Our Work

Clinic Violence

In 1994, Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The Act criminalizes obstructing entrances and exits of reproductive health care facilities as well as threats and acts of violence against providers and their patients. FACE protects employees of reproductive health facilities, patients, and people accompanying the patients, such as family members.

The Women’s Law Project was instrumental in initiating what we believe may have been the only federal FACE action to be brought by the Justice Department under the Bush Administration, against a Pennsylvania clinic protester who posted doctors’ names, photos and addresses on the Internet complete with instructions for killing them. This federal civil action, Gonzales v. Dunkle, produced an injunction that permanently shut down portions of the offender’s website and that continues to protect Pennsylvania providers today.

We provide continual legal guidance and support to Pennsylvania clinics and volunteer escorts in Pittsburgh, Allentown, West Chester, Chester, Harrisburg and Philadelphia who are faced with clinic protest problems.

Please watch this video produced by the Center for Reproductive Justice which shows the harassment clinic providers and volunteers face on a daily basis.

Clinic Escorts

The WLP sponsored the first statewide Pennsylvania Escort Summit, held in Harrisburg in 2007, to train and inspire volunteer clinic escorts.

Doctors and Protesters

The Women’s Law Project, along with Dechert LLP in Princeton, represented a doctor who provided abortions in a trespass hearing against two protestors who came onto her property at her home in New Jersey. The Law Project and Dechert submitted a brief arguing that the doctor be allowed to testify in disguise because of her fears that her safety would be threatened if her likeness was revealed. A municipal court agreed to allow the doctor to testify in her disguise.