UNITED STATES: U.S. FEDERAL JURY ORDERS ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVISTS TO PAY $107 MILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGES FOR PUBLISHING NAMES AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF ABORTION DOCTORS ON THE INTERNET

Record ID: 337958

  • Title: UNITED STATES: U.S. FEDERAL JURY ORDERS ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVISTS TO PAY $107 MILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGES FOR PUBLISHING NAMES AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF ABORTION DOCTORS ON THE INTERNET
  • Date: 2nd February 1999
  • Summary: PORTLAND, OREGAN (JANUARY 2, 1999) (REUTERS(A)) 1. SCU WEB PAGES (5 SHOTS) 0.14 2. MV PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY, MARIA VULLO, LEAVING COURT 0.18 3. SCU ANOTHER WEB PAGE 0.23 4. SCU SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) MARIA VULLO "This activity must stop, intimidation is wrong, these doctors must be permitted to practice medicine as their patients choose." 0.30 5. WS/SV/PAN PANEL OF DOCTORS (3 SHOTS) 0.39 6. SCU SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) DOCTOR ELIZABETH NEWHALL "Free speech is not in jeopardy but I know women and their doctors are" 0.44 7. MV PRESS SURROUNDING DEFENDENT CATHY RAMEY 0.48 8. SCU SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) RAMEY "I have no intention of giving money to people who kill children." 0.53 9. SCU SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) CHARLES WYSONG, DEFENCE ATTORNEY "I was hoping for something other than this, but it is not suprising, we are going to continue doing what we were doing before." (3 SHOTS) 0.59 10. SV/CU MORE WEB PAGES (3 SHOTS) 1.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 17th February 1999 12:00
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  • Location: PORTLAND, OREGON, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVABIZAKRH60T3AHQIRBO6B7DUB6
  • Story Text: In a case that tested the limits of free speech on the
    Internet, a United States (US) federal jury has ordered
    anti-abortion activists to pay about 107 million U.S.dollars in
    damages for publishing names and photographs of abortion doctors on
    the World Wide Web and elsewhere.

    The jury agreed with a group of abortion providers who
    argued that "The Nuremberg Files" Web site and wanted-style
    posters depicting physicians who performed abortions violated
    a law meant to protect access to the procedure.

    The verdict by the eight-person jury on Tuesday (February
    2) followed a three-week trial and five days of deliberations.

    "The jury saw anti-choice 'Wanted posters' for what they
    are, a hit list for terrorists," said Gloria Feldt,
    president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

    The jury found the defendants, including groups and
    individuals prominent in the anti-abortion movement, violated
    federal racketeering statutes and the 1994 Freedom of Access
    to Clinic Entrances Act.

    With 14 defendants each ordered to pay millions of dollars
    in punitive damages to six plaintiffs, the damages award
    totalled more than $107 million, said Maria Vullo, lead
    attorney for the plaintiffs.

    "This jury decision indicates a turning of the anti-abortion violent
    tide," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority
    Foundation, who has been targeted on the site."This jury said loud and
    clear that this is serious and must stop."
    Defendants denounced the verdict and suggested they would
    appeal on grounds that the verdict violated their free-speech
    rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

    "If these posters are threatening when they contain no
    threatening language whatsoever, then virtually any document
    which criticises an abortionist by name can be construed as
    threatening," said defence attorney Chris Ferrara.

    But plaintiffs argued that their fears are real, pointing
    to some 300 acts of violence committed against U.S.abortion
    clinics over the past two decades, including seven killings in
    the past five years.

    The plaintiffs testified that they wear bulletproof vests
    to protect themselves against attack.

    "I think there's always going to be a threat," said Dr.

    James Newhall."I'm not going to give away my vest."
    Vullo said plaintiffs' lawyers would return to court as
    soon as Wednesday to seek "the broadest injunction possible"
    preventing anti-abortion activists from continuing their activities.

    Fellow plaintiffs' lawyer Martin London said the
    defendants also could be subject to criminal prosecution under
    the same statutes cited in the civil lawsuit.

    One defendant sobbed quietly, but otherwise the courtroom
    was quiet during the reading of the 17-page verdict, which
    took a half hour.

    After court was dismissed, the plaintiffs and their
    lawyers celebrated with hugs.

    Planned Parenthood, the Portland Feminist Women's Health
    Centre and four doctors filed the lawsuit against
    anti-abortion activists in 1995, citing the "Deadly Dozen"
    posters offering cash rewards for information about certain
    doctors who provided abortions.

    The suit was later expanded to include "The Nuremberg
    Files," which first appeared on the Internet in 1996 or 1997
    and included detailed dossiers of names, addresses, phone
    numbers and photographs of doctors who provide abortions.On
    the Web site, the names of doctors who have been killed in
    anti-abortion violence have a line struck through them, while
    those who have been wounded are listed in gray.

    Among those listed on the site was abortion provider Dr.

    Barnett Slepian, whose name was crossed out within hours after
    he was killed by a sniper while standing in the kitchen of his
    home outside Buffalo, New York, last October.

    Anti-abortion activists defended their activities, saying
    they could not be held accountable for the violent actions of others.

    But the plaintiffs said the publication of such detailed information
    amounted to a threat of bodily harm in a heated atmosphere of clinic
    bombings, burnings, shootings and acid attacks.


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