By Janet Parker
SYDNEY — On May 14, abortion clinic worker Dianne Unger won an unprecedented victory for pro-choice forces. On this day she took her most vociferous "pro-life" opponent — Carolyn O'Loughlin — to court and succeeded in obtaining an apprehended violence order against her.
Unger has suffered O'Loughlin's harassment for 12 years. Several days a week, O'Loughlin stands at the entrance to Contraceptive Services in Macquarie Street, harassing and intimidating clients and staff. Frequently she positions herself across the doorway in such a way that women have to push past her to gain entry to the clinic.
Part of her arsenal is a placard bearing an enlarged photo of an aborted foetus. "This is what they'll do to your baby", she screams at women entering the building. She tells women that abortion will render them infertile and cause breast cancer.
Unger describes O'Loughlin's tactics as "intimidating, intrusive and horrific. She preys on the most vulnerable — migrants and very young women. Patients are often devastated. In fact", Unger says, "I think that particularly on those days where the demonstrators were at their most vociferous, women were often more traumatised walking past them than by actually having the abortion. Women would arrive at the desk, hands visibly trembling, unable to hold a pen to fill in the form and bursting into tears, saying they had felt fine until they walked in. I've even seen support people and husbands break down in tears after such an attack."
Complaints about O'Loughlin's behaviour were made on several occasions, and the police were called frequently. They would instruct her to move away from the entrance of the clinic, but within minutes of their leaving, she would be back.
O'Loughlin began displaying a placard that read, "Diane Unger mutilates babies". Unger would walk straight past, ignoring O'Loughlin's abuse. Unger believes this caused O'Loughlin to become louder and louder, to the point where she was disturbing people four floors up and in the next building.
Unger describes one occasion when O'Loughlin rushed into the clinic and took off with a 55-litre container of contaminated waste. A number of independent witnesses saw her tearing down Macquarie Street with it. The police were called in, but a subsequent search of O'Loughlin's house failed to turn up either the container or the waste.
Unger's reaction was one of grave concern, because the illegal disposal of contaminated waste constitutes a very real risk to public safety. When the case went to court, O'Loughlin was fined $200 and told not to do it again.
Over the decade, this constant harassment took its toll on Dianne Unger. After suffering repeated attacks, Unger's blood pressure would soar to dangerous heights and she suffered an attack of shingles; when under stress, she still experiences the related neuralgic pain.
Unger began talking with other occupants of the building — the pharmacist, dental surgeon and chartered accountant — all of whom had suffered in some way from the harassment. The dental surgeon, in particular, copped it on a number of occasions. Unger says that O'Loughlin and her "pro-life" demonstrators mistook him for one of the clinic's doctors for a time and would pursue him down Martin Place screaming "baby killer" at him and attacking his nurse. Despite all of this, other building occupants continued to support Unger and agreed to act as witnesses on her behalf when the case finally reached the court.
As a result of Unger's successful court case, O'Loughlin's favourite target and Unger's place of work — Contraceptive Services — is out of bounds for O'Loughlin until May 2006. For the next decade, O'Loughlin is prohibited from coming within 25 metres of this premises, she cannot engage in any behaviour which may harass or intimidate Unger and she cannot display a placard bearing her name.
While O'Loughlin has appealed against this decision, other abortion service providers will no doubt be examining the details of the case to see whether they too can be freed from similar harassment from other anti-choice forces.