The Feminist Majority Foundation's NATIONAL CLINIC DEFENSE PROJECT has mobilized pro-bono legal teams, financial assistance, security assesments, and tens of thousands of abortion rights supporters to defend clinics and protect women's right to choose. The Clinic Defense Project -- the largest in the country -- continues to develop the leading strategies to combat anti-abortion violence.The project began in 1989, when the fanatical anti-abortion group Operation Rescue boasted that Los Angeles would be the "decisive battleground" in its war against abortion. Our Clinic Defenders out-organized Operation Rescue and kept L.A. clinics safe and open.
From there the Clinic Defense Project successfully organized to protect women's health clinics from blockades in cities from Buffalo, NY to Dallas, TX to Jackson, MI to NYC, NY to Little Rock, AR and more.
Operation Rescue was revitalized in January 1993 by the Supreme Court's Bray decision which stripped away federal protections against clinic blockading. And most alarming, new anti-abortion zealots founded a group which supported "Justifiable Homicide,"by declaring open hunting season on abortion providers. Clinic Defense field organizers were already in Florida when Dr. David Gunn was killed in March of 1993 by an anti-abortion extremist.
One year later, Paul Hill, a "Justifiable Homicide" extremist the Clinic Defense Project had alerted Florida law enforcement to time and time again, shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and his clinic escort, Ret. Lt. Col. James Barrett.
And just ten days before the Brookline, MA murders in Dec. 1994 by extremist John Salvi, Clinic Defense organizers had performed a security assessment at the Norfolk, VA clinic where Salvi tried to continue his violent rampage. Due to the security measures we had recommended, noone was injured and Salvi was finally apprehended.
The project's legal team won a critical U.S. Supreme Court decision, Madsen v. Women's Health Center, in June of 1994 which paved the way for safety buffer zones to stem anti-abortion violence nationwide.
As anti-abortion groups have become more and more violent, the Clinic Defense Project has had to dramatically expand. We need your help now more than ever.
THE FIGHT TO KEEP CLINICS OPEN AND SAFE
The Feminist Majority Foundation's National Clinic Defense Project keeps clinics open and safe by:
- Mass mobilization and training of pro-choice volunteers across the country to protect clinics targeted for blockades.
- Securing clinic and residential injunctions with our Legal Team to help stop clinic violence, blockades, and the stalking of medical professionals.
- Organizing Emergency Clinic Security and Survival Assistance for clinics and health care workers under attack by providing bullet-proof vests, video camera surveillance systems and armed security guards.
- Monitoring and notifying federal and local law enforcement about anti-abortion activities, maintaining a 1-800 number for clinics and doctors to report anti-abortion violence, and publishing an annual clinic violence survey for Congressional and public information.
THE CAMPAIGN TO END ABORTION CLINIC VIOLENCE
The Feminist Majority leads the work on Capitol Hill for tough, new federal laws to protect abortion clinics from violence and stop the dangerous stalking and harassment of doctors and their families at their homes. We joined abortion providers from across the country to demand passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) to provide for federal civil and criminal penalties for anyone who blocks access to medical facilities. In May of 1994 FACE, the first piece of pro-choice, federal legislation passed in the history of the United States, was signed into law.More on the National Clinic Defense Project
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