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Anti-Abortion Fanatic Sued By Government

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on July 19, 2011.

07-19-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell

The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department has filed suit against Maryland resident Richard Retta for repeated violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and harassment of patients at Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.

According to the complaint, Retta is being cited for eight specific instances of interfering with patients and escorts entering the clinic and harassing them and their escorts going into and leaving the clinic. He is accused of violating the distance requirements for protesters, having physical contact with a patient on one occasion, following patients and escorts as they leave, and physically obstructing access. In general, the complaint says that Retta “attempted to, and did, by physical obstruction, intentionally intimidate or interfere with persons because they were or had been providing or obtaining reproductive health services, or in order to intimidatge such persons from providing or obtaining reproductive health services at the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.”

The government is seeking a $10,000 fine for violation of the Freedom of Access Act and $5,000 each for three of his victims, plus a restraining order to keep him, alone or with others, from continuing his campaign of protest.

Abortion is legal in this country, at least for the time being, and any action which attempts to prevent people accessing a women’s clinic should be treated in the same way as any action which attempts to prevent people exercising any other legal action. The same people who made a huge scandal out of two idiots standing around outside an alleged polling place, with their arms crossed over their chests, looking like the “gansta” hamsters in a car commercial – supposedly “intimidating voters” – are the same ones who say nothing about people like Retta blocking legal access to a health care facility. Legal is legal and Retta deserves more than a fine and a slap on the wrist. He deserves jail time for trying to prevent people exercising their legal rights.