION by CNB