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CLINIC ACCESS and FACE LAWS
Federal and State FACE Laws |
Picketing and Harassment
Extremist anti-abortion activists have waged an ongoing campaign of intimidation, harassment, and violence against abortion providers, clinic staff, their patients, and their families. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) imposes criminal and civil penalties on anyone who uses force or the threat of force to prevent a person from providing or receiving reproductive health services.
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Today, abortion providers and clinic staff face a continual onslaught of threats and intimidation. The extent of clinic violence has escalated over time. In 1993, the first anti-abortion murder was committed (when an anti-abortion extremist shot and killed Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider in Pensacola, Florida); since this time, six other abortion providers and clinic staff have been killed, and 17 have survived attempted murder.1 Clinic staff and patients have reported over 450 incidents of stalking and over 350 death threats.2 Given the fact that in 2000, only 1,189 providers performed at least one abortion,3 and only 25% of those providers work in abortion clinics,4 these crime statistics attest to the very widespread effects of the violent campaign launched by anti-choice extremists.
In addition to acts of violence, over the past 25 years clinics have reported over 79,000 incidents of harassment, bomb threats, hate mail, threatening phone calls, suspicious package delivery, and disruptive picketing. 5 Clinics have also experienced 680 blockades, in which anti-abortion protesters physically and completely block access to the clinics, preventing patients from entering and subjecting them to further intimidation and harassment.
Clinic Access/FACE Laws | Federal and State FACE Laws | Picketing and Harassment
Endnotes
1. National Abortion Federation (NAF), Incidents of Violence and Disruption Against Abortion Providers, available at http://www.prochoice.org/Violence/Statistics/default.htm (last modified June 30, 2003)
2. Id. Stalking is defined as persistent following, threatening, and harassing of an abortion provider, staff member, or patient when away from the clinic. NAF began tabulating stalking incidents in 1993.
3. Lawrence B. Finer & Stanley K. Henshaw, Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States in 2000, 35 PERSP. ON SEXUAL AND REPROD. HEALTH 1, 10 (Jan/Feb 2003), available at http://www.alanguttmacherinstitute.org/pubs/journals/3500603.pdf.
4. Id. at 12.
5. NAF, Incidents of Violence and Disruption Against Abortion Providers, available at http://www.prochoice.org/Violence/Statistics/default.htm (last modified June 30, 2003).
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