From: dsh@eceyv.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Subject: Pro-abortion feminist leader endorses trashing of free speech rights
Organization: NCSU
Lines: 38

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51 Arrested for Defying Judge's Order at Abortion Protest Rally
The Miami Herald, April 11, 1993

   Melbourne, Florida --   [...]

   Circuit Judge Robert McGregor's order prohibits anti-abortion pickets
   within 36 feet of the property line of Aware Woman Center for Choice.
   Even across the street, they may not display pictures of dead fetuses
   or sing or chant loud enough to be heard by patients inside the clinic.

   The protesters say the ruling all but wiped out the First Amendment
   to the Constitution.

   ``This is our sidewalk,'' said Joe Carroll, 33, a landscaper who
   marched with his children, Mary Grace, 8, and John, 7.

   ``I am not a rescuer.  I am not a trespasser.  It's just that this is
   my sidewalk.  I am not really protesting abortion.  We are protesting
   denial of our rights of assembly, religion, speech.  This judge is
   trashing the Constitution.''

   The children's grandmother led them away, sobbing, as Carroll and
   his father were arrested.

   Outside the clinic, Eleanor Smeal, president of the Washington,
   D.C.-based Feminist Majority Foundation, called for the Florida
   Legislature and Congress to pass laws as tough as the judge's
   order, which covers only Brevard and Seminole counties.

   ``This cannot go on,'' she said.  ``This is not freedom of speech,
   this is total psychological warfare with violence.  It is ridiculous
   to have to ask clinics to go court-by-court . . . to get protection.''

   [...]

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