Activist Gets Jail for Abortion Protest

The director of a national antiabortion group was convicted of trespassing and sentenced to six months in jail for organizing a religious demonstration at a public high school. Flip Benham of Operation Rescue National said he was “flabbergasted” at the outcome. The Dallas-based Benham said he has conducted demonstrations at nearly 2,000 schools nationwide without facing criminal charges before. More than 150 students from Liberty University in Lynchburg demonstrated on Nov. 10 outside E. C. Glass High School. One group stood outside the school and held antiabortion placards while others greeted arriving students with religious and antiabortion literature. Police officers testified that Benham refused to leave when asked, and that the demonstration threatened public safety.