Abortion Opponent Charged With Stalking San Francisco Doctor

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An abortion opponent was arraigned Thursday on fees of felony stalking and different misdemeanors after he focused a doctor at residence and barged into the San Francisco well being clinic the place the doctor works, horrifying the physician, sufferers and employees, District Lawyer Chesa Boudin stated.

Aaron Jonathan Hurley, 37, pleaded not responsible to fees that additionally included misdemeanor obstructing freedom of entry to a clinic and vandalism. The Los Angeles resident is affiliated with the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Rebellion, Boudin stated in a press launch.

“Reproductive rights are underneath assault throughout the nation — and right here in San Francisco,” Boudin stated. “Make no mistake: anybody who harasses, threatens, or interferes in any method with the constitutionally protected work of medical doctors and employees — who heroically present care —shall be held accountable.”

Allison Aranda, senior employees counsel with Life Authorized Protection Basis in Napa and Hurley’s legal professional, didn’t instantly reply to an e mail in search of remark.

Boudin’s workplace stated that Hurley and three others on March 14 used a decoy to get into the Girls’s Choices Middle on the Zuckerberg San Francisco Normal Hospital. When the nurse went to talk to a girl pretending to want counseling, the group barged into the clinic, started filming and chanting the physician’s identify together with: “We all know who you might be, we all know what you do,” in keeping with the press launch.

That night time, in keeping with the press launch, Hurley and the others went to the physician’s residence, positioned stickers that stated “a killer lives in your neighborhood” at neighbors’ homes and on the physician’s entrance door. Additionally they positioned flyers with a QR code that led to an internet site naming the physician, forcing the physician to concern for his or her security, the assertion stated.

The group additionally allegedly defaced a bronze statue of the Madonna and Youngster on the hospital the earlier night time, overlaying it with what seemed like pretend blood and stickers with the physician’s identify on it, stated the DA’s workplace.

Two folks each featured within the about part of the anti-abortion group’s web site have been cited and launched after the hospital incident. The DA’s workplace has issued an arrest warrant for an additional member of the group. The investigation is ongoing.

The decide denied the workplace’s request for digital monitoring and launched Hurley with orders to steer clear of the physician, stated Rachel Marshall, spokeswoman for Boudin’s workplace. The subsequent courtroom date is June 13.

A leaked copy of a draft opinion made public earlier this month signifies that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom intends to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 ruling that ensures folks the suitable to terminate their being pregnant.

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