Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Click here for this article on the San Francisco Chronicle website.
Oakland should have "medical safety zones" around abortion clinics to keep protesters at least 8 feet away from women, staff or escorts entering any clinic, a City Council committee recommended Tuesday.
The council's Public Safety Committee voted unanimously in favor of a proposed ordinance to establish the safety zones and to impose jail sentences of up to a year or fines of up to $2,000 for people who violate the law.
The proposed ordinance, which will be considered by the full City Council on Nov. 6, addresses an increasing number of complaints of harassment and intimidation at three abortion clinics in the city, proponents said.
City officials and escorts who accompany women at the clinics say federal and state laws offer some protections to clinic patients, but those authorities rarely intervene in lower-level cases of harassment. They also note that the laws do not extend protections to clinic staff and lack penalties significant enough to deter troublesome behavior.
"I'm there on the battleground," said Terry Sandoval, an escort who told the committee she has been harassed by protesters at Oakland clinics. "I believe a woman should be able to enter a clinic without being harassed, without being stopped."
The ordinance calls for an 8-foot "bubble" around patients, staff and people accompanying women seeking medical care at the three clinics.
The plan is opposed by anti-abortion activists, who call it an unnecessary intrusion on their freedom of speech.
Walter Hoye, a Union City resident who hands out anti-abortion literature at clinics in Oakland, said that he behaves peacefully when he hands out literature and that most other protesters do as well. Hoye said escorts for women using clinic services have shoved him.
"We do not do these things we are accused of," Hoye told the committee.
"We are not intimidating or using force. I'm here to urge you from the bottom of my heart to reconsider this ordinance. When we are there, we are there peacefully within our rights."
