Portland, Oregon -- Despite a $107 million judgment against them for their "Wanted" posters featuring abortionists and a related Web site, members of a national coalition of abortion opponents vowed to continue their efforts and say they lack the funds to pay the damages.

The judgment was handed down Feb. 2 by a jury in U.S. District Court in Portland in a civil suit brought against the American Coalition of Life Activists in 1995 by Planned Parenthood in Oregon, four doctors who perform abortions and two women's clinics.  The plaintiffs claimed the coalition was conducting a "campaign of terror and intimidation."

The suit was filed less than a year after the coalition published and distributed a series of posters.

One, under the heading "Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity," listed names and addresses of 12 doctors from across the country who perform abortions.  Reminiscent in design of wanted posters from the Old West, it called the physicians "The Deadly Dozen" and offered $5,000 for information that would lead to revocation of their medical licenses.

Another poster used a photograph of an abortion doctor from the Midwest and urged activists to picket his neighborhood and encourage him to offer medical care to the needy in lieu of abortions.

Also mentioned in the suit was an affiliated Web site called the "Nuremberg Files," which publicizes information about hundreds of abortion doctors and compares their work to Nazi was crimes.

The suit, which claimed the defendants violated federal racketeering and clinic access laws, focused on the words used by abortion foes.  Other suits brought against pro-lifers have centered on actions -- such as blockades of clinics -- as violating those laws.

The case is expected to go to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court.

American Coalition of Life Activists, an umbrella group for hundreds of abortion foes from across the country, says it requires its members to abide by a vow of nonviolence.  None of the defendants in the Portland case is directly connected to any violence against doctors or clinics.

"I have never intended to threaten anyone with any poster I have put out," coalition president David Crane said in January from the witness stand.  "We are committed to peaceful nonviolence.  We had people sign pledges."

The court noted that there is no explicit threat in either the posters or the Web site, but the plaintiffs' attorneys apparently convinced the jury that the writings constitute a genuine threat.

Also, some of the defendants have refused to condemn the killing of abortion providers, a stand that attorneys for the plaintiffs made the center of their case.

The charges of violence bothered Monica Migliorino Miller, a theologian who teaches at Marquette University in Milwaukee.  She was one of the 14 original defendants but was later dropped by the plaintiffs, she thinks, because of her long stand against using violence.

"Here you have an organization being sued for supposed threats of violence when it has a very clear policy of nonviolence," she said in an interview.  She added that she believes the suit's real aim was to stifle free speech of the pro-life movement.

Joseph Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, which organizes abortion protests and trains sidewalk counselors said defendants were asked to pay the $107 million in damages because "abortionists are paranoid."

"If this outrageous verdict stands, the First Amendment will have been effectively ground under the gigantic foot of the federal courts," Scheidler said in a statement.  He was found guilty last year during a federal racketeering trial in a suit brought against him for trying to prevent women from using abortion clinics.  He is appealing the verdict.

Robert Destro, a professor of law at The Catholic University of America said the Portland case could "punch a big hole in the First Amendment,"  The First Amendment's protection of free speech, Destro said, prevents federal laws from "shutting off people's speech" no matter how disagreeable.

David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Oregon, said his organization is "very concerned about the possible chilling effect this case could have on protected speech.  But we're also concerned if the First Amendment is being used as a shield by people carrying out violence or making threats of violence."

Melody Rose, a political science professor at Portland State University, argued that the call to violence was clear in the forms of communication the defendants chose to use.

"A 'Wanted' poster, in the context of American history, implies violence," Rose said.  "Those of us who watched Westerns on TV as kids knew what the posters meant -- Wanted: dead or alive."
 

Send a pro life letter (letter is preferable) or an email to your  Senators and representatives using the Directory at the Congressional Email Directory.  Point and click here to surf to their web site.

Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article was published in the Arlington Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol. 24, No 6;
page 14, dated Feb 11, 1999.
E-mail: letters@catholicherald.com
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A note from the Web Master:

It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion.  Let us not forget that ordinary everyday Abortion is also murder.  We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method.  Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not justify the other methods.  We should be horrified and sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method.  The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill."  A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.  Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs.  Please contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,  to let them know how horrified you are that Abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible. (It has become apparent that they do not respond to email therefore you will have more of an impact by writing or telephoning.)

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