July 9-19, 1993: Operation Rescue Launches ‘Cities of Refuge’ Offensive against Abortion Clinics in 10 States

The anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue (OR—see 1986) targets abortion and women’s clinics in seven states, as part of a 10-day event it calls “Cities of Refuge.” It intends to close or disrupt clinics in Cleveland, Ohio; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; San Jose, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; and several cities in central Florida. The event harks back to the 1991 “Summer of Mercy,” which blockaded three clinics in Wichita, Kansas, for 46 days (see July-August 1991), and a smaller blockade in Buffalo, New York, in 1992. City councils and police officials in Cleveland, San Jose, Philadelphia, and St. Paul are taking measures to ensure the safety of doctors, staff members, and patients; Philadelphia police officer John Norris says, “We’re ready for anything that comes down the pike.” Activist Eric Johns and his wife Michelle are in Jackson preparing for the protests. He tells reporters: “We hope to put these places out of business, expose abortionists to their community, embarrass them for what they do, expose staff workers at these places, and eventually shut down the whole isly abortion industry in the state of Mississippi. I think I have a biblical responsibility and am commanded by God [sic] to do what I’m doing.” Jeanie Hollis of the Mississippi Women’s Medical Clinic in Jackson responds: “They will not close us down. If a patient wants an abortion, we will figure out a way to get them in the clinic.” Dianne Straus of the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Women’s Center says she fears more anti-abortion violence, and recalls the recent murder of a Florida abortion provider, Dr. David Gunn (see March 10, 1993). [Associated Press, 7/5/1993; Orlando Sentinel, 7/19/1993] As a result of the protests, Florida Judge John Rudd sentences OR leader Keith Tucci to a month in jail for violating a court order during a protest, and blames Tucci for a number of other “good people” being arrested. Rudd actually gives Tucci six months in jail, but suspends the remainder of the sentence on the condition that Tucci obey the court order not to demonstrate inside a “buffer zone” around the Aware Woman Center for Choice in Melbourne, Florida. Rudd also finds 38 other anti-abortion protesters guilty of criminal contempt, and gives them each six months’ probation. Rudd notes an instance in a videotape from one of the protests, when Tucci screamed that a police officer was hurting his two-year-old child; the officer actually placed a protective hand on the child’s back. Rudd accuses Tucci of “hypocrisy and showmanship.” Tucci calls the verdicts an injustice. [Orlando Sentinel, 7/10/1993] A dozen OR activists are arrested in Dallas, after ignoring police orders to stop blocking access to a Dallas woman’s clinic [Orlando Sentinel, 7/14/1993] , and several hundred are arrested in Philadelphia. [Orlando Sentinel, 7/19/1993]