of the Congress, absolutely refused to even consider the human life amendment. And I find that to be totally inconsistent. I think those of us who consider ourselves pro-life must, and do, and have, and do again today, condemn the violence that has taken place in no uncertain terms. There is no qualification for that. But it seems to me to be a little inconsistent to condemn the destruction of buildings and fail to condemn the destruction of human life that is occurring inside those buildings. Thank you. Mr. EDWARDS. The first group of witnesses will constitute a panel, and we are going to ask each of the witnesses, as I introduce them, to speak for not in excess of 5 minutes, please, and then members of the committee will have some questions. The first member of the panel to testify is Ms. Mary Bannecker, administrator of the Northeast Women's Center in Philadelphia. Ms. Bannecker. STATEMENTS OF MARY BANNECKER, ADMINISTRATOR, NORTHEAST WOMEN'S CENTER, PHILADELPHIA, PA; HEATHER GREEN, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY EDUCATION, HILLCREST CLINICS, NORFOLK, VA; JOY R. TAYLOR AND KATHERINE J. TAYLOR, PORTLAND, OREGON; BEVERLY WHIPPLE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FEMINIST WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTER, YAKIMA, WA; AND DR. JOAN BABBOTT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF CONNECTICUT, INC., NEW HAVEN, CT Ms. BANNECKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've been employed at Northeast Women's Center in Philadelphia since May 1981. The Northeast Women's Center is- Mr. EDWARDS. Can you hear the witness in the back of the room? Can you get the microphone very close? Northeast Women's Center offers routine gynecological care, pregnancy testing, counseling on such issues as birth control, sexuality, pregnancy options, referrals, community education work, as well as abortion services. Since the time of my employment, I have personally observed weekly demonstrations at the clinic. The number of demonstrators varies from 5 to more than 100. I have personally observed women's arms being grabbed when they have refused to acknowledge the picketers or pleaded with them to be left alone. Their arms are grabbed as these picketers are screaming within inches of their face, "Don't murder your baby. They'll rip your baby's eyes out." I have seen antiabortionists block the entrance to the parking lot of the clinic until the person in the car was going to roll down the window of her car and allow them to force their antiabortion literature into the window. Picketing escalated to such a level in May 1983 that I asked the Northeast Chapter of NOW for prochoice volunteer escorts. They agreed to do this, but shortly after the beginning of providing that service, we needed to halt that, because one of the volunteers was shoved into the bushes by one of the antiabortionists. Although patients are advised of the picketing, many times they will drive up to the clinic and see what is happening to women en tering the building and will drive away and reschedule their appointment until a later point when they believe that picketing will not occur, thus increasing their health risk by delaying the termination of their pregnancies. On several occasions these picketers have prevented entrance and exit into our building. The staff has also received harassing phone calls or whistles have been blown into the ears of the women answering the phones. They have been called murderers over the phone and they have also received death threats. The continuing and escalating harassment of patients going into Northeast Women's Center drove us to seek and obtain an injunction in August 1983. In Philadelphia the sheriff's department is responsible for the enforcement of injunctions. The injunction limited the picketing to six persons walking on the public sidewalk; however, the sheriff's department has been there when more than 30 people have picketed the clinic and refused to enforce the injunctions. There have never been any arrests made due to the injunction. The sheriff's department charges a fee for its services, but we no longer employ them since they prove to be ineffective. The police response in Philadelphia has also been inconsistent. On November 24, three people illegally entered the building and were asked to leave, and were advised that they were trespassing, and the police arrived and no arrests were made. Again, on November 30, seven people entered the clinic illegally. The police were called again and no arrests were made. The following week, on December 8, 31 people trampled into the clinic, literally treading on me as they ran up the steps to the third floor of the building. When they got up to the third floor, they shoved the office manager so that about 11 of them could get to the rear of the clinic. One of the men that had entered the building, one of the antiabortionists that entered the building, repeatedly hit the lab technician with the door, because she was preventing him from entering the lab because a 15-year-old teen was in the lab. She sustained bruises, and cuts, and a strained back. She was unable to return to work for 2 weeks and did return against medical advice. The 31 people that came into the clinic had to literally be carried out of the building by the police. During the following week we received three bomb threats. One of the bomb threats, we evacuated the building, and one of the people who was evacuated was a woman who had just had an abortion completed under general anesthesia and had to be carried out on a gurney, and literally awoke in the parking lot of the building. At the hearing of the 31 arrested, 30 of them pleaded innocent to defiant trespass, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, and criminal conspiracy. The following Saturday six persons picketed my home. The only way they could have found out where I live was by following me home or tracing my license on my car. I was at work at the time and my 12-year-old son was at home with the coowner of the house. One of the picketers was a defendant in the case I just talked about. They carried signs saying, "Mary Bannecker Thrives on Innocent Blood" and "Mary, Hitler would love you." I live in a working class residential neighborhood in the Germantown section of Philadelphia; which means when picketers are at my home they're about 3 feet from the front of my porch. You can imagine the anguish and fear of potential violence that this has caused me, my family and my neighbors, as well as the staff that works at Northeast Women's Center. It is already a highly stressful job because they're working with women in crises, and now they have the threat of violence hanging over their head. This fear and anguish is compounded by the women who are seeking our services. These women who choose to terminate their pregnancies do not do so either carelessly or casually. Screams and physical assaults only add to their distress and emotional turmoil. They enter the clinic visibly shaken and upset. What is so frightening is that the antiabortionists are neither passive nor nonviolent. Because of this, these actions, we have been unable to renew our lease and will be forced to move at the end of it. I feel strongly that the Federal Government must step up its efforts to investigate these groups. In light of the proven violence of antiabortion groups, I believe these groups must be thoroughly looked at, just as any other group involved in such activities would be, despite their claim to the moral righteousness of their actions. Providing abortion services is a legal activity, and the issue at hand is whether the Federal Government will enforce its own laws and secure women's constitutional rights to safe and legal abortions. Thank you. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you, Ms. Bannecker. The next member of the panel to testify is Ms. Heather Green, who is director of community education, Hillcrest Clinics, Norfolk, VA. Ms. GREEN. Thank you. Hillcrest Clinic is located on the second floor of a three-story office building in Norfolk, VA. For over 11 years we have provided first trimester abortion services, pregnancy testing, problem pregnancy counseling, venereal disease testing, sonograms and community education programs to the Hampton Roads community. Since we are the only facility in our area which provides abortion services, we have become the target for antiabortion violence and harassment. On May 26, 1983, an arsonist broke into our clinic and set fire to our facilities. The damages were approximately $150,000 and the clinic was closed for 20 days. Twenty customers of the Navy Federal Credit Union, which is another tenant in the building, were unable to close on their home mortgages that day, and Sovran Bank, which is below the clinic, suffered severe water damage. Our insurance was canceled as a result of the fire, but we were able to obtain additional coverage on the building at an added cost. At this time we installed a security and alarm system costing $3,500. Subsequent to the fire the previously peaceful demonstrations changed dramatically. Almost daily protests were staged. One demonstrator dressed as a doctor chased women around the public easement in front of the building, a paper hatchet in his hand. A patient was followed to a nearby restaurant by a picketer and was Other picketers have trespassed onto the parking lot to approach cars and pedestrians as they arrive at the building. They have blocked entrances to the building, attempting to dissuade our employees from entering work. They followed employees into the building, infiltrated our waiting room, harassing all those people that are waiting. We have had our magazines in our waiting room stuffed with antiabortion material. They trespass in the corridors and into the building's bathrooms. Also, we find, on occasion, pictures of dead fetuses taped on the walls in the lobby downstairs. A clinic employee, while shopping at a local mall, was identified by antiabortion demonstrators and was chased down the mall as they yelled at her, "You're a murderer, you're a murderer." Throughout the summer and fall of 1983, our employees and patients were continually harassed. Statements such as "How many babies are you going to chop up today?" "Can't you find another job?" "How can you stand to kill babies?" "Don't kill or murder your baby," were screamed weekly. It became necessary for the police to intervene, and, between October 1983 and February 1984, there were 12 arrests for trespassing, 3 arrests for obstructing pedestrian traffic. Either convictions or out-of-court agreements were reached in these cases. But even after becoming involved in the criminal cases, we felt it was necessary to try and protect our patients and employees from abusive language which the right-to-life organizations in the area called sidewalk counseling. We filed a civil suit to try and get injunctive relief against five antiabortion organizations, stating that they were preventing our right to work. A temporary injunction was issued that prevented the picketers and the area churches from interferring with our right to work, and an out-of-court agreement was finally reached in which the defendants agreed not to trespass onto private property, but the subject of the abusive language was not addressed. After filing the civil suit, we had an increased number of telephone harassments, hate mail, and bomb threats. On February 17, 1984, a bomb exploded outside of our building. While only 1 of 7 pipe bombs exploded, and damage resulted to the bank downstairs, there was a piece of board that was found with the message "Hillcrest Murders" on one side and "AOG," standing for the Army of God, on the other. Our employees suffered nightmares as a result of these activities. Our administrator was forced to flee her home for a weekend because the local authorities did not feel her home was a safe place to be. We have a 24-hour security guard which costs $4,000 a month. And we have had women who would refuse to come to our clinic because of the picketing and the bombings which have occurred. They are afraid to come to the clinic and travel a distance of 40 miles to the next clinic. The harassment, though, does not end at Hillcrest Clinic. Dr. Eugene McDaniels is employed on a part-time basis by the clinic, and he was also a member of the largest OB-GYN practice in Elizabeth City, NC. The picketing became so intense at his two private offices that his partners asked him to sever his relationship with Hillcrest Clinic or leave the practice. He refused to bow to the pres sure and on March 1, 1984, he opened up his own private practice. He continues to endure weekly picketers there by the North Carolina Right-to-Life. Currently the situation appears to be escalating again. We have increased numbers of picketers and the new faces that have not been involved in the criminal or civil action in the past really seem to pose problems. The screaming and shouting at all people entering the building regardless of their destination continues, and on occasion all patrons that come into the building are filmed. And we have been told that there is nothing that we can do about the filming process because the filming is taking place on public property. Besides the graphic signs that are used there are other visual aids. Their latest visual aid is a metal garbage can which is filled and overflowing with plastic baby dolls that are splattered with red paint. They wave the plastic baby dolls at passing motorists. The owner of the Bel Aire Pancake House, which is across the street from the building, complained fiercely to the city attorney about the use of the trash can. She is losing business as a result of this prop. The Navy Federal Credit Union is attempting to break their lease by documenting all complaints and incidents which occur at the building. And we, our clinic, attempted to open up a satellite counseling office, where only counseling would be performed, in Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is the fifth largest developing city in the United States. And after many months of searching, there was not one, single owner that would lease to us. The local authorities, on the whole, have been supportive of the clinic. However, there are inconsistencies in the interpretations of laws, depending on which officer is on duty. There are differences of opinions, over how loud someone can shout before they are a public nuisance, the proper way to write a summons, and, also, if the trash can does pose a traffic hazard. There are also differences within the court system and the State attorney's office itself. We can only say that the sidewalk counseling that is going on is not of a supportive nature. By the time the patients come up into the clinic they are an emotional wreck, and some patients do leave the clinic and reschedule for another day. The patients are more difficult to counsel, have a longer recovery period, and our very basic freedoms are being violated under the guise of peaceful pro test. Thank you very much. Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you, Ms. Green. |