By Rita McInerney

The Atlanta City Council voted on Monday, Sept. 19 to seek injunctions and monetary penalties against Operation Rescue, the anti-abortion group reportedly preparing for large demonstrations to mark Respect Life Week beginning Oct. 2.

The measure directs the city attorney to file civil proceedings for a court order "to enjoin certain unlawful activities which constitute a nuisance within the city of Atlanta."

The measure states that a "large groups of organizations and individuals collectively known as Operation Rescue, organized and promoted by Randall Terry, along with Michael McMonagle, Joseph Foreman, Craig Hoffer, Kathy Hoffer, Michael Hirsch and others," came to Atlanta in July to organize and stage demonstrations aimed at shutting down abortion and family planning facilities in the city.

Council approved the measure by a vote of 12-5. It would bar trespassing upon, sitting-in, blocking, impeding, or obstructing entrance to abortion facilities in the city; would prevent physical abuse, assaulting or threatening persons entering or leaving the abortion facility.

Two Catholic members of the council supported the measure while a third voted in opposition.

Ira Jackson, council finance committee chairman, said he signed his name as co-sponsor, but admitted he had not read the bill. "It was the first time I can recall putting my signature to a bill without reading it."

A member of St. Paul of the Cross parish, Jackson said he is personally against abortion. But he endorsed the bill, he said, because "someone I trusted had read" it. He said he had some questions after hearing the debate which he could not take part in as a bill co-sponsor.

Jackson, asked if he regretted sponsoring the measure, said he did. "If I had to go to confession I would have to say that I'm heartily sorry."

Despite his personal opposition to abortion, he said he objects to the methods of Operation Rescue demonstrations, "I do not agree that protesters should be treated any differently (by the legal system) when they do not give their own names. Nor am I sympathetic to taking away the rights of others," he added.

"If, in fact, we made a mistake (in approving the bill), then it was a mistake in judgement, "not one of showing support for the pro-choice position, Jackson said. "I was confident the bill was in the best interests of the city."

Myrtle Davis, another co-sponsor, said she backed the measure because she is concerned about the cost as it affects taxes and the city budget. "Operation Rescue has already cost the city half a million dollars."

"We think it is important that we use whatever legal means necessary to stop any activity that is not legal," she said. It's important "to have the proper tools" to deal with such actions, she added.

She claimed the measure was not intended to limit First Amendment rights and she doesn't believe that "blocking entrances in an illegal way and interfering with individual rights" are permissible.

The resolution, she continued, "goes beyond the demonstrators, it really goes to enjoin the leaders to avoid unlawful activity."

Ms. Davis admitted however, that she doesn't think the council action will stop the demonstrations. But "Atlanta being the focus of the demonstrations is a real concern" to her.

One of the five council members voting against the bill, Carolyn Long Banks views it as a "violation of the First Amendment rights of those who are protesting."

She claimed there is already a mechanism in place to obtain an injunction. "When a person is arrested, if the arresting officer wants an injunction, he (or she) can go to a judge for one."

She sees the demonstrations as a "cross-jurisdictional problem that we should not have anything to do with."

"I am a product of the civil rights movement here in Atlanta and was arrested several times," she recalled. "No one is looking for special privileges but everyone is looking for due process which should come from the judicial branch rather than the legislative."

"What council is trying to do is cut out one step. In any injunction, criminal intent has to be proven. As long as the protesters are exercising their First Amendment rights, they are not criminals."

Operation Rescue, she said, "just like any other group that is against something that violates their belief," has the right to demonstrate. "From what I have seen it is very peaceful and the tactics used according to the tenets of their belief."

While the Operation Rescue leaders named in the bill were listed as coming to the city in July, Craig and Kathy Hoffer, who live in Dunwoody, have been actively involved with the pro-life movement in the Atlanta area for some years.

Contacted by The Georgia Bulletin, Mrs. Hoffer said she was not aware of any negative impact, "only positive things," from the council action.

"As the cost has been raised" for those participating in the fight to save the lives of the unborn, she said, "it has increased the commitment and resilience" on the part of the pro-life movement advocates.

She called the bill evidence that the opposition is "playing hardball," and commented that the injunction is a "small price to pay for saving the lives of innocent babies."

Of the others named in the bill, Michael Hirsch is also from the Atlanta area, Joseph Forman has moved to Atlanta from the Philadelphia area, Michael McMonagle is from the Philadelphia area and the founder of Operation Rescue, Randall Terry is from Binghamton, NY.

"Any injunction that is intended to prevent life-saving action is just as illegal as Roe v. Wade was an illegal court decision," Juli Loesch, a spokesperson for Operation Rescue, said.

"The whole system of law in the U.S. is established in order to protect the inalienable right -- the right to life. Any injunction intended to restrict the First Amendment freedom of speech or assembly will have no effect on our life-saving action."

Ms. Loesch said Operation Rescue planners are expecting "hundreds" to come to Atlanta for the demonstrations scheduled for Respect Life Week. Demonstrators, she added, are committed to the "absolute discipline" of non-violence.

Numerous telephone calls by The Georgia Bulletin to Atlanta city attorney Marva Jones Brooks and deputy city attorney Joe Harris, concerning the measure and its possible infringement on the First Amendment rights of the demonstrators, were not returned.