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Reprinted from The Orlando Sentinel, June 2, 1998.
Police Arrest 5 At Abortion-Clinic Protest
By Henry Pierson Curtis
of The Sentinel Staff
Operation Rescue kicked off its 1998
national campaign Monday with a battle of ballads, T-shirt slogans and posters outside an
abortion clinic on Orlando's Virginia Avenue.
Police outnumbered protesters 2-to-1 because only about 60 activists turned out --
instead of the several hundred predicted -- to rally against abortion, gay rights and
child pornography.
Five people were arrested after blocking the street next to the EPOC Center. They were
charged with obstructing a road and resisting arrest without violence. They were released
without bail.
Later, the protesters took their rally to City Hall, where they fought against a plan
to fly rainbow flags around Orlando to commemorate National Gay Pride Month. There were no
arrests there.
On two closed-off blocks of Virginia Avenue, the demonstrators and seven
counter protesters squared off. Nearby, traffic moved without disruption between Orlando
and Winter Park.
Orlando was chosen this year by Operation Rescue as the U.S. city to be targeted for
its national campaign. The week of demonstrations is expected to include rallies at four
abortion clinics, two Barnes & Noble bookstores and Walt Disney World.
The group once was able to marshal thousands of demonstrators. But recent court rulings
as well as highly publicized acts of violence, such as the death of a police officer
during a Jan. 29 bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., have diminished the
Dallas group's drawing power.
"I've seen them bigger. I've seen them smaller. This one's a pretty fair
size," said James Reed, a veteran of at least six major anti-abortion actions in the
past 10 years.
Reed, 67, and his wife, Elizabeth, drove 900 miles from their home in southern Indiana
to participate in the weeklong demonstrations. The retired cabinetmaker held up a
4-foot-high photograph of a newborn infant on a poster that showed the wear of numerous
gatherings.
The Reeds recognized a number of people from other protests across the country. There
was Brenda Biermann, a veteran of hundreds of protests who drove all night from Iowa.
The morning's most confrontational moment came about 9:30 a.m. when police made the
five arrests.
Two of the arrests made Linda McGlade proud because her two boys, Eric, 12, and Keith,
17, were carrying on a family tradition. She and others spoke of arrests as if they were
merit badges of commitment to their cause.
"It's not something our children do without their parents," said
McGlade, the
mother of seven, including three she adopted. "I was arrested once for sidewalk
counseling ... (and) once for praying on a sidewalk in Melbourne."
Dr. James Pendergraft, who runs EPOC, which stands for Every Person's Own Choice, said
demonstrations have become an expected part of performing abortions. He said his concern
is for his patients.
"Well, they are very upset. They feel harassed," Pendergraft said. "They
have already made a painful decision."
Pendergraft would not say how many abortions he performs. He won an out-of-court
settlement of $325,000 from the city of Orlando in 1996 after it tried to prevent him from
opening a clinic. The doctor plans to open a third clinic this summer in Ocala.
"Basically, I think things went pretty smoothly today. Women were still able to be
seen," the doctor said. "I wish these people would take their horse and buggy
elsewhere but they wanted to come to Orlando."
At the City Hall demonstration, 13-year-old Alyssa Hylander of Jackson, Miss., watched
her mother, Melody, sway and sing hymns and bicker with gay-rights activists.
Alyssa is a veteran of other Operation Rescue rallies, and she said she doesn't mind
that she'll be demonstrating at Disney later in the
week.
"The rides are fun, and the people are nice," Alyssa said while gazing around
at the nearby demonstration. "But this is fun, too."
Scott Maxwell of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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