SCORES ARRESTED DURING BROOKLINE ABORTION PROTESTS
200 DEMONSTRATORS ARE COUNTERED BY PROCHOICE GROUPS AT 2 CLINICS

BROOKLINE -- About 75 antiabortion advocates were arrested yesterday during demonstrations at two Beacon Street clinics that offer abortions.

Police estimated that 200 people participated in the antiabortion demonstrations at 1031 and 1297 Beacon St. They were countered by as many as 100 prochoice advocates.

Many of those arrested, whom a protest leader identified as members of Boston's Pro-Life Action Network, were transported by police in a bus from the Repro Associates clinic at 1297 Beacon St.

About 50 of the arrests were made in two police actions in front of the clinic. Others were made sporadically during the seven-hour demonstration in front of Repro.

Four protesters were arrested before 8 a.m. at the Planned Parenthood Clinic of Greater Boston at 1031 Beacon St., located about one mile east of Repro.

Brookline police Capt. Frank Hayes said the 60 officers deployed at the two demonstration scenes acted only against protesters who were found to be trespassing.

"We have a dual responsibility to protect conflicting rights," he said. ''The protesters have a right to assemble, but they don't have a right to block an entranceway of any private business."

On Nov. 26, another demonstration was held at Planned Parenthood by Boston's Pro-Life Action Network and by Operation Rescue, a national group with which the network is associated. The local group also staged similar protests at clinics in Boston and Providence on earlier Saturdays in November.

Hayes said that about 30 demonstrators had gained access to Repro before police and that they had to be physically removed from the building. Two officers and three protesters were injured slightly, but none were hospitalized, Hayes said.

Clients, who were seen entering the clinic, were able to keep their appointments, police said. They entered the building to loud jeers and religious and moral pleas from the protesters not to go in.

Bill Cotter, a director of the Pro-Life Action Network, said that the protesters were guided by moral and religious convictions.

"We are here to try to prevent children from being killed in this abortion mill," he said. "We want to offer women alternatives and try to persuade them to make the choice for life.

"Abortionists and people on the other side act consistently with their beliefs," he added. "We believe abortion is murder, and we have to act consistent with our belief."

Ellen Zucker, a vice president of the Boston chapter of the National Organization for Women, said the counterdemonstration was organized shortly after hearing of the antiabortion protest.

"Even on the last day of the year and with people on vacation, the Boston
prochoice community and NOW were able to assemble almost as many people as the antiabortionists themselves," she said.

Helene Weitzenkorn, also of NOW, said her group favors women's rights and decisions based on what they deem is best for themselves.

"We are out here today to support women trying to enter the clinic to exercise their right to receive a legal and safe abortion," she said.

Weitzenkorn charged that the protesters did not represent the majority of Americans.

The antiabortion demonstrators sang hymns and prayed in unison. Sister Miriam Patrice from St. John's Parish in Quincy said that the protest was designed to give a voice to unborn children.

"We are standing here to say in the name of God that children inside their mothers have a right to life," she said. "We are speaking in behalf of the children who cannot speak for themselves."

Kimberly Veltri, a Clayton, N.J., resident, criticized the legality of abortion. "Abortion and the killing and taking of an innocent is wrong," she said. "It is man's law, and God has called on us to pass his law."

Veltri, the mother of a 2 1/2-year-old son, said that she had participated in numerous such protests in several Eastern states during the last two years.

Tina Krail, of Willingboro, N.J., said that she had undergone two abortions and that she wanted to dissuade women who are contemplating having an abortion.

"I made the first decision when I was 17 and the second one at a time when both me and my husband were using drugs. Since Christ came into my life, I have regretted making those choices," Krail said.

Rebecca Goldfader, a counselor at Planned Parenthood, said that the decision to have an abortion is personal and should be made by the affected woman, with advice from loved ones.

"Women should have the right to decide," she said. "Prochoice gives us our right to choose."