Raleigh wants safety after shooting outside abortion clinic. Are buffers one solution?

The city of Raleigh will examine safety outside two abortion clinics, as calls for a buffer zone continue since a protester accidentally shot himself 10 days ago.

Meanwhile, public records show a frequent police presence at the clinics in response to almost-daily anti-abortion protests.

A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh called on Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin and the City Council to create a buffer zone to protect patients and providers, after a 50-year-old protester accidentally shot himself in the leg March 6. People are not allowed to carry firearms during protests in North Carolina.

On Tuesday, City Council member David Knight asked city staff to bring back options for protecting organizations providing legal services and protesters. A report could come back as soon as two weeks.

“I am working with the Raleigh Police Department and our attorney’s office to look into what the city can do to continue to allow peaceful protests but ensure nothing like this happens again,” he said.

His District E predecessor, former Council member Stef Mendell, took it a step further during the public comments portion of the meeting Tuesday.

“I have recently learned that the Supreme Court has upheld a buffer zone ordinance in Pittsburgh,” she said. “I would like to request that this council pass a similar buffer zone ordinance to protect health care organizations and neighborhoods from danger.”

Protests resume after shooting

A week after the shooting, about two dozen members of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ wearing “Happy Warriors” T-shirts stood on the traffic circle outside A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh. They shouted at clinic volunteers., and one protester tried to talk women out of going inside, handing them anti-abortion pamphlets.

Clinic volunteers in rainbow vests guided cars toward the clinic and shielded patients from protesters and their cameras with umbrellas as they walked them into the clinic.

“Abortion is a very selfish decision,” a protester shouted to a woman driving to the abortion clinic. “You can do this, mom. You’re stronger than you think”

By 10:30 a.m., the protesters had grown to roughly 40 people.

They compared the number of abortions to the number of people killed during the Holocaust. One compared the clinic to a concentration camp, and the staff to the Ku Klux Klan.

“Our greatest enemy now is the white liberal doctor and the receptionists in the clinic,” said John Amanchukwu. Amanchukwu refused to identify himself during the protest, calling himself “John the Baptist,” but according to Love Life’s website, he is Love Life’s city ambassador of Raleigh. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is the first assistant to the bishop at Upper Room Church of God in Christ.

The News & Observer tried to reach Amanchukwu through the church Wednesday, but the person who picked up the phone hung up on a reporter. The N&O also messaged the group’s Facebook page asking to get in touch with Amanchukwu, but has not yet received a response.

At Saturday’s protest, Amanchukwu called the shooting a “tragic accident” and the coverage of the shooting “propaganda.”

“No one will talk about the 15 babies who died,” he said. (Some protesters count the number of cars that go to the clinic to tally the number of people they believe get abortions.)

“We’ve made it sexy to abort children,” Amanchukwu said. “Let the baby live.”

More than 500 911 calls

Police records show there have been more than 500 calls to 911 since 2018 from A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh and A Preferred Women’s Health Center of Raleigh.

Most of the calls are requests for security checks, which can be initiated by police officers or people at the scene, according to a police public information officer.

Many of the calls report noise complaints, harassment and disturbances and a few report assault. The 911 calls are made both by protesters and the clinics.

Some protesters get aggressive despite the clinics’ non-engagement policy, said Kelsea McLean, lead volunteer coordinator at A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh .

“I’ve been slapped, I’ve been pushed, I get spit on,” said Emily Page, a volunteer at A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh. “The things they yell at you, it’s really misogynistic.”

Page said the clinic only calls police when there is an emergency.

Page said she is unsatisfied with how police have handled clashes between the groups in the past.

“The cops seemed to think we were there as counter-protesters,” she said. But volunteers’ signs only point toward the parking for patients.

The Raleigh City Council and abortion

After a contentious rezoning in 2016, Raleigh was sued by Hand of Hope after the city denied the nonprofit’s requests to move next door to A Preferred Women’s Health Center, which specializes in early and late pregnancy termination.

Hand of Hope provides free ultrasounds, parenting skills training and Bible studies, among other services. The city eventually settled a lawsuit that allowed it to move beside the clinic on Jones Franklin Road. Raleigh paid Hand of Hope $25,000 as part of the settlement agreement and the nonprofit agreed to keep protesters off its property.

In 2019, the City Council rescinded a $30,000 grant to a faith-based medical center that listed an anti-abortion organization as one of its partners.

In 2019, anti-abortion advocates addressed the council multiple times calling for Raleigh to become a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” During one meeting a 13-year-old girl compared abortion to slavery which led to shouting and crying in the audience. At that same meeting, then-Council member Mendell left her seat after being addressed by an anti-abortion speaker wearing a bloody image on his shirt.

At a later meeting, Mendell asked for, and the council approved, a ban on picketing in driveways.

On Tuesday, Mendell said she had hoped to do more.

“When I was on council, I met with the city attorney, members of RPD and other city staff to try to find remedies to protect the clinic, its staff and patients, as well as the surrounding neighborhood, from the loud and obnoxious bullies who regularly harass them,” she said. “I was routinely stymied in my efforts because of various legal precedents related to free speech.”

What the mayor says

Baldwin said last week the city will likely look at how it can protect clinic employees and their clients.

“There have always been tensions at this site,” Baldwin said in an interview with The N&O. “We have been looking at what we can legally do. The shooting has been investigated. They interviewed witnesses, and they are filing charges against the man who possessed the weapon. It’s illegal to have a gun at a protest.”

On whether the police should have pulled the protesters’ permit after the shooting, Baldwin said they looked at “what we can do constitutionally.”

“My understanding is that the city attorney’s office was involved, the police department was involved, and they made decisions based on what we can do from a constitutional standpoint,” she said.

Other cities have implemented buffer zones outside and around abortion clinics.

In Chicago, people may not come within 8 feet of each other inside a 50-foot buffer without consent to hand out information or engage in oral, protest, education or counseling, the Associated Press reported.

Anti-abortion activists sued Chicago, arguing the buffer violated their First Amendment rights. The case was dismissed in federal court, but the activists appealed. The Court of Appeals upheld the decision, and the activists appealed again. Last year,the U.S. Supreme Court turned away the lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.

“Something needs to change before anyone is killed,” Mendell said.

The churches protesting outside abortion clinics

Upper Room Church of God in Christ, a Southeast Raleigh church, has permission to picket from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays in March to “offer hope and help to those who would like to choose life,” according to its permit. Other participants, according to the permit application, include Love Life and Cross Assembly Church in North Raleigh. Hilltop Church: Open Arms Ministry also has a protest permit for Saturdays.

The Upper Room Church of God in Christ released a statement about the March 6 incident: “Over the past 8 years, the Happy Warriors have led countless prayer walks and peaceful protests, while being in full compliance with the law, and adhering to all safety guidelines and procedures as advised by State law. We will continue to govern ourselves accordingly as we have always done.”

“On March 6th, a person who was not participating with the Happy Warriors accidentally discharged his weapon while in the street. We are praying for his full recovery.”

The Respect Life Prayer Group, Reformation Baptist Church, and Sovereign Redeemer-Hope Baptist Church have permits to picket outside A Preferred Women’s Health Center of Raleigh, which is in the southwestern part of the city. Each church says no more than 25 people will be attending in their picket application.

A Preferred Women’s Health Center of Raleigh did not respond to The N&O’s requests for an interview.

Staff writer Julian Shen-Berro contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 10:21 AM.