THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504150284
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
In recent weeks, as South Hampton Roads' second abortion clinic prepared to open in the city's Ingleside area, an unusual commotion visited the normally quiet commercial cluster on Norfolk Square.
Anti-abortion protesters moved into the area, and with them came stepped-up police patrols.
Now, without fanfare, Tidewater Women's Health Clinic has opened.
And, for the moment at least, the flurry of activity has subsided.
``Protesters were here last week passing out stuff (fliers), and then they were here Monday protesting some,'' a receptionist at a neighboring business said during a smoking break Friday afternoon. She asked that her name not be published.
``You see them (protesters) drive by every now and then, and the police have been patrolling more,'' she said. ``But it's a lot quieter now.''
Clinic directors wouldn't say what day the facility opened, and wouldn't comment on the attention it has drawn. Businesses surrounding the clinic have been receiving anti-abortion fliers from protesters for weeks.
The abortion clinic is the third owned and operated by William Brenner Jr.; the other two are in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Chapel Hill facility, Triangle Women's Health Center, has come under fire for its medical and financial practices. Its license was suspended in 1990 for staffing problems, improper disposal of aborted material and overbilling of insurance companies.
Brenner said in an interview last year that he decided to open the third clinic because many Norfolk and Virginia Beach residents were using the Raleigh and Chapel Hill facilities.
Hillcrest Clinic, also in Norfolk, is the only other clinic in South Hampton Roads that offers abortion services.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION CLINIC by CNB