PROFESSIONGroups urge federal court to reconsider anti-abortion siteThe AMA, 43 members of Congress and several state attorneys general are among those calling for reversal of a decision on an anti-abortion Web site.By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. May 7, 2001. A half-dozen groups have asked a federal appeals court in California to reconsider its decision to let an anti-abortion Web site keep operating. The organizations, including the AMA, women's rights groups and Jewish groups, say a Web site that draws lines through the names of doctors who have been killed because they provided legal abortion procedures constitutes a threat to physicians. The Web site, they say, encourages more violence because it provides doctors' home addresses, license plate numbers and photos. The briefs ask that the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals look at its March decision in Planned Parenthood, et al. v. American Coalition of Life Activists. A three-judge panel from the court ruled that the Web site and "wanted"-style posters that ACLA created were protected by the First Amendment. The court said the group didn't directly threaten violence and reversed the $107 million jury verdict reached in a lower court. It said speech is protected if it encourages others to commit violence, unless it produces "imminent lawless action." But some question whether speech on the Internet should be held to a different standard than someone yelling threats on the street during a boycott. "By singling out the plaintiffs from among the thousands across the country who are involved in delivering abortion services, ACLA called them to the unfriendly attention of violent anti-abortion activists," said Douglas W. Kmiec, chair of constitutional law at Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif. "By publishing the doctors' addresses, ACLA made it easier for any would-be terrorists to carry out their gruesome mission. From the doctors' point of view, such speech may be just as frightening as a direct threat."
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