[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 8 (Friday, January 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S922-S924]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE CLINIC VIOLENCE

  Mrs. BOXER. The unfunded mandates bill will have an impact way down 
the road, maybe a year or more out. But I want to talk about a problem 
that is happening now. We have reproductive health care clinics all 
across this great land and right now we have some very brave people 
working in those reproductive health care clinics.
  Why do I say ``brave?'' I do not think any of us could know the 
feeling that some of these folks have when they leave their house: Will 
there be a stalker standing outside their house as they go to work to 
do a legal, legitimate job that helps many people? Do they have to wear 
a bulletproof vest-- many doctors do--and will that vest be enough to 
save their lives?
  Mr. President, this is a very, very, serious issue. And it has 
nothing to do with how one views the issue of reproductive rights. I 
happen to be someone who believes in the right to choose, a 
constitutionally guaranteed right, and until it is outlawed or changed 
it will remain so.
  I introduced a resolution. My two prime sponsors are here, Senator 
Feingold and Senator Murray; and another very important sponsor, 
Olympia Snowe, Senator Snowe, is from the other side of the aisle. We 
have been pushing to get a vote on this resolution because, while we 
debate unfunded mandates that will take effect years into the future, 
right now, this minute, people feel like sitting ducks in clinics in 
rural and urban communities across this country. That is wrong.
  We passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. That bill 
says that it is a crime to injure or to harm anyone because they happen 
to work or volunteer at a clinic. There are approximately 900 clinics 
in the United States providing reproductive health services. But the 
violence continues every day. We have seen the brutal shootings of 
innocent people in Massachusetts and the shooting at a health care 
clinic in Virginia. Organizations monitoring this violence have 
recorded over 130 incidents of violence or harassment last year.
  I have a bill. We are trying to get that bill brought up as a 
freestanding bill. It is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution and it calls 
on the Attorney General to fully enforce the law and take any further 
necessary measures to protect persons seeking to provide or obtain, or 
assist in providing or obtaining, reproductive health services from 
violent attack. There should be no argument about this.
  I hope that the majority will clear this bill. We have been working 
to get it cleared on a bipartisan basis for the last 3 days. One day, 
``Oh, yes, it is going to be cleared''; the next day, ``Oh, it is going 
to be cleared.''
  Everyone on our side has no objection. We need to send a signal to 
the people who work in these clinics that we care. President Clinton 
sent a directive to the Attorney General. She is working on this 
problem. We need to add our voice. This is not a criticism of the 
Attorney General. It is a push to make sure that President Clinton's 
directive is carried out.
  I hope, by the end of this day, we will have this bill before the 
U.S. Senate for a vote and we will add our voice.
  I yield at this time to my colleague and friend, Senator Feingold.
  Mr. FEINGOLD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise very briefly to praise and thank 
the Senator from California for her leadership on this issue. I am 
very, very pleased to be a cosponsor of the resolution and the 
amendment which is very straightforward.
  I appreciate the language. It expresses the sense of the Senate that 
the Attorney General should take strong action to protect reproductive 
health care clinics.
  There is really nothing else to be said, other than that the Senate 
should pass the resolution authored by the Senator from California. 
This must be done immediately, and if this Federal Government does not 
express that view, it is a sign of a Government that no longer can 
really protect the people of this country.
  I think that this demands swift action in this body. There are many 
issues that can be disputed; some obviously should be ones we ought to 
take a lot of time on. I think we have a couple of them right now. The 
unfunded mandates bill is very complicated; the balanced budget 
amendment, amending the Constitution. These require the deliberative 
skills of the U.S. Senate, but this does not.
  I cannot believe there is any Member of this body on either side of 
the aisles who believes the Federal Government should do anything but 
be very aggressive in stopping this violence. Just this past August, 
during debate over the VA-HUD appropriations bill, Senator Lautenberg 
offered, and I cosponsored, a similar amendment in the wake of the 
shooting of a clinic doctor and his escort in Pensacola, FL. However, 
at that time as now, I believe that the resolve of the Senate in the 
matter of clinic violence is clear. Ninety-eight Members of the Senate 
voted to condemn the shootings in Pensacola last August, and indeed, to 
condemn the use of deadly force as a means of protest. That is why I 
ask all of my colleagues to show their strong and united support today 
and lift any objections to the unanimous consent that this item come up 
at this time.
  There are two reasons that I would like to add. The first is that the 
type of violence that is involved in these incidents is not truly 
random violence. It is random, perhaps, as to where it occurs and at 
what time, but it is not just one troubled individual for whatever 
personal reason who decides they want to kill somebody. This is the 
type of violence that is driven by an organized effort to deprive 
people of their reproductive rights and to intimidate them from 
exercising those rights. That is very different. The tactics of some 
individuals who oppose abortion access have escalated. As Ellen 
Goodman, a syndicated columnist who lives in Boston said in her column, 
the literal ``line of fire" is coming closer to home. She writes, 
``First doctors, then escorts, now receptionists. First Wichita, then 
Pensacola, now Brookline.''
   [[Page S923]] That is a direct threat to the rights of every person 
in this country and in particular every women in this country. And it 
is a situation where the Federal Government, not just local 
governments, has to take the lead.
  The other reason I wanted to add very briefly is that I have heard a 
great deal of very appropriate talk in this body in the last 2 years 
about the victims of crime. They are people that have been forgotten in 
this society. But when it comes to clinic violence, there is quite a 
range of victims.
  First of all, of course, the tragic deaths and injuries that have 
occurred directly to the people who have been shot or injured, but 
also, I think, the health care professionals that are involved and the 
people involved in the clinics, the receptionists, the nurses and the 
doctors, some of whom, in my home State of Wisconsin, have taken to 
wearing bulletproof vests to go to their clinics and do their work. 
Three very poignant examples of threats to health care professionals 
were reported by the Milwaukee Journal and the Wisconsin State Journal. 
Bullets were fired into one clinic on four separate occasions. One 
Wisconsin doctor is continually stalked. She reported that her car is 
always covered with anti- choice and threatening propaganda when she 
parks it--even at the supermarket. The remarks are frighteningly direct 
and personal. On her last trip she received a note on her windshield 
upon her return asking ``How was your trip to Washington?'' Another 
Wisconsin doctor received a letter saying that the anonymous writer 
would ``hunt you down like any other wild beast and kill you.''
  They did not sign up for that kind of detail when they went to 
medical school or trained to be nurses. They wanted to help people make 
a difficult decision and they wanted to be medical professionals who 
were caring and compassionate. This is a terrible thing to do to these 
people.
  But, most of all, the victims are all the young women in this country 
who already, in situations like this, are confronted with a very, very 
difficult personal decision. They want counseling and, if they make a 
particular decision, they want good medical attention. I want to remind 
all in this body, Mr. President, that when Mr. Salvi walked into the 
first clinic on Beacon Street on Friday, December 30 and started 
shooting, he was standing in a facility that not only performs 
abortions but also conducts Pap smears and routine gynecological 
examinations. Each time an abortion clinic is threatened with violence 
not only are those who seek abortion services in peril, but those who 
use a wide range of reproductive health service are as well.
  These people are the true victims, the ultimate victims, who are 
intimidated from exercising their rights as Americans to make those 
decisions for themselves.
  And so, Mr. President, I rarely ask this body to move immediately. It 
is not a body that is set up for that purpose. But there are exceptions 
and I think Senator Boxer has identified such an exception. The Senate 
should pass this resolution without delay. Condemning clinic violence 
should not be a partisan issue.
  I yield the floor.
  Mrs. BOXER. I yield as much time as is required to the Senator from 
Washington, Senator Murray.
  Mrs. MURRAY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I thank the President. I thank my colleague from 
California for yielding and for bringing this extremely important issue 
out to the floor of the Senate this morning.
  The Senator has been diligent in pursuing this and in asking our 
colleagues to bring this issue forward so that we can get a vote and 
move quickly forward to let the people of this Nation know that the 
highest elected officials in this country do not condone violence. We 
will do everything we can to protect all of our citizens in this 
country.
  Before us we have the unfunded mandate issue. It is an extremely 
important and extremely complex issue that we deal with today. However, 
it does raise a number of questions. It will take Members some time to 
move through that issue. Certainly we have to ask what is the outcome 
of this issue and make sure that, as we pass unfunded mandates, we do 
it in a way that will not bring about consequences that we have not 
asked for.
  The Senator from California is bringing forward an issue that the 
consequences are clear. The consequences are the safety of individuals 
in this country, one of the highest priorities that we have. The issue 
of unfunded mandates is critical. But the issue of violence is just as 
important, if not more important. The issue of violence is one that 
every child in this country, unfortunately, understands and talks 
about. The issue of violence is one that we have to deal with at all 
levels.
  I think it is extremely important that this body go on record in this 
Nation, now, to say to our kids that we will not condone violence in 
any way, shape, or form. No matter how we feel about the issue of 
choice, whether we are pro-choice or pro-life, we have to let people 
know in this country that we will not accept violence as a means of 
showing how we feel about an issue. We have to protect our citizens.
  I commend the Senator from California for bringing this issue before 
the Senate. I sincerely ask all of our colleagues to list their 
objections so that we can move quickly to send a strong message to this 
country that we will back the rights of every citizen and we will not 
condone violence in this country.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleague from California. I yield back to 
her at this time.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may have up 
to 10 additional minutes as long as there is no one on the floor. If a 
Senator appears on the floor, I will end my statement.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to thank my two 
colleagues who were right there, immediately, when I called them and 
said we need action on this bill.
  I also want to say that the majority leader, Senator Dole, in public 
comments on this matter, has been very clear that it is a function of 
this Federal Government to protect the clinics. Now, I ask him to move 
this bill to the floor. We do not want to wait for another incident.
  As I said, passage of this bill by the U.S. Senate, a sense of the 
Senate resolution, is essential to make it very clear as to where we 
stand on this issue. By the way, not only do medical professionals work 
at these clinics--and I know my friend from Wisconsin volunteered at 
these clinics--as we know, we have had volunteer escorts hurt. We had 
one case of a retired military person who was shot dead--shot dead. The 
man fought for his country, and he was shot dead in his own country 
escorting a doctor into a clinic.
  It is a tragedy and a travesty of justice if this continues. So we 
need to send a message to the people who are exercising their 
constitutional rights, innocent neighbors of ours. Nurses are our 
neighbors. Receptionists are our neighbors. Doctors are our neighbors. 
Escorts are our neighbors, hard-working men and women who, on the 
weekends when they have time or after work, volunteer their time.
  We are not only sending a message to them when we pass this 
resolution that we stand for law and order in this society, but we also 
send a message to those who would even think of picking up a gun or a 
grenade or the chemicals that they spray underneath clinic doors that 
we are not going to stand by--that this Attorney General, by the way, 
is not standing by. She has at her disposal some 2,000 members of the 
U.S. Marshals Service and 10,000 FBI agents. She has contacted the U.S. 
attorneys. I know the U.S. attorney for northern California, in San 
Francisco, was contacted. I spoke with him at length. U.S. attorney 
Michael Yamaguchi is, in fact, formulating a plan using all resources 
at his disposal.
  Let me tell the Senate an additional reason why this is so important. 
Not only do we need to send a message to the decent people who work or 
volunteer at these clinics and to the women across this land that we 
protect them, but we also need to send a message to those who would 
consider violence or the groups who may not think they are inciting 
violence. But, when they call 
[[Page S924]] doctors murderers, they ought to rethink it. They ought 
to rethink their language. Anyone can oppose a law. Anyone can work for 
Senators who support their view to outlaw a woman's right to choose. I 
would absolutely applaud a person for taking their feelings and working 
to change the system. That is what America is about.
  But we do not take a gun out, or a knife out, and slash each other up 
when we disagree. Not in this country, or at least we never did. And we 
are not talking about one incident; 130 incidents of violence 
nationwide in 1994 alone; 50 reports of death threats to doctors and 
other clinic workers; 40 incidents of vandalism; 16 incidents of 
stalking; 4 acts of arson; and 3 attempted bombings.
  We better say something here in the U.S. Senate. We better say it 
clearly because the message has to get out. If the Attorney General 
feels that she needs more help, I hope she will let Members know. 
Senator Feingold is on the Judiciary Committee and he stands ready to 
hear. But it is my belief, after talking to the U.S. attorney for 
northern California, that they are beginning to put together the type 
of operation they need to make these clinics safe.
  We have to go on record--Republicans and Democrats alike--that we 
will not stand by and allow innocent people to be harmed. That is the 
least that we can do in this circumstance. I look forward to hearing, 
once more, from the majority leader, whom I have discussed this with 
and from the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee whom I have also 
discussed this with, and I want to compliment Senator Olympia Snowe for 
working with me in the most bipartisan fashion. As a matter of fact, we 
spoke very late last night. We spoke at about 11 last night, and she 
intends to do her part on her side of the aisle to get this bill 
cleared.
  I hope we will do that today. Frankly, Mr. President, I think it will 
make us proud to pass this bipartisan bill. I yield the floor. Mr. 
President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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