Police get training to protect abortion providers By Allison Roselle

Police get training to protect abortion providers
By Allison Roselle

November 03, 2009
More than 80 law enforcement officials, reproductive health care providers and advocates from across New York last Wednesday held a conference at state police headquarters to discuss how to better protect reproductive health care workers from anti-abortion terrorism.

On the same day, Gov. David A. Paterson signed bill A.8924/S.6112 into law that establishes the crime of aggravated interference with health care services in the first and second degrees. Sponsored by Sen. Kevin Parker, D-Brooklyn, and Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, the law calls for new felony classifications to further penalize someone who causes physical injury to any reproductive health care provider.

One of the most infamous cases of violence against an abortion doctor occurred in New York state when James Kopp, an anti-abortion activist, killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in his Buffalo home.

Denise E. O'Donnell, deputy secretary for public safety, spoke about the importance of the new law and the policy changes following Slepian's murder.

"We had a terrible incident with abortion violence with the killing of Dr. Slepian," said O'Donnell. "After that… we brought together clinic providers as well as law enforcement. For the law enforcement community, this is a public safety issue and it is important to hear from everyone involved to open lines of communication to talk about how clinics and doctors can protect themselves. We talked about the fact that if we all came together and brought many experience law enforcement people who have worked in this area for years that we could all benefit."

Reproductive service providers such as Planned Parenthood find themselves targeted by anti-abortionists, even if they do not provide abortions, said O'Donnell.

"The employees and volunteers who provide reproductive health services face violent rhetoric and threats far too often," Hoyt said. "[The bill's] purpose is to penalize criminal, violent conduct that causes injury to these health care providers and patients."

Some reproductive health care workers shared their stories with police at the conference.

"We had a long history of dealing with harassment," said Paul Drisgula, co-president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson in Schenectady County. "We know what works and what doesn't work.

"Over the years, we have developed an incredible communications network," he added. "We wouldn't be able to have the communications that we have without the state police intervening for us."

M. Tracey Brooks, president and chief executive officer of Family Planning Advocates, said this is the anti-terrorism event designed for abortion providers on the eastern side of the state, but it will not be the last.

"It's important to make sure that law enforcement and clinic providers have strong relationships and also are very current on our state, federal and local laws," Brooks said. "Today is the opportunity to bring all of that together. It allows networking, updating and really bringing people up to date on where things are."

Julie Murphy, investigator with the New York State Police Counterterrorism Intelligence Unit for Troop G, helped plan the training for last week's event and gave a presentation on Operation Safeguard — an outreach program developed by the state Office of Homeland Security that incorporates all law enforcement.

The safeguard plan provides education for reproductive health care center workers to help them understand what necessary steps should be taken if they witness threatening or strange behavior in or around their work place.

Operation Safeguard increases community involvement against violence and promotes information sharing. Health care centers, women health care facilities and Planned Parenthood centers are encouraged to report any signs of suspicious behavior to police, Murphy said.

"Suspicious behavior by individuals entering your establishment [includes] wearing bulky clothing, cars loitering in the area, questions about the type of security you have in your facility [and] excessive phone activity," said Murphy.

The most recent anti-abortion incident took place this year in Wichita, Kan. when abortion doctor George Tiller was shot and killed in a church by activist Scott Roeder.

Last Wednesday's event was organized in direct response to Tiller's death.

"The most recent shooting of Dr. Tiller is a case example and [shows] what we can do to better ensure our state is safe," said Murphy. "The tactical component [of the event] is looking at history of threats of terrorism related to the health care centers and trying to better equip ourselves to working collaboratively with law enforcement."

Roeder was associated with the Sovereign Citizen Movement, according to Murphy. The movement is a loosely organized collection of groups and individuals who have adopted a right wing, anarchist ideology. Their belief is virtually all government in the United States is illegitimate and seeks to restore an idealized government that never existed, according to Murphy. They discourage folks from participating in the government, and some people involved with this movement may also be involved with violent protesting.

"I think this is a great opportunity for the collaboration with the provider, community and law enforcement to network and I appreciate that we were able to host this today," Murphy said.

"The important part is that we recognize that despite anyone's beliefs or feeling about this emotionally charged issue is that it is a law enforcement issue" said O'Donnell. "We do have an obligation to protect individuals who are providing reproductive services."