Operation Rescue Ends Protests in Buffalo

POLICE arrested 71 people Saturday in what was billed as the last day of demonstrations in two weeks of anti-abortion protests and counter-protests here.

Sixty-eight anti-abortion demonstrators were arrested as they tried again to block a rear entrance to the Buffalo GYN Womenservices Clinic, site of many of the hundreds of arrests made since the protests began April 20.

Three pro-choice demonstrators were also arrested.

On Friday, police arrested 120 anti-abortion protesters outside a doctor's office as Operation Rescue, the group running the protests, resumed a series of planned demonstrations after a two-day hiatus. Operation Rescue officials, preparing to leave town, said they had met their objectives. National Director Keith Tucci claimed the protests stopped 13 women from seeking abortions.

Katherine Spillar of the Feminist Majority, one of the pro-choice groups that has run counterdemonstrations here, disagreed. "Unless they can produce these women," she said, "I don't think you can take their word for it."

Last year in Wichita, Kan., clinics were shut and thousands were arrested during similar efforts by Operation Rescue.