A state judge sent four opponents of abortion rights to jail for up to six months on Thursday for violating a restraining order prohibiting them from demonstrating in front of abortion clinics here.

The four are leaders of Operation Rescue, which planned a series of actions to draw attention to its cause during the Republican National Convention here, as it did during the Democratic National Convention in New York last month.

At the request of Planned Parenthood, Judge Eileen O'Neill of State District court had issued a temporary injunction prohibiting anti-abortion protesters from coming within 100 feet of a clinic's doors and within 25 feet of anyone entering or leaving a clinic.

On Monday, the four Operation Rescue leaders went to a Planned Parenthood clinic here, prayed and tore up a copy of the judge's order. One, Flip Benham, asserted that they were just praying, not demonstrating, but Judge O'Neill ruled Wednesday that their actions violated her order.