Appeals Court Slashes Jury Award to Abortion Doctors

[struggle4progress]

A federal appellate court in San Francisco has reduced a $108.5-million jury award to doctors who had been threatened and intimidated by antiabortion protesters.

The doctors, who had been advised by the FBI to wear bulletproof vests to protect themselves from the protesters, will instead received $4.7 million. Jurors in Oregon had earlier fixed punitive damages at $108.5 million.

The defendants, the American Coalition of Life Activists and its members, carried posters and maintained a website called the Nuremberg Files, which listed the names and addresses of hundreds of doctors and others who provided or supported abortions.

After three doctors listed on Old West-style wanted posters were murdered, physicians sued, claiming they feared for their lives after being included on the list. <snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-090705abortion_lat,0,4374001.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews

[jkappy]

1. chipping away at women's freedom

"The doctors, who had been advised by the FBI to wear bulletproof vests to protect themselves from the protesters, will instead received $4.7 million. Jurors in Oregon had earlier fixed punitive damages at $108.5 million."

If the above means that the award for the doctors as a group dropped from 108.5 to 4.7 million, then that is indeed an incredible reduction. If it means each doctor is now receiving 4.7, then we cannot determine the reduction, because no such figures are offered by this report.

Assuming the former is correct, then this is one more piece out of the women's movement's heart.