Right to cover face upheld.

[Matthew X]

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=16808

DES MOINES, Iowa — Public-access station officials have told an 
anti-abortion activist that he won't be allowed to air footage of women 
entering a Planned Parenthood clinic unless their faces are covered.
Dave Leach's show, "The Uncle Ed Show," has run on Des Moines cable for six 
years. Jonathan O'Toole of Kansas City, Mo., began collecting footage for 
the show at the clinic yesterday.
But Mediacom, which provides the public-access channel and airs the 
program, said it would not show the women's faces.
"I have told him if he presents a tape to us tomorrow of faces visible we 
will not show his tape because it's a third party invasion of privacy," 
Mediacom spokeswoman Debora Blume said yesterday.
Leach, who picketed the clinic in the early 1990s and has discussed his 
anti-abortion views on his show, said he would review the law but believes 
he wasn't violating patients' privacy. Leach is a Republican state House 
candidate.
"I can't imagine what purpose it (footage) would serve blocked out," Leach 
said. "There's certainly a whole lot more that journalists are allowed to do."
Mediacom officials had earlier told The Des Moines Register that they were 
considering airing the footage but moving the show to later hours.
The newspaper reported in yesterday's editions that Mediacom officials had 
said they didn't support the views expressed by the show, but its content 
was protected by the First Amendment.
"We're bound by rules that say we can't censor or exercise control over 
content," Blume was quoted in yesterday's newspaper as saying.
However, the Register reported today that Blume said Mediacom's attorneys 
had determined the tapes would violate clinic patients' privacy rights.
Ben Stone, president of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, said he couldn't 
comment on the project until he saw the show. But Gloria Feldt, president 
of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the taping violated 
patients' privacy.
"These people are just shameless. They're shamelessly violating women's 
rights to privacy, medical privacy," Feldt said. "It's virtual stalking. It 
ought to be against the law."
Feldt said Planned Parenthood would look into its public policy and legal 
options.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa told the Register for 
yesterday's article that "patients coming to our clinic are coming for a 
variety of reasons."
Kendall Dillon told the newspaper that abortions represent about 2% of the 
clinic's services.
Neal Horsley, who started a Web site in March 2001 that airs clinic footage 
from more than 20 states, said showing the footage on public-access 
channels was a step toward creating a nationwide show. Horsley, who was 
working with Leach on the project, said Des Moines was to be the first 
location where video would be televised.
"We're absolutely certain that it's not against the law to publish 
information, factually verifiable information," Horsley said. "We've been 
doing it for a year on the Internet. ... The fact of the matter is nobody 
has issued a court order or an injunction."
Horsley's argument is being tested in court in Illinois, where a woman is 
suing three anti-abortion activists who allegedly obtained her medical 
records detailing complications from an abortion and published the records 
and her photo on an anti-abortion site.
Yesterday, O'Toole and his sister, Meghan, also of Kansas City, Mo., filmed 
patients walking into the brick building. Some patients covered themselves 
with umbrellas and a few people stopped to question O'Toole and his sister, 
who both had video cameras.
O'Toole said showing patients on TV would personalize their anti-abortion 
message.
If people saw a friend or relative going to the clinic, "I would hope that 
they would encourage them to stop patronizing" it, said O'Toole, 23.
Stacy Layton, 50, of Ankeny, said she came to the local clinic to protest 
Leach and his plans, which she called a "form of terrorism."
"It's not just a chop-shop for abortion," Layton said. "They provide 
services for people who can't afford them."
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