Freedom Writer - July/August 1995

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Operation Rescue hits LA

By Paula Pilecki

On Saturday, May 27, the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue 
converged on Los Angeles and orchestrated a highly publicized demonstration 
to challenge the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). 
Jeff White, director of Operation Rescue of California, and several 
other leaders of the anti-abortion movement mobilized about 100 people, 
most from southern California, to blockade a Los Angeles health-care 
clinic. 

Twenty-four people were arrested; 22 were later arraigned on charges 
of failure to disperse and interfering with a business.  Two of White's 
daughters, aged 13 and 15, were among those arrested.  As a result, 
White faces additional charges of contributing to the delinquency 
of a minor. As of this writing, no federal charges have been brought 
under FACE. 

Although Operation Rescue leaders claimed this was the first nationwide 
challenge to FACE, FACE has been challenged numerous times and in 
every case was upheld as constitutional. Signed into law in May of 
1994, FACE was enacted to prohibit violent and threatening tactics 
which interfere with a woman's constitutionally protected right to 
reproductive freedom. Peaceful demonstrations, protected under the 
First Amendment, are not prohibited under FACE.

White and other anti-abortion protesters object to the restrictions 
on conducting blockades. In a February, 1995 fundraising letter, White 
rails against Congress and refers to its members as "spineless politicians 
who won't even defend their constituents' most basic constitutional 
rights." He tells his followers that FACE is being used to "crush 
all forms of pro-life speech" and calls for an amendment to the law 
which would permit "peaceful, non-violent protests" in the form of 
clinic entrance blockades.

Operation Rescue's unlawful blockade was preceded by evening rallies 
on May 25 and 26, at Community Chapel World Outreach in Norwalk, about 
20 miles south of Los Angeles. Each rally drew about 100 people, including 
long-time members of Operation Rescue and such anti-abortion leaders 
as Reverend Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, who lives 
in Washington, DC; Reverend Joseph Foreman, leader of Missionaries 
to the Pre-Born, who recently moved to Blue Jay, California; and the 
Reverend Bruce Murch of Christian Pro-Life Action Network, from Springfield, 
Massachusetts.

At one of the rallies, Joe Foreman compared the planned blockade, 
and the expected prosecution of Operation Rescue protesters under 
FACE, to the Old Testament story of David and Saul battling with the 
evil Philistine army. He likened "pro-death" activists, politicians, 
and members of the "wicked" abortion industry to the Philistines, 
while the "peaceful" Operation Rescue demonstrators were likened to 
David and Saul, who, while fewer in number than the Philistines, nonetheless 
had God on their side.

Foreman told the audience: "We are not here to kill the Philistine 
enemy; we are here to save them. I know that sometimes it seems like 
it would be easier to shoot them instead of preaching salvation to 
them." From the crowd, a man's voice shouted "Amen!" and the audience 
laughed heartily. Foreman went on to describe how David and Saul conducted 
preparations to go into battle: "It kind of sounds like a militia 
meeting, doesnt it?" More laughter from the audience.

As he concluded his talk, Foreman displayed the sort of paranoid beliefs 
which are rampant among the anti-abortion movement: "The government 
would have us believe that a small family is a good family, but this 
is entirely false. A small family is not a good family. What happens 
when a family stays small?  The woman goes out and seeks a career 
so she can be fulfilled. Then the kids are put in day care and government-run 
schools. This is how the government gains control of our families 
and our personal lives." He concluded by stating that "there is a 
new movement to have big families, and people are going to have big 
families no matter what anyone says."

Next came Bruce Murch, who considers himself something of an expert 
in "spiritual warfare." Murch exhorted the crowd to "engage in spiritual 
battle" with "the Philistines" by becoming prayer warriors. He declared 
that he would be leading the charge on Saturday morning to "confront 
the mighty evil army." He stated proudly that in order to do so he 
had left his wife and seven children back home, and was missing his 
daughter's third birthday, because "God moved heaven and earth for 
me to be here." The important follow-up question is obvious: why would 
God take a father away from his little daughter on her third birthday?

Jeff White spoke after Murch. After telling his audience that the 
up-coming blockade would result in the first-ever constitutional challenge 
to FACE, he asked everyone in the audience to make the personal sacrifice 
of risking arrest and the possibility of "six months in jail, $10,000 
in fines, and separation from our families, friends, and work." "God 
will honor your faithfulness," White promised.

Pat Mahoney called to the altar those who would "cross the chasm which 
separates us from the Philistine army." Roughly 30 people approached 
and knelt before Mahoney, including Jeff White and his two daughters. 
Mahoney pointed White and his children out to the crowd, stating that 
it was a beautiful sight to see a family stand together for what they 
believe. 

Many people don't find a father's putting his 13- and 15-year-old 
daughters at risk for being detained apart in a juvenile detention 
facility and possibly subjected to a humiliating body-cavity search 
a beautiful sight. Neither do many of us find laudable those leaders 
who claim to champion non-violence, but who consistently invoke warfare 
imagery to incite their followers to militant action.

_Paula_Pilecki_is_co-director_of_the_Los_Angeles-based_Institute_for_
the_Study_of_the_Religious_Right._



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