SOUTHLAND : Protests Banned at Abortion Clinic : Anti-Abortion Protesters Banned From Parking Lot of Cypress Clinic

A judge today banned anti-abortion protesters from the parking lot of a Cypress gynecological and abortion clinic, saying that the boisterous picketers had been hampering the rights of women to seek medical services.

Orange County Superior Judge Linda H. McGlaughlin said the protesters could get their message across from a nearby sidewalk just as well.

Saying that “nothing could be more personal and private” than a woman’s choice to have an abortion, the judge said the protesters had violated the rights of both women patients and of clinic operator Dr. Edward Allred, who runs more than two dozen such centers around the state and has been a frequent target of protesters.

The clinic was the site of the first of three days of anti-abortion protests last month in Southern California. The lawsuit predated those demonstrations.