Clinics Prepare for Operation Rescue - AGAIN
-------- Associated Press - 07/05/93 -------

With Operation Rescue targeting clinics in 7 states for its summer
anti-abortion campaign, cities and abortion clinics far and wide
are making plans of their own to keep things calm.

Next weekend, Operation Rescue begins a 10-day "Cities of Refuge"
demonstration aimed at closing clinics in Cleveland; Minneapolis-St
Paul, Minn; San Jose, Cal; Philadelphia; Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas;
Jackson, Miss; and several cities in central Florida.

In spring 1992, more than 600 Operation Rescue protesters were arrested
in Buffalo, NY. In summer 1991, Wichita, Kan, police arrested more than
2700 people in a 46-day clinic blockade. [OR members slugged a few
police officers in Kansas in 1991.]

As protesters plan, the target cities are preparing:

* Two Cleveland suburbs last week banned picketing in residents'
driveways, obstructing traffic and disturbing the peace at a
residence. Abortion opponents often demonstrate outside the homes
of doctors, nurses and other clinic staff members. The San Jose
City Council passed a similar measure after doctors complained
about getting threatening letters.

* Philadelphia and San Jose city councils have made it illegal to
prevent patients from entering abortion clinics.

* Police in St Paul have erected an 8-foot-high, chain-link fence
around the Planned Parenthood clinic. Officers guard the gates.

* A Cleveland TV station said police will convert the city convention
center into a jail to feed, house and try hundreds of detainees. Police
would not comment on the report.

"We're ready for anything that comes down the pike," said Philadelphia
Police Inspector John Norris.

Eric Johns, 21, and his wife, Michelle, have been in Jackson, Miss,
since May, preparing to protest there.

"We hope to put these places out of business, expose abortionists to
their community, embarrass them for what they do, expose staff workers
at these places and eventually shut down the whole grisly abortion
industry in the state of Mississippi," Johns said. [Racketeering.]

"I think I have a biblical responsibility and am commanded by God [sic]
to do what I'm doing."

In Dallas and Fort Worth, Operation Rescue has targeted 13 clinics and
some doctors' homes, a spokesman said.

At abortion clinics around the country, staff members are intensely
making ready.

"They will not close us down. If a patient wants an abortion, we will
figure out a way to get them in the clinic," said Jeanie Hollis,
spokeswoman for the Mississippi Women's Medical Clinic in Jackson.

Dianne Straus, director of the Cherry Hill, NJ, Women's Center, said
she fears [more of O.R.'s] violence.

Much of the fear recalls the March 10Th. killing of Dr David Gunn, 47,
who was shot 3 times [in the back] as he entered a Pensacola, Fla,
abortion clinic.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Your tax dollars at work.