textfiles-politics/politicalTextFiles/circumnv.txt

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     W I N N I N G   B Y   C I R C U M N A V I G A T I O N:

        Milwaukee's clinic defenders find legal recourse
            on a detour around the District Attorney

              Copyright 1993, 1994 by Muriel Hogan

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As the Milwaukee Clinic Protection Coalition (MCPC) steeled itself
for a second Wisconsin winter on the street, members celebrated
the anniversary of the permanent injunction signed December 10,
1992 by Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner.  The injunction
limits certain kinds of protest activity outside Milwaukee's
abortion clinics.  Clinic escorts and defenders, dreading their
winter vigil, are nonetheless cheered by indications that the
fundamentalist Christian onslaught is diminishing at last.

Once-huge crowds of "Antis" have dwindled to a handful on
weekdays and 20 or 30 on Saturdays.  At some clinics, there've
been no protesters at all, a condition the defenders call "NFA."
Away from the clinics, protest leaders can't recruit more that a
few hundred people to come to their public events.  By contrast,
LifeChain, an annual pro-life demonstration in Milwaukee,
attracted 8,000 people last fall.  The Milwaukee Journal quoted
one LifeChain participant who preferred to express his opinion
"without threatening anyone, without breaking any laws."


* Signs of decline

Programming on the Christian broadcast station WVCY also reflects
the cooldown.  At the height of Milwaukee's 1992 summer protests,
WVCY-FM aired two hours a day of live reports and exhortations,
while WVCY-TV showed 30 minutes a night of clinic protest
footage, often followed by an hour-long call-in show on the
subject.  In 1993, most abortion-related programs were nostalgic
reruns of the Antis' 1992 glory days.

WVCY's anti-abortion radio show, "Building the Foundations" has
cut back from 30 minutes to 15, inspiring its MCPC listeners to
call it "The Quarter-Hour of Power."  Other WVCY shows have
switched to safer topics: school prayer, satanism in popular
music, and the dangers of troll dolls.  Today, WVCY often ignores
news about abortion protesters who are facing fines and jail
terms under the permanent injunction.


* Attendance down, violence up


MCPC started in April, 1992, when anti-abortion activists
announced their eight-week "Short-Term Mission to the Pre-Born."
That summer, the Missionaries to the Preborn, Operation Rescue,
and Youth for America (YOFAM) orchestrated large demonstrations
and blockades.  Missionary founders Rev. Joseph Foreman and Rev.
Matthew Trewhella stated their intention to close every abortion
clinic in Milwaukee.  The Short-Term Mission resulted in over
1,000 arrests and $1 million in law enforcement costs.

By contrast, 1993's summer protests were much smaller, with
police costs of $112,000.  But the Milwaukee Fire Department
reported costs of $48,000 for the butyric acid attack on one
clinic in August, and $99,000 for two September "car rescues" in
which Antis chained themselves into junked automobiles to block
clinic doors.  Figures are unavailable for protest-related court
costs and for the amount of protesters' unpaid fines.

As the Antis' desperation has increased, so has their violence.
Since Dr. David Gunn's assassination last March, Milwaukee's
doctors have been the target of home blockades, stalking, and
death threats.  One clinic has had bullets fired through its
windows four times in 1993.


* How the defenders attack

On the street, MCPC's strategy is purely defensive, protecting
patients and holding clinic doors to prevent blockades.
Defenders practice the discipline of keeping their hands in their
pockets and avoiding verbal exchanges with the Antis.  But in
court, the hands come out of the pockets.  Using the permanent
injunction, the Coalition has launched a full-tilt legal
offensive against the Antis.

The injunction orders protesters to stay 25 feet away from each
clinic and ten feet from each patient.  Protesters must not
impede patients, touch them, photograph them, or record their
license plates.  (See box.)  If an Anti repeatedly breaks these
rules, MCPC serves them with the injunction and starts collecting
evidence of their violations.


* The legal lioness

Attorney Joan Clark, one of MCPC's co-coordinators, has led the
legal attacks like a mama lion: watchful, tenacious, and coolly
aggressive.  A self-described "housewife and mom," she plots
strategies with other pro-choice attorneys including her husband
Bill Guis, MCPC board members Katy Doyle and Katie Walsh, and
Walsh's husband Steve Glenn.  No doubt, the presence of so many
female lawyers has inspired gland-shrivelling FemiNazi paranoia
in many Antis.

Interviewed last week, Clark said MCPC began its legal work even
before the Short-Term Mission.  "By the time the first big crowds
hit the streets," she said, "the Coalition had been successful in
getting a preliminary injunction into place."

"That spring," Clark said, "Katie Walsh and Chris Korsmo (of
NARAL) convinced the Powers That Be that there was going to be
serious, serious trouble.  And with no injunction, there'd be no
mechanism to handle it."

The December permanent injunction, almost identical to the
preliminary, solidified what Clark calls the "completely
separate, parallel system of justice" that protects Milwaukee's
five abortion clinics.

But even after the preliminary injunction was signed, its
benefits were hard to see and difficult to enforce.  "It didn't
do us much tangible good until this year.  But two significant
things happened.  First, fully half of the named defendents
disappeared.  In that respect, the injunction started helping
right away.  And second, it gave us a great morale boost."


* A detour around what?

But why was this roundabout route necessary?  "You get an
injunction because there isn't an enforceable law on the books
that will that will prevent certain things from taking place,"
Clark explained.  "There's a hole and you need to fill it up."

"We needed this injunction," she said, "because the Milwaukee
District Attorney, E. Michael McCann, is anti-choice and would
not charge people who were arrested day after day.  The only way
to stop this activity was to set up a completely separate system
of justice," she said.

"People don't realize that the Missionaries had already been
doing this for three years, long before the Short-Term Mission."
Clark said.  "Every single day at Summit, when a patient would
approach, two people blocked the door.  You call the cops, get
the paddy, spend an hour getting rid of them.  The woman would
get in.  And then when the next patient came -- two more people
would sit down."

Clark said police officers have told her that "until the
Coalition started, the DA wouldn't talk to police or clinic
owners about anything, not even battery.  Dr. Paul Seamars was
physically restrained by one Anti while another took his picture,
and the DA wouldn't do anything.  It's a very, very, very
dishonest policy."

"Anywhere else," said Clark, "if you receive ten municipal
disorderly conduct tickets for the same activity within a
relatively short period of time, you'll be charged with a crime,
because these muni tickets are not deterring you."

"If we had had a District Attorney who'd do his job, the
Missionaries wouldn't be here.  Except for two weeks in Buffalo
and four weeks in Wichita, we have the most chronic, terrible
problem in the country," she said.


* Have you been served?

You'll frequently find Clark in court, sitting at the prosecution
table with counsel from the City Attorney or State Attorney
General.  "I'm there unofficially as an evidence gatherer.  I'm
more conversant with the facts than the city attorney, because
usually I was there when the incident happened," Clark said.  "A
second function we serve is to tell the city when the people
they're looking for show up at clinics."

Clark also serves injunctions for MCPC and keeps track of
which Antis have been served.  She described her informal rule:
"We serve people whose names we know who violate the injunction.
Because down the road, if they do something bad, we want to be
able to bring a motion against them."

She's very sensitive to the free speech issues the injunction
raises.  "If you violate the injunction, the question is whether
you're acting in concert with a named defendant, and / or whether
we care," she said.

"Take the Concrete Christian," she said, referring to a protester
who always stands motionless and silent.  "He violates the
injunction every day, but I couldn't care less.  I consider that
First Amendment activity, and I would never go after him," Clark
said.  Although we might get a judge to say this guy is acting in
concert, it would be dishonest, because he's not."

Clark urges people to come observe how "sidewalk counselling"
works.  "Watch for half an hour," she said.  "You'll see: it's
not someone expressing a view.  It's very aggressive, very
physical -- and it's designed to scare the hell out of somebody
who's seeking medical attention."

* Crime and punishment

So far, MCPC's biggest catch is Brian Longworth, convicted in
November of criminal contempt and sentenced to two years for
twice blockading clinic doors.  Longworth first attracted MCPC's
attention by leading "kiddie-hits," blockades that result in
dozens of arrests of children as young as eight years old.
"Longworth is definitely the worst," said Clark.  "Longworth is
big because he's the leader of Youth for America, he felt he was
untouchable, and his name was not on the injunction."

Clark stressed the importance of prosecuting defendants whose
names are not on the injunction:  "The Antis tell everybody the
injunction's just a piece of paper.  If your name isn't on there,
it doesn't apply to you.  But this Longworth thing hit everybody
right in the face.  All of a sudden, they can't deny it any
more," she said.

Another un-named defendant, Rev. Joseph Foreman, was found in civil
contempt November 29.  Foreman's a national figure among anti-
abortion activists, a former field operations director for
Operation Rescue.  Since moving to Milwaukee in 1992, he's become
the most prominent leader on the local scene.  Oddly, neither
WVCY nor the Missionaries to the Preborn has mentioned Foreman's
conviction.

At his trial, Foreman complained that he felt singled out for
selective prosecution, and urged the city to first pursue
defendants who were named on the injunction.  Joan Clark
dismissed Foreman's assertion, saying, "Joe knows why he's being
picked.  A prosecutor with limited resources will go after the
people who are the most troublesome."

Altogether, six Antis have been found in criminal contempt and 27
in civil contempt.  More than half of these people have come to
Milwaukee from other states to participate in protests here.

A person found in civil contempt must forfeit $500, or swear to
obey the injunction, or serve 20 days.  For a second violation,
penalties double.  A third violation can become criminal
contempt, carrying $5,000 or a year in jail.  The Milwaukee City
Attorney's office and the State Attorney General are continuing
to bring contempt motions against Antis who violate the
injunction.


* Approaching the endgame

The permanent injunction, like many legal matters, has taken
effect with an almost geological slowness over the past year.
Now Clark and the Coalition can sense its increasing speed and
effectiveness.  "This is absolutely going to mop up the problem,"
she said.  "Things will pop up now and again, but most Antis will
drop out after their first convictions.  They're desperate!  Why
are they talking about Waco, Texas all the time, and Halloween?
They can't even talk about this issue on the radio any more!"

At the clinics, defenders feel that the remaining protesters have
become more frantic.  As their legal woes multiply, previously
mild-mannered Antis have spun out of control.  In recent weeks,
police have arrested middle-aged Christian homeowners for
kicking, slapping, and spitting at clinic defenders and escorts.

With spring, MCPC hopes that the Freedom of Access to Clinic
Entrances (FACE) bill will solve the Anti problem for clinics
nationwide.  FACE has passed both houses of Congress, but must
clear a conference committee before President Clinton can sign
it.  Among hard-core protesters, a common practice is to blockade
in one city until the penalties become too severe, then move to
another city.  Brian Longworth, for example, collected 16
convictions in Georgia and California before he came to
Wisconsin.  The new federal law will stop these itinerant
protestors much more effectively.

FACE may make the local issue moot, but the pro-choice community
won't forget how their District Attorney made Milwaukee taxpayers
underwrite his personal religious beliefs.  And dollars don't
cover the damage to patients' privacy and peace of mind.  One
clinic escort said, "I wish I'd counted the tears.  Every time
the Antis make a woman cry, I think of how the DA should make
reparations for all those tears."

Clark said that one defender, Mike Salick, has found the perfect
analogy for MCPC's long struggle.  "It's like a town in the Old
West," she said, "where the bad guys are preying on the
townspeople.  And for some reason, the sheriff won't do anything.
Finally the townspeople say 'OK, we've had enough!'  And they
rise up and they drive the bad guys out of town.  That's just
what we've done!"

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* Clip and save!

How to Exercise Your First Amendment Rights
Without Getting Arrested:

A Handy Wallet Card for the Pro-Life Activist


1. Do not come any closer than 25 feet to any abortion clinic's
doorway, parking lot, or driveway.

2. Do not come any closer than 10 feet to any person entering or
leaving the clinic.

3. Do not physically abuse, grab, touch, push, shove, or crowd
any person entering or leaving the clinic.

4. Do not photograph any person entering or leaving the clinic,
and do not record their car's license number.

5. Clinic defenders focus their legal offensive on certain kinds
of protesters, those who:

- Blockade clinic entrances.

- Threaten or scare patients, doctors, or clinic staff.

- Make physical contact with patients or defenders.

- Lose their tempers, or are verbally abusive.

You can speak, pray, sing, hold a sign, and counsel anyone who
voluntarily approaches you.  People who follow these guidelines
have nothing to worry about.

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This article has appeared in:

The Shepherd Express, Milwaukee, WI, December, 1993.
The Sojourner, Boston, MA, January, 1994, in a condensed version.
Off Our Backs, Washington, DC, February, 1994.
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              Copyright 1993, 1994 by Muriel Hogan

Anyone may duplicate or distribute this article on BBSs, nets,
and echos.  No one may reproduce this article in hardcopy for
sale or free distribution without my prior written permission.
For print permission, please contact me via Fido netmail.

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