Clinic Workers Say Law Used Properly But They Worry Focus Will Shift From Stopping Anti-Abortion Violence

Abortion rights advocates say the Justice Department was right to use a federal law passed to protect abortion clinics and staff against a Wenatchee man accused of threatening anti-abortion workers.

But Kathryn Kolbert, vice president of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, said Wednesday she feared the government would stray from its focus on violence and threats against abortion clinics.

Daniel Adam Mathison, 23, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Yakima, charged with one count of violating the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and one count of unlawful interstate communication.

If convicted on both counts, he faces up to 5 years in prison and fines of $350,000.

“We are fully in support of vigorous enforcement of FACE and we think threats against any person need to be taken seriously by the government,” Kolbert said from her New York office. But “there have been numerous threats against providers of reproductive health care, including abortion, over the last several years, and those threats continue. We hope here will be similar widespread enforcement against those threats as well.”

The action against Mathison is the first under the law to involve a facility that does not provide abortions.

The act authorizes the Justice Department to prosecute people who use force or make threats of force against clinics providing reproductive health services and counseling.

Mathison is accused of calling First Way, which identifies itself as a pregnancy-support service, in Wenatchee on Jan. 2 and threatening to kill workers.

“He was threatening us with drive-by shootings, to take out everybody in the office,” First Way Director Kathleen Ryan said.