Dems introduce bill to block abortion clinic protesters

By Marc Kovac | December 10, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

Democrats in the Ohio House have introduced legislation that would prevent protesters from blocking access to abortion clinics.

House Bill 408 also would enable doctors and employees at Planned Parenthood and other women’s health care facilities to file civil suits against abortion opponents if they feel intimidated or harassed.

“No health care provider, no receptionist, no police officer, no person who goes to a clinic to be supportive of their friend deserves to be targeted with inflammatory rhetoric or hate or violence,” Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said Wednesday during a press conference at the Statehouse.

The proposed law changes come in response to a recent shooting at a Planned Parenthood location in Colorado where three people were killed and nine others wounded.

Women’s-health advocates connect the attack to undercover videos released earlier this year that purportedly show discussion of the sale of body parts from aborted fetuses. Planned Parenthood supporters say, however, the videos were heavily edited and that the group does not sell or otherwise illegally transfer fetal tissue.

Among other provisions, the legislation would create a 15-foot buffer around women’s health care clinics, plus potential civil and criminal penalties for protesters who impede access to the facilities.

“Threatening lives of those who provide health care to people who seek it is quite simply terrorism,” said Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, one the bill’s primary co-sponsors. “No rationale or reason can justify it. … This legislation will give doctors the tools they need to legally fight back and deter those who are willing to resort to intimidation and violence to impose their beliefs on others.”

Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director of Ohio Right to Life, said her organization does not endorse or promote the use of violence against abortion clinics.

Krider added that 70,000 people protested at Planned Parenthood locations over the summer without incident.

Created Equal, a group that frequently protests legalized abortion by displaying oversized photographs of aborted fetuses, said in a released statement the legislation would “open the door to intimidation of peaceful, law-abiding protesters and sidewalk counselors and criminalize opposition to abortion under the guise of anti-harassment.”