FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CR

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1998                                                                                                                         (202) 616-2765

                                                                                                                                                                                  TDD (202) 514-1888




17 SUED FOR BLOCKING ENTRANCE TO D.C. WOMEN'S HEALTH CLINIC





	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department has sued seventeen
people, including Philip (Flip) Benham, Director of Operation
Rescue National, who allegedly blocked the entrances to a women's
health clinic in Washington, D.C. last January 24.

	The civil suit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in
Washington, alleges that the blockade of the Capitol Women's Center
violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).  It
seeks a court order preventing the defendants from obstructing
access to the clinic in the future.  The suit also seeks civil
penalties and monetary damages.

	"Congress passed the clinic access law to protect every
woman's constitutional right to reproductive health services," said
Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. 
"Today's case underscores our commitment to enforce the law."

	According to the complaint, the blockade followed a rally that
occurs annually on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in
Roe v. Wade.  That decision established a woman's right to
terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

	The complaint alleged that Benham, Patrick Mahoney and Jeffrey
White, among others, led a group of protestors to the clinic and
instructed them to block it's three entrances.  According to the
complaint, by sitting and standing in front of the entrances, the
defendants effectively rendered them impassable.  After giving
three warnings, police arrested fifteen defendants who refused to
leave the entrance of the clinic.  Several hours later, two
defendants returned to the clinic to confront women who were there.

	Also named in the complaint are Olivia A. Alaw, Mark H.
Gabriel, Will Goodman, Howard Heldreth, David A. Henderson, Erik A.
Jurek, Ryan T. McGlade, James P. McIntyre, Troy E. Newman, Anna K.
Odell, Richard P. Reynolds, Sharon R. Rygg, Joshua M. Turk and
Esther C. Tyree.

	Today's suit is the seventeenth civil action filed by the
Justice Department under the Act, which was signed by President
Clinton in May of 1994.  The law forbids anyone from using force,
threat of force or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate or
interfere with persons obtaining or providing reproductive health
services.  It allows the Justice Department to ask a court to
prevent people from blocking clinics and harming those who seek and
provide reproductive health care.

	The Capitol Women's Center is located 1339 22nd Street, NW in
Washington, D.C.

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