The Nation - News from Nov. 6, 1988

Police in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., arrested about 100 demonstrators who were blocking the entrance to a health clinic where abortions are performed, authorities said. About 30 protesters continued the anti-abortion protest on the sidewalk outside of the Sigma Women’s Center after the arrests, but the clinic’s administrator said the staff was conducting business as usual. Ott Cefkin, a spokesman for the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department, estimated that 150 to 200 people from a group calling itself Rescue South Florida took part in the protest. The demonstrators were charged with trespassing and will receive notices to appear in court, he said. Two demonstrators were also charged with resisting arrest without violence, Cefkin said. No one was injured in the demonstration, although the staff and some patients of the clinic were frightened, the spokesman said. The protest was the latest in a series of anti-abortion demonstrations that have resulted in hundreds of arrests in major U.S cities in recent months.