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S P E C I A L : Roe vs. Wade NOW sues anti-abortion activists under racketeering law
March 4, 1998
Joseph Scheidler is being sued under the RICO Act
VXtreme Video
CNN's Patty Davis reports
Web posted at: 11:36 p.m. EST (0436 GMT)CHICAGO (CNN) -- Using a law designed to fight organized crime, the National Organization for Women asked a federal jury Wednesday to force anti-abortion leaders to pay for damages caused in clinic attacks.
The lawsuit was filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. It names as defendants two anti-abortion groups -- Operation Rescue and the Pro-Life Action League -- as well as three of the league's top leaders.
The suit accuses the two groups and defendants Joseph Scheidler, Timothy Murphy and Andrew Scholberg of waging a campaign of fear and violence aimed at shutting down clinics.
"We're going to prove a nationwide conspiracy, a network of violent activity that is centrally orchestrated and has the goal of closing down abortion clinics by illegal means including violence," said NOW President Patricia Ireland.
Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry originally was named in the lawsuit. But Terry, already facing $169,000 in court awards from two other abortion-related lawsuits, settled with NOW in January and is no longer part of the case.
Damages could climb
NOW says the defendants are behind a pattern of violence intended to shut down clinics The suit seeks a nationwide injunction and monetary damages to cover the increased cost of security at clinics. While it asks for a total of only $86,500 in damages for attacks on clinics in Milwaukee and Wilmington, Delaware, the damages could climb into the millions if the defendants lose the class-action suit, which would allow other clinics to file claims for money.
"If the anti-abortion thugs won't obey the law, we'll go after them where it hurts -- their wallets," Ireland said at the start of court action Wednesday.
If NOW wins the case, which is expected to last about a month, it would allow abortion-rights advocates to obtain contempt citations and even liens against the assets of the leaders of the anti-abortion movement, Ireland said.
Attorneys for the defendants have said the case amounts to a suppression of free speech rights and argued that acts of individual demonstrators cannot be blamed on the movement as a whole or on its leaders.
The RICO statute, which allows juries to award triple damages to those who are injured by racketeering, could strike a blow to the anti-abortion movement.
But G. Robert Blakey, the Notre Dame University law professor who was a chief architect of the racketeering law, said the act was intended only for use against organized crime and drug cartels.
"This case is a nightmare for anybody who wants to picket," he said, adding that groups that don't profit financially should not be penalized.
Defendant denies charges
The Pro-Life Action League has tripled its fund raising, but if NOW wins it will have to pay triple damages Before attorneys for NOW started their opening statements Wednesday, Scheidler met with reporters in the lobby of the courthouse and denied the charges.
He said he was being blamed for arsons, bombings and shootings that had nothing to do with him. He acknowledged his role in the anti-abortion movement but said he advocates pursuing the goal "by legal means."
"They have to find a conspiracy. They have to find a capo, a kind of mastermind behind all of this, and they think it's me," Scheidler said.
However, attorneys for NOW and the clinics told jurors that anti-abortion leaders claim to advocate legal means while engaging in criminal conduct.
The case is a civil suit and the defendants are not charged under any criminal laws. But NOW attorney Fay Clayton told the jurors that "all kinds of criminal acts took place." She said Scheidler and his co-defendants didn't actually engage in arsons and bombings but created an atmosphere in which others carried out these acts.
"It's about force, violence and fear," Clayton said.
She quoted Scheidler as telling his followers: "You can try for 50 years to do it the nice way or you can do it next week the nasty way."
Early rulings by judge
In court, U.S. District Judge David Coar issued rulings on several motions, including one barring the use of the term "foot soldiers" in describing anti-abortion protesters because jurors might connect it to the Army of God, a radical group claiming responsibility for recent clinic bombings.
Coar warned the plaintiffs that they must establish a firm link to the alleged conspiracy if they want to introduce evidence about two shootings of abortion clinic doctors, one of whom was murdered in Florida and the other seriously wounded in Kansas.
The judge compared some of the inflammatory rhetoric of anti-abortion leaders with Vietnam-era protests that popularized the phrase, "By any means necessary."
"(But) there is a vast difference between not condemning, or supporting, applauding and cheering the (violent) acts of others and the taking up of those acts yourself," Coar said.
Scheidler said the threat of financial ruin or an injunction won't put an end to the anti-abortion movement.
"We'll still go out to the clinics. We'll still pray. We'll still do the things we're doing," he said.
Correspondent Patty Davis, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
CNN In-Depth Health:
Related stories:
- Sources: Evidence links Birmingham, Atlanta bombings - February 27, 1998
- After 25 years of Roe, debate still rages - January 22, 1998
- Fluctuations, but no major change in views on abortion - January 20, 1998
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