Posted May 26, 2003.

Lawsuit Forces Planned Parenthood to Drop Waco Library Ties

A month after three pro-life protesters filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Central Texas (PPCT) and the city of Waco for being denied admittance to the group’s public library–affiliated Audre Rapoport family-planning collection, the nonprofit has severed its ties to the library. “We regret the necessity to end our successful collaboration with the Waco Library System,” declared PPCT Executive Director Pam Smallwood May 13, going on to explain that her organization “simply cannot risk placing our patients and staff in jeopardy.”

According to PPCT’s Web site, the organization “reserves the right to deny access to the Audre Rapoport Library to anyone who may be a security risk.”

Filed on behalf of Waco residents Donna Jernigan, Gloria Orozco, and Camille Hinojosa by the Liberty Legal Institute, the lawsuit contended that the women were turned away from an invitation-only reception last October 28 at the Planned Parenthood office celebrating the public/private partnership because they had been protesting outside several hours earlier. “Our goal was to make sure [that] if the government is involved in something, people are not discriminated against,” plaintiff attorney Kelly Shackleford said in the May 14 Waco Tribune-Herald. “We’re just rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ for this great victory,” agreed Rusty Thomas, who as head of the pro-life group Elijah Ministries had filed a separate lawsuit over the arrangement in March.

The seven-month collaboration between the Waco–McLennan County Public Library and Planned Parenthood had consisted of the latter’s Rapoport Library holdings being added to the library’s OPAC and of interlibrary-loan services being extended to visitors of the Planned Parenthood office. 

Posted May 26, 2003.