The State - News from Feb. 19, 1989

Anti-abortion leaders blasted 90-day sentences imposed on three abortion protesters in Sunnyvale who refused a judge’s probation requirement that they halt their demonstrations. More than 240 members of Operation Rescue were charged with trespassing in a string of protests aimed at closing abortion clinics. Sunnyvale Municipal Court Judge John Ball sentenced three demonstrators to 90 days in jail after they refused to accept the probation terms he offered. “They would never give 90 days to a black or to a feminist,” said Jeff Foreman, a Presbyterian minister and national field director of Operation Rescue. “But this is a city committed to protecting the abortion industry.” But Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca Hayworth disagreed, saying, “They forced the judge into a corner--he would have given them a lot less time if probation had been accepted.”