ACCESS LAW: Pro-lifers mixed on law targeting their protests

The new law makes it a state crime to "injure, intimidate or interfere with" a person who is "obtaining or providing reproductive health services," or to damage a healthcare facility because it provides such services.

It also makes "stalking" -- following or communicating with a person or their family members, causing harm to their physical, mental or emotional health -- a crime.

Pressing on

Mr. Butler reiterated the New York State Catholic Conference's position that the law will not affect peaceful pro-life protesters who don't block access to abortion clinics or threaten patients or staff. (The Catholic Conference represents the state's bishops on matters of public policy.)

However, he noted, "it depends on the interpretation you give to `interfere.' If I sneeze on the street and someone jumps, have I interfered? I don't think a court of law would take that seriously."

Intimidated

Once a dedicated pro-life picketer, Mrs. Watson stopped protesting at Albany's Planned Parenthood not long ago after being sued for disobeying a stipulation that only two people could stand in a specific area outside the clinic's door. Mrs. Watson noted that one of her fellow protesters used a wheelchair, and she didn't want to ask the person to move away.

"It became a bit of a risk," she said of protesting. "I live on a farm, and we have a lot of material assets we could lose."

Chilling effect

"I don't see where the law will cause problems. It's unlikely to have any effect at all," he said. "However, it does send a chilling effect to people who are afraid to picket."

Mr. Butler noted that in all his time as a pro-life demonstrator, he has simply exercised his First Amendment rights to free speech -- not broken any laws. In fact, when he was protesting at an Albany festival and an official told him he had to change locations, he immediately moved.

"I'm not trying to be a public nuisance," he explained. "I can see how somebody might be intimidated by this [new law], but we have disciplined our own activities. Some people will read it, and it will frighten them away; but if they read it with insight, they'll say, `This is not going to affect me, because I'm not going to violate any of these [statutes]. It's the `peaceful' part of the demonstrating we've always focused on."

Appalled

Associate director Kathleen Gallagher remarked that enacting the law is "just putting the anxiety into the people that `maybe I shouldn't go out on the street.' That's discrimination right there."

On a more positive note, she added, the law is also a "testament to the work of the pro-life movement and the fact that it's working. The one that pushed to have this law enacted was the abortion industry itself. That's testament to the fact that the pro-life movement is having an effect and women are changing their minds about abortion. Women are choosing to give birth to their children."

(10-14-99) [[In-content Ad]]