April 21, 1998

Abortion Foes Say
They Can't Pay

Filed at 5:35 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- Abortion foes held liable for clinic violence in a landmark federal racketeering case said Tuesday they can't pay millions of dollars in damage claims expected from clinics nationwide.

``A million dollars, a billion dollars, a trillion dollars, the national debt -- they won't get it,'' said anti-abortion leader Joseph Scheidler. ``You can't get blood from a turnip -- and we're turnips.''

A jury Monday said Scheidler, two associates and two anti-abortion groups used threats and violence in a nationwide extortion scheme designed to shut down clinics.

The jury awarded Milwaukee and Wilmington, Del., clinics damages totaling $85,926.92. The amount will be tripled under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in the first nationwide class-action lawsuit filed against the anti-abortion movement under the law intended to fight organized crime.

The verdict allows clinics across the country to claim their own triple damages.

Susan Hill, president of Women's Health Organization of America, which operates the Milwaukee and Wilmington clinics, said numerous protest targets are eager to collect.

The lawsuit was brought by the two clinics and the National Organization for Women. Besides Scheidler, defendants are Timothy Murphy and Andrew Scholberg, the Pro-Life Action League and Operation Rescue.

``I've received hundreds of phone calls in my office overnight from clinics and providers who are eager to file claims,'' Hill said.

``They've also told me that they're relieved, that they went in safely today,'' she said. ``They felt better. They felt safer.''

Larry Crane, the attorney for Operation Rescue, said there's no money to collect.

``There's no chance or likelihood of collecting any judgment against these impecunious defendants,'' he said.

NOW and the clinics are expecting U.S. District Judge David Coar to issue an order barring any further blockades or violent protests, but the defendants say they don't advocate violence and aren't responsible for the excesses of a few of their followers.

Coar on Tuesday scheduled a hearing June 30.

As she emerged from court, NOW attorney Fay Clayton -- who filed the lawsuit in 1986 and fought it for a dozen years -- took issue with a comment from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago that the blockade organizers were similar to the civil rights demonstrators of the 1960s.

George said the Chicago archdiocese may join in the appeal. But Clayton said the cardinal may have been ``sold a bill of goods'' if he believes the defendants were demonstrating peacefully at the clinics.

``Martin Luther King taught non-violent civil disobedience,'' Clayton said. ``These guys have done non-civil violent disobedience.''

Scheidler, meanwhile, said the verdict wouldn't shut him down.

``I am a Catholic gentleman who believes in human life,'' he said. ``I am not going out of business. I will fight abortion until the day I die.''