JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES SUIT AGAINST THIRTY INDIVIDUALS
        WHO  BLOCKADED A NEW JERSEY CLINIC

     WASHINGTON, D.C. --   The Justice Department filed suit
today against 30 individuals under the Freedom of Access to
Clinic Entrances Act (FACE)  to end a continuing pattern of
blockades at a women's clinic in Englewood, New Jersey. 
 
     The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, charged
the 30 individuals with participating in at least one of three
blockades within the past eight months at the Metropolitan
Medical Associates (MMA) clinic.  According to the complaint, the
defendants either chained themselves together or laid down in
front of the clinic's entrance in order to prevent patients and
staff from gaining access.

     "Congress passed the clinic entrance law to protect every
women's constitutional right to reproductive health services,"
said Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Isabelle
Katz Pinzler.   "Today's case underscores our commitment to
enforce the law."

     On three separate occasions the defendants allegedly
blockaded the entrances to the clinic.  On August 7, 1996 five
defendants chained themselves together at the neck, and blocked
all interior entrances to the waiting room and office space, so
that patients were only able to access the clinic by using the
fire escape stairway.   On January 18, 1997, 12 individuals,  and
on March 15, 19 individuals again allegedly blockaded MMA by
sitting and laying down in front of the clinic's entrances.

     According to the Department, at each blockade the defendants
refused to leave MMA after being asked to do so by police, in
defiance of a 1974 New Jersey state court injunction that
restricts protests at MMA to a location across the street from
the clinic.  During the March blockade, defendants had to be
physically carried away from MMA's front door.

      Today's suit is the thirteenth civil action filed by the
Justice Department under FACE, 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 a person obtaining or providing reproductive
health services.  It allows the Justice Department to ask a court
to prevent people from blocking clinics and harming reproductive
health care providers. 

     The complaint asks the court to issue an order preventing
the defendants from obstructing access at MMA,  entering the
clinic's property, or coming within 60 feet of the clinic.  The
60-foot "buffer zone" requested by the Justice Department is
intended to keep defendants across the street from MMA.   The
Department is also seeking monetary damages of $5000 per
violation from each defendant.
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