AFTER YEARS OF PROTESTS, RULING STOPS ABORTIONS

For five years, abortions were performed at a Cape Girardeau clinic, drawing criticism and protests along with women seeking abortions.

In January 1987, a federal judge put a halt to the procedures. The doctor who operated the clinic tried several different avenues in hopes of re-opening the clinic, but none prevailed.

The court ruling pertained to a Missouri law that required doctors who perform abortions to have surgical privileges at a local hospital.

Dr. Bolivar Escobedo, who operated the Cape Girardeau Women's Health Center, didn't have surgical privileges. He had asked a federal judge to bar enforcement of the law, but the judge refused.

"I never thought I'd live to see this day," Margie Eftink of the Missouri Citizens for Life said in a 1987 newspaper story on the day the ruling was made.

Abortion foes had regularly picketed the clinic from the time it opened in January 1982. On occasion police were called to the clinic and protesters were arrested.

The group had purchased a house next to the clinic to provide abortion alternatives to pregnant women.

In early 1982 a group known as "Life Boat," lead by Thomas L. Meyer had attended City Council meetings with the hope of persuading the councilmen to adopt a regulatory ordinance to discourage the clinic from opening.

A motion to draft such an ordinance failed, and the clinic opened.

Five years later, on the day of the ruling that halted abortions at the clinic, about 30 people stood in a line near the center. They held hands, sang and recited prayers.

"I was just overjoyed," Eftink said. "I could hardly believe that after five years they are finally closed. I trusted God to do this, but I was beginning to think I would never see this day."

In addition to the clinic in Cape Girardeau, Escobedo operated clinics in St. Louis. The legal troubles he experienced in Cape Girardeau were mirrored in his St. Louis-area offices.

Escobedo also applied for surgical privileges at St. Louis hospitals and was denied. There, he hired other physicians to perform the surgical procedures.

However, the doctor maintained that the law was unfair.

"The Supreme Court requires only that abortions be performed by a licensed physician," Escobedo said in a newspaper story. "It does not say the physician has to be on staff at a near hospital."

A week after the ruling, Escobedo announced plans to reopen the clinic even if abortions couldn't be performed. He pledged to continue to pursue the right to perform abortions.

"We are fighting for the basic rights of women to decide what to do with their private life," Escobedo said. "I am a physician -- I have nothing to lose from this. It's women who are losing. They're the ones being damaged by this."

Six months later when Escobedo reopened his Cape Girardeau clinic, abortion protesters weren't on hand.

Escobedo decided not to pursue abortions in Cape Girardeau at the request of his patients.

"We did surveys of our patients from Cape Girardeau, and 72 percent of them said that they preferred coming to the St. Louis area clinics because they felt they had inadequate privacy in Cape Girardeau," Escobedo explained in a July 26, 1987 news story.