U.S. Marshals Told to Protect Abortion Site : Judiciary: Federal judge acts after demonstrators close Wichita clinic despite his orders to city to keep it open. Rights activists ‘gag’ Statue of Liberty.
A judge ordered in federal marshals Monday to enforce his order that abortion opponents not block an abortion clinic, after two weeks of demonstrations in which 1,000 people have been arrested.
Police officers arrested an additional 94 protesters Monday on loitering charges for blocking the clinic’s entrance, Lt. Jack Arnold said.
Elsewhere Monday, abortion rights activists briefly covered the face of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor to protest regulations banning abortion counseling at federally funded family planning clinics.
“We wanted to gag the Statue of Liberty as the federal government is gagging women’s rights,” spokeswoman Karen Ramspacher said.
About 30 members of WHAM!--Women’s Health Action and Mobilization--hung two black banners saying, “No Choice, No Liberty.”
Park Service Ranger James Pilgrim said the activists opened two windows in the crown and pushed the banners out. “They weren’t broken, the locks were picked.”
No arrests were made, Pilgrim said. But they said the activists could be charged with demonstrating without a permit, punishable by up to six months in jail.
Denis Amico, a Marshals Service supervisor in Wichita, refused to say how many federal officers would be sent there.
“The judge’s court order will be enforced. The gates to the clinic will stay open,” Amico said.
U.S. District Judge Patrick F. Kelly sent letters to Mayor Bob Knight, Police Chief Rick Stone and the U.S. Marshals Service saying that, despite Knight’s assurances Friday, Dr. George Tiller’s clinic gate was blocked again Monday.
Kelly issued a preliminary injunction last week barring protesters from blocking Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services.
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