
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994                   TAG: 9401250142
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CRANWELL BILL WOULD LIMIT VA. PROTESTS

Monday's Supreme Court decision allowing clinics to use a federal racketeering law to sue anti-abortion protesters apparently won't affect attempts to pass state legislation aimed at limiting clinic protests.

Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, will introduce legislation in the General Assembly today that would make it illegal to engage in "malicious conduct" that injures a person's business or trade.

Cranwell said Monday that the legislation was requested by some Roanoke Valley physicians.

He said the bill extends beyond the abortion issue.

"The issue of clinic access is one we run into from time to time," Cranwell said, but this bill would apply to any business.

The legislation targets people who engage in "literature distribution" or other forms of interference with or injury to a person's business or trade, he said.

Cranwell said he wasn't surprised by Monday's Supreme Court decision on the civil applications of the racketeering law.

Tony Conrad, an abortion opponent from Covington, said Monday he worried that applying the racketeering statute to abortion protesters would have a "chilling effect" on the free-speech rights of those engaging in legal protest activities.

David Nova, of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, said, however, that "for over 20 years, [the racketeering statute] has been used to quash illegal business activity but has not in any way hindered legal business activities."

by CNB