By Rita McInerney

About 100 anti-abortion demonstrators are in Fulton County Jail awaiting trial on criminal trespassing charges following the July 19 protest by Operation Rescue at Atlanta SurgiCenter, 1133 Spring St. in Midtown Atlanta.

Attorney Bob Fierer, attorney for the pro-life prisoners, said trial dates could be set for "anywhere from six weeks to six months. An my guess is it will be closer to six months."

There were a total of 134 demonstrators arrested between 7 and 9 a.m. on the morning of July 19 at the abortion clinic. All refused to give their names, replying "Baby Jane Doe" and "Baby John Doe" when questioned.

On the morning of July 29, as the third and final day of hearings for the July 19 demonstrators was to begin in Atlanta Municipal Court, 13 more anti-abortion demonstrators were arrested in "Phase 2" at Atlanta SurgiCenter. Ten more demonstrators were arrested Saturday morning, July 30, at the Atlanta Women's Medical Center, 3316 Piedmont Ave.

Hearings for the 23 were held Aug. 1 and 2 in municipal court.

Demonstrators arrested July 19 were confined at the Atlanta city prison farm in southeast Atlanta until their hearings.

Most of the pro-life demonstrators came to Atlanta for the protest during the Democratic National Convention, many from New York and other areas of the country. Several women from parishes in the archdiocese were among those arrested July 19.

Father Edwin Arentsen, of Addieville, IL, a priest of the diocese of Belleville, IL, was arrested at that time. He remains confined with the majority of the protesters in Fulton County Jail.

As the hearings began July 27 in a second-floor courtroom at Municipal Court, 165 Decatur St., a number of those arrested and later released from the prison farm after signing their names and addresses to $500 recognizance bonds, sat among other pro-life advocates in the small, dingy courtroom.

Three large television cameras were set up near the bench where Judge Howard Johnson was presiding. Directly across was the glass-enclosed box where the prisoners sat. A court attendant announced that there was trouble with the microphones.

As court convened, Fierer told the court he had served a witness subpoena on Margie Pitts Hames, lawyer for the abortion clinic, and requested that witnesses be kept out of the courtroom until they were called to testify. Judge Johnson consented, had them sworn in and then told the witnesses, Ms Hames included, to leave the courtroom.

The first defendant called, Joseph Leonardi of New York, was one of the demonstrators who had signed his own bond and was released from the prison farm several days before. After pleading not guilty, he was bound over to the state court of Fulton County to await trial on the criminal trespassing charge.

At the close of the first day's hearings, the court clerk's office said in a telephone interview that 47 were bound over for court and three hearings were reset for the next day. One defendant, "Baby Jane Doe #8," was released by Judge Johnson after two policemen who were present at the July 19 demonstration could not identify her as being present.

On Friday, July 29, a telephone inquiry to the Fulton County Jail revealed 60 in jail at that point and 23 more expected from that day's hearings. Thirteen more were expected from Monday's hearings for those arrested in the second protest on July 29 at the Atlanta SurgiCenter.

Archbishop Eugene A. Marino visited the prisoners on Saturday morning, July 30. He accompanied Father John Adamski, pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta, who also had visited the prisoners at the prison farm and concelebrated Mass there with Father Arentsen.

Father Adamski distributed Holy Communion to Catholics among the prisoners and Archbishop Marino met with them in four groups, two each of men and women. The prisoners told the archbishop they were being treated very well and had no complaints. Then he let them in singing "Let There Be Peace On Earth." He also met Father Arentsen.

The archbishop said he was received cordially by prison authorities and said that the archdiocese will continue to provide pastoral visitation to the prisoners.

On Monday, Aug. 1, Father Adamski said most of the prisoners are being held on the second floor of the new prison facility. Eight with potential medical problems are confined to the medical area in the old building. The jail is located on Jefferson Street near Ashby.

The same day, Father Edward J. Dillon, coordinator of the Pro-Life Office for the archdiocese of Atlanta, released a statement on behalf of Archbishop Marino in which he said: "Archbishop Marino expresses his sympathy for the goals of those who are imprisoned in Atlanta following their non-violent protest against the practice of abortion. He shares their anguish over the wanton destruction of human life which prevails in our society as the result of abortion on demand. He shares their belief that nothing can justify denying to unborn children the right to life."

Father Dillon added that the archbishop "intends to continue his personal and public support of these goals," and that the prisoners are receiving spiritual and pastoral care from him and his priests. "He has asked priests who have care of the prisons to be especially vigilant in their pastoral care of them," Father Dillon concluded.

During the interval between the arrests July 19 and the hearings, while the demonstrators were confined at the city prison farm, they were visited by family members and supporters. Each day between 3 and 4 p.m. they were led outside by guards for recreation. In the case of the pro-life activists, it was time for prayer and hymn singing and visiting, separated by the high chain link fence, with friends from Atlanta churches and pro-life organizations, members of their own families or friends who had come with them to Atlanta from distant states.

Among the supporters visiting on Saturday afternoon, July 23, were several men and women who had been arrested with them and later signed their own bonds. One Atlanta woman, a Catholic, regretted that her own medical condition made it impossible for her to remain detained. In fact, her co-prisoners had insisted that she leave. Another Catholic woman had left reluctantly late in the evening of July 19. A single mother, she feared for her job.

In a statement released by Operation Rescue, Randall Terry of Binghamton, NY, the director, now released from jail in Atlanta, said the prisoners "will provide a national symbol of resistance to the Goliath of the nation's abortion industry." He predicted that several hundred pro-life people will do "rescues at abortion facilities in Atlanta within the next month and not provide their identities to Atlanta police."

On Wednesday morning, Aug. 3, a fourth protest was staged at the Feminist Women's Health Center on 14th Street in midtown Atlanta.

On July 27 it was reported that a call had gone out over the 700 Club television program for pro-life supporters to "load up the jails in Atlanta."

"I see an awful lot of resolve in these people," Attorney Fierer told The Georgia Bulletin on July 28. "My guess is that they will stick to it."