Quinn- Sears Bill Protects Women's Right To Access Reproductive Health Care

Expressing concern for women who may face harassment and other hostile acts when visiting reproductive healthcare clinics, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmember Helen Sears have filed legislation to protect access to those facilities.

Together with a coalition of advocates and providers, the two lawmakers introduced the Clinic Access Bill in September in response to incidents of women being harassed and intimidated when visiting clinics. Under the new bill's provisions, the lawmakers said, health clinic staff will be able to have protesters arrested if they willfully interfere with a clinic's operations.

In addition, the bill would allow police to arrest protesters who block clinic entrances and exits and parking lot driveways—vital to health providers in the outer boroughs, Quinn and Sears emphasized.

At a hearing on the bill last Tuesday, tempers flared between Councilmembers Charles Barron (D- Brooklyn) and James Oddo (R- C, Staten Island) when Oddo tried to invoke a point of personal privilege after Barron expressed support for the Quinn- Sears bill.

Quinn above, Sears at left. Together with a coalition of advocates and providers, the two lawmakers introduced the Clinic Access Bill in September in response to incidents of women being harassed and intimidated when visiting clinics. Under the new bill's provisions, the lawmakers said, health clinic staff will be able to have protesters arrested if they willfully interfere with a clinic's operations. With an audience of 250 people who had showed up for the hearing on the contentious bill looking on, Barron and Oddo got into a shouting match before Sears ended it by announcing a five-minute recess.

Quinn (D- Manhattan) pointed out, "Our city, the most diverse city in the world, is one of tolerance and respect—respect for our ideas, our choices and our physical space. Nobody has the right to prevent a woman from taking care of her health. With the Clinic Access Bill, women can be confident in their personal and legal healthcare decisions—and know that no one will be allowed to stand in their way."

Sears (D- Jackson Heights) stated: "The right of women to access safe, competent reproductive health care is an important right."

The Women's Issues Committee chair pointed out, "This bill will ensure this right against unlawful harassment and intimidation, and will guarantee that every woman can make the reproductive choices that are best for her."

At a recent public hearing held by Sears' committee, several "real life" examples of harassment were listed by Quinn and Sears. They included:

•Patients being offered bottled water by protesters in order to forestall their abortion procedure, endangering the lives and well-being of women seeking pain relief during the abortion procedure.

•Clinic doctors being knocked to the ground by protesters and called "baby killer".

•Protesters physically blocking patients, clinic staff, postal workers and delivery workers from entering clinics.

•Protesters standing in front of clinic doors saying that there were no doctors inside and directing women down the block or around the corner, and putting women into cabs to take them to a "real" clinic.

Other documented occurrences outside health clinics include protesters hanging posters and signs on NYPD-owned barricades outside clinics; offering free sonograms to patients, but instead showing graphic anti-abortion propaganda and protesters shouting at patients that they were desecrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Keith Conlin, NARAL Pro Choice New York president, stated during the hearing that the Clinic Access Bill was needed because it was sound common sense to uphold a woman's right to seek health care without intimidation.

Another pro-abortion advocate, Joan Malin of Planned Parenthood said her organization sees "the daily impact of anti-abortion extremists blocking our clients' and staff's path".

Malin added, "While I will always agree that freedom of speech is one of the most important rights that we as Americans have, I balk at the idea that terrorizing innocent Americans is an equally protected right."

Ami Sanghvi, a staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Rights Project, stated that the Clinic Access Bill "strikes the appropriate balance between free speech and the right to access reproductive health care".

The legislation, she said, "Is a welcome step forward in fulfilling the city's mission to protect access to healthcare services, while respecting the diversity of views of all New Yorkers."