Another example of Christian Persecution in America

December 2, 1999

Another example of Christian Persecution in America

As with every case in Western New York and others we are aware of, injunctions federal or state are punitive in nature rather than preventive. Whenever the gospel of truth is successfully spoken and mothers, babies and fathers are saved, there suddenly is an excuse to have an injunction that prohibits Christian free speech. The injunctions here in WNY have forced free speech from 15 feet from any pro-choice individual to 60 to 100 feet from any health facility that performs abortion. This includes hospitals etc. Their excuse for the latest federal injunction was the slaying of Barnett Slepian in his home miles from any clinic and their own paranoia. The killing of Mr. Slepian was brought to the forefront immediately, as was the concept that the injunction would keep us pro-lifers safe. (what a joke) These injunctions are punitive rather that preventive. Preventive injunctions would act to protect someone from a criminal act. Punitive injunction punish us for obeying the law and still successfully saving babies and parents.

They prevent us from telling the truth to any whom enters any health care facility that performs abortions in WNY including Planned Parenthood.

The latest attack on your free speech comes in the form of a New York State law on top of the federal injunction that further limits what we will be able to say and do. Don't be fooled by the language of these laws but understand the purpose behind them.

The following appeared in the Buffalo News on November 23 1999. '"This legislation is too late for me and my children, but I hope that it will help other families by preventing senseless tragedies." Statement by Lynne Slepian, Widow of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian.

STATE GOVERNMENT

Law enacted to protect clinic workers, clients

By TOM PRECIOUS

News Albany Bureau

ALBANY -- Using a pen that will be sent to the widow of an Amherst abortion doctor slain last year, Gov. Pataki on Monday signed into law a measure boosting protection for health-care workers and their clients at clinics where abortions are performed.

Nearly a decade, in the making, the state clinic-access law, passed in the wake of the sniper slaying of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, will make it illegal for protesters to block women trying to enter an abortion clinic, or to harass or intimidate health-care workers at the facilities.

Mirroring a federal law, it will make it a responsibility of state and local police to enforce the new protections and will simplify the legal steps needed to form buffer zones around clinics during protests.

"This legislation is too late for me and my children, but I hope that it will help other families by preventing senseless tragedies," Lynne Slepian, the doctor's widow, said in a statement.

Her husband's name was used as a rallying cry by abortion-rights advocates at the Capitol to get 'the legislation -blocked by Senate Republicans since 1992 -- agreed to on the last day of the session last summer.

Although both sides in the debate focused on the measure's abortion provisions, Pataki, at a bill-signing ceremony, sought to keep the focus on the legislation's other portions. The governor appeared to try to tiptoe around the controversial abortion language, instead spending most of his time promoting the measure's new anti-stalking provisions.

The Republican-led Senate insisted that the stalking provisions be attached to a broader criminal-justice measure. They also demanded that the protections afforded abortion clinics under the new law also apply to places of religious worship. That was seen as a political bone for religious groups that had vehemently, opposed the clinic-access provisions

Federal law already includes protections for abortion clinics and their workers and clients. But critics maintained that state and local police were unable to enforce the law and that there were insufficient federal marshals in all locations to police the demonstrators. Anti-abortion groups insisted that there are already enough laws to protect health-care clinics and that free-speech protections could be eroded under the new law.

"I think the clinic-access provisions will not do anything. Its smoke and mirrors and a typical political reaction to a tragedy," said the Rev. Duane Motley, executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom, a Rochester based religious group that heavily lobbied against the measure.

Supporters say the new law, the 14th in the nation to mirror the 1994 clinic-access law, will send a message that targeting of abortion providers will not be tolerated.

"With this legislation, the government is making a strong statement that women have a right to access health care without harassment and intimidation," said JoAnn Smith, executive director of Family Planning Advocates, a statewide group that represents Planned Parenthood clinics and other health facilities.

The measure had languished in the Assembly for nearly the entire decade. But after James C. Kopp, an abortion foe indicted for second degree murder in Slepian's death, allegedly shot the Amherst doctor in his home in October 1998, abortion-rights groups mobilized: and pushed through a bill that had been otherwise considered: dead at the Capitol. Kopp is still a fugitive.

The legislation will apply to about 250 health clinics across New York. It provides a misdemeanor charge for less serious violations against any person who, by force or threat of force or by physical, obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with someone trying to enter an abortion clinic. More serious cases bring a felony charge that carries up to four years in prison. The anti-stalking measures will make it easier for victims to report instances of harassment to the police. "Prosecutors have long complained that existing state law makes it hard for individuals, particularly women, to stop someone from staking them,'' the Pataki administration said. FBI statistics Show that; nearly one-third of women murdered "were first stalked by their assailant.''

With the new law, "we're not going to wait until the act of violence occurs," Pataki said. If a stalker menaces his victim with a weapon, the new stalking crime can be prosecuted as a felony. A person is guilty of first-degree felony stalking if he or she according to the governor's office, "intentionally, harasses or annoys another person and causes physical injury..."

We pray all will join together to stop these kind of laws especially for the abortion providers and to fight like never before to end this industry of harvesting human souls for profit and evil.

God's best to all,
Rev. Bob Behn
Last Call Ministries