12 Arrested in Shoving Matches at Louisiana Abortion Protest

BATON ROUGE, La. — Shouting and shoving matches among abortion rights activists and opponents outside a clinic led to at least 12 arrests Thursday.

One man was arrested after he scrambled atop a police car and tried to dive over a perimeter fence. Two women got into a fight and both were arrested.

Another woman who was not arrested threw herself three times at a chain of clinic defenders, bouncing off each time. She picked herself up, dusted off her clothes, grinned and said, “I was just trying to get through.”

Police estimated the number of anti-abortion protesters at 1,000. But the radical anti-abortion group Operation Rescue said there were more than 1,500.

Police said 75 abortion rights advocates were on hand. But operators of the Delta Women’s Clinic said they had closer to 1,000.

Thursday was the first day abortions were scheduled since Operation Rescue’s series of rallies and protests began in Baton Rouge during the weekend. The group’s national executive director, the Rev. Keith Tucci, declared the day’s protest a success.

“They are claiming they killed three children today,” Tucci said. “Usually they kill 30 a day. Any time we can slow the flow, women stop and have time to consider what they are doing.”

Delta Women’s Clinic spokesman Steve Watsky wouldn’t say how many abortions were scheduled, but three women said they were patients who came for abortions. They asked that their names not be disclosed.

“I didn’t know what to expect, what I was getting into,” one of the women said in an interview. “But I was not going to let it stop me. They don’t know what I’m going through.”

Operation Rescue began the day with candlelight marches.