Operation Rescue

A lawsuit was filed Thursday against the Los Angeles Police Department on behalf of six Operation Rescue protesters who alleged that officers selectively and unnecessarily used martial arts weapons against them. The officers allegedly used nunchakus--two sticks attached by a chain--to haul five protesters away during a June 10 demonstration outside a Los Angeles women's clinic, said the plaintiffs' lawyer, Mark Lassiter.

The most ardent of those who believe that abortion is murder have enlisted in Operation Rescue, a national campaign to blockade the doors of family planning clinics and force doctors to cancel appointments. During the last month, the New York-based organization has been recruiting troops for a three-day siege at undisclosed Southern California clinics starting today.

The Rev. Keith Tucci, 37, is stepping down as executive director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. Tucci said Tuesday that he made the decision before the Supreme Court ruled last month that protesters who block access to abortion clinics or conspire to stop women from having abortions may be sued as racketeers.

The anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, cheered by Catholic Archbishop Roger Mahony's comparison of them to formerly oppressed Eastern European Christians, announced plans Friday to protest at a Los Angeles women's clinic today. To avoid risking arrest, the protesters will not block entrances at the Women's Health Clinic on Spring Street, but will stand in prayer at an 8 a.m. vigil, then march to City Hall, officials of the group said.

Managers of an East Los Angeles family planning clinic decided to keep their doors shut Saturday after hundreds of Operation Rescue members staged an anti-abortion protest in front of the building. Despite heavy rains, about 500 singing and praying Operation Rescue members lined the sidewalk in front of La Mejor Family Planning Clinic, 4055 Whittier Blvd., about 8 a.m, said Susan Finn, an Operation Rescue spokeswoman.

About 700 Operation Rescue members and sympathizers demonstrated outside nine clinics throughout Southern California on Thursday demanding an end to abortion, a group spokeswoman said. Sue Finn said there were no arrests and no major confrontations between abortion foes and advocates of abortion rights at the clinics downtown and in North Hollywood, Canyon Country, Inglewood and El Monte, as well as in Ventura, Montclair, Santa Ana and Santa Barbara.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco Thursday reinstated an injunction prohibiting Operation Rescue, the anti-abortion group, from blockading family planning clinics in seven Southern California counties. An order from U.S. 9th Circuit Court Judges Mary Schroeder and Ferdinand Fernandez granted an emergency temporary stay of a Jan. 31 decision by a district court judge in Los Angeles which had voided the injunction. In the Jan. 31 decision, U.S. District Judge A.

Anti-abortion militant Randall Terry said Wednesday that Operation Rescue is closing its national headquarters because of debt, but he assured a press conference in Washington that 125 local affiliates will continue their efforts to close abortion clinics across the country.

About 35 abortion rights advocates carrying drums, air horns and tambourines chanted and marched outside a church Tuesday night where members of Operation Rescue had gathered to plan summer demonstrations on abortion clinics. Members of the Women's Action Coalition from Los Angeles and Orange counties tried to disrupt the meeting, held at the Cornerstone Church on Red Gun Street, by yelling through bullhorns.