Lawmakers File Appellate Brief Against Anti-Abortion Violence

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), along with a bipartisan group of more than 40 House and Senate members, will file a legal brief today in support of abortion providers and clinics asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling that he says will “severely undercut the enforceability of FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act).” Last month, in the case Planned Parenthood, et al. v. American Coalition of Life Activists, et al., a three-judge panel decided in favor of anti-abortion extremists when they said that abortion providers and clinic staff must endure the distribution of "Wanted" posters and Web sites that the FBI, a federal jury, and a district court have agreed are threats of violence. Schumer fears that the ruling could incite violence at abortion clinics across the country where, as our eighth annual National Clinic Violence Survey shows, 20% of our nation’s reproductive health clinics still report severe violence or threats in 2000.

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal on the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Media Resources: Associated Press – 13 April 2001, Senator Schumer’s office

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