Anti-abortion protester reports man shown on video held gun outside Fort Worth clinic
An anti-abortion demonstrator on Tuesday reported to police an encounter with a man who held a gun in a pickup truck outside a Fort Worth medical clinic.
A police officer went to a parking lot near Whole Woman’s Health of Fort Worth in the 3000 block of Lackland Road and talked with both men and others who were present.
For about a half-hour after he said he was shown the gun, the abortion opponent broadcast live video from outside the clinic on the Facebook page of Apologia Studios, a religious media outlet.
The abortion opponent, who said that he is not from “this area,” said in the video that the pickup truck’s driver “waved,” “showed” and “brandished” a gun.
“I saw a gun being waved in the air,” he told the officer, who asks whether the gun was pointed at the man who was reporting the encounter.
“It doesn’t matter,” the abortion opponent said.
In the video, the man appears to show the officer that he had a permit to carry a gun.
It was not clear whether police determined the act was criminal. A Fort Worth police spokesman said that a disorderly conduct report was generated.
Texas state law says someone can be charged with disorderly conduct if he displays “a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm.”
The video ends as the abortion opponent attempts to queue up for the officer a video recording that he says shows the gun.
It was not clear why the man in the pickup was outside the clinic. A woman was in its passenger seat.
As the abortion opponent waited for the officer to arrive, he shouted across a fence to the man who had earlier held the gun.
“You need to repent, sir. Go in there and save your child. Don’t murder your child.”
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that medication abortions, which are induced by taking pills, may continue in Texas — the latest in the legal battle over whether the state can ban most abortions amid the novel coronavirus’ spread.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling permits medication abortions to resume, which are allowed during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. And it comes days after the New Orleans-based court permitted abortions for patients who would be unable to access services during Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on elective medical procedures due to limits on gestational age.
In Texas, abortions are banned 22 weeks past a patient’s last menstrual period. Last week’s ruling permitted patients who would have reached that limit before Abbott’s order expires on April 22 to continue to receive abortions.
