THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510270500
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Saying they've been terrorized by stalking, arson and murder, abortion doctors filed a lawsuit Thursday aimed at silencing some of the nation's most vigorous anti-abortion activists and groups, including the Norfolk-based American Coalition of Life Activists.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Portland, Ore., seeks at least $200 million in damages and a court order to stop distribution of some of the activists' printed materials.
Three abortion doctors have been shot to death in 31 months. Two others have been wounded. A gunman killed two clinic workers and wounded five others last December in Brookline, Mass. The lawsuit outlines dozens of other clinic bombings and arsons, death threats and blockades.
``These threats of violence have been allowed to continue for far too long and have overshadowed the lives and well-being of many abortion providers across the country,'' Jane Johnson, interim president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American, said at a New York news conference.
The lawsuit seeks to link the violence to 14 anti-abortion activists from around the country and to two groups, the American Coalition of Life Activists and the Portland-based Advocates for Life Ministries.
One of the individual defendants is David Crane of Norfolk, national director of the American Coalition of Life Activists. Crane runs the American Coalition, a coordinating body for about 50 local anti-abortion groups around the country, out of an office in his home.
The lawsuit contends that the American Coalition's ``wanted'' posters, which describe abortion doctors, amount to threats that violate a 1994 law protecting clinics, as well as federal racketeering laws.
The lawsuit says distribution of the posters was followed by the killings of the three abortion doctors - David Gunn and John Bayard Britton in Pensacola, Fla., and George Patterson in Mobile, Ala. - as well as Britton's volunteer escort, James Barrett. Crane said Thursday he had not seen the lawsuit, but he predicted that the American Coalition would fight it as a free-speech case. ``We publicize the names of people who are involved in activities that we oppose,'' he said. Such actions are protected by the Constitution, he argued.
The American Coalition does not advocate, nor engage, in violence, Crane said. The group's ``wanted'' posters urge activists to ``pray for, call and write'' abortion doctors.
However, he said that anti-abortion activists who favor attacks on abortion doctors may take part in Coalition activities, as long as they do not commit violent acts. ``It should be noted that those who hold deadly force to be justified are completely protected by the U.S. Constitution in proclaiming that belief,'' he said in a printed statement.
Dr. Elizabeth Newhall, a Portland doctor included on a ``deadly dozen'' list publicized by the American Coalition, spoke at a Portland news conference. She said her address and details about the kind of car she drives had been distributed nationally by anti-abortion activists.
``Who wouldn't feel vulnerable?'' she asked.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction preventing distribution of the posters and the list. It also asks that the defendants be forbidden from any contact, by mail, telephone or in person, with any abortion doctors around the country. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages for various alleged violations of federal and Oregon state laws.
It was filed by Planned Parenthood of the Columbia-Willamette, Portland Feminist Women's Health Center and five abortion doctors from around the country.
The American Coalition was formed in mid-1994. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
David Crane runs the American Coalition of Life Activists, out of an
office in his Norfolk home.
by CNB