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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WINS LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST ANTI-ABORTION PROTESTORS

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled today that seven anti-abortion protestors, including the director of Operation Rescue National, could no longer block entrances or obstruct access to any reproductive health care clinic within the boundaries Interstate 495, announced the Justice Department.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit in June 1998 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging that seven individuals, including Philip "Flip" Benham, the director of Operation Rescue National; Troy Newman, the director of Operation Rescue West; Jeffrey White, the former director of Operation Rescue West; and Patrick Mahoney, the director of the Christian Defense Coalition, violated the Freedom of Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), when they obstructed the entrances of an abortion clinic in the Dupont Circle area in January 1998. The obstruction was part of other events organized to commemorate the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which delineated women's right to obtain an abortion.

"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. "We will continue our efforts to ensure that those rights are not violated."

Today's permanent injunction against the seven defendants prohibits them from:

• standing, sitting, lying, or kneeling in front of entrances to all reproductive health facilities located within the Interstate 495 (the Capitol Beltway);

• physically blockading or obstructing access to all reproductive health facilities located within the Capitol Beltway;

• attempting or directing others to obstruct reproductive health facilities; and,

• coming within twenty feet of all reproductive health facilities within the Capitol Beltway.

The Justice Department has brought 17 civil cases and 34 criminal cases since FACE was signed by President Clinton in May 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.

Previously, the Justice Department reached consent decrees with three additional defendants that prohibit them from engaging in certain conduct near reproductive health facilities in Washington, D.C., as well as violating the Access Act anywhere in the country or attempting or directing others to do so.

In the judgment issued today, Judge Gladys Kessler determined, "Washington, D.C. is ... the site of National Right to Life Week, making it particularly susceptible to protests that may lead to violations of FACE. An injunction is necessary in this case to ensure that FACE is not further violated by these defendants, to protect women's right to safely and freely obtain reproductive health services, and to preserve the public order."

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