The Alabama Women’s Center is facing attacks on several fronts and dire financial straits, all weighing on owner Dalton Johnson: ‘You never get a break’

Anti-abortion battleground broadens as US states fight on 'non-medical' grounds Read more

On a sweltering Saturday morning in Huntsville, Alabama, nearly two dozen protesters line up along Sparkman Drive, down the road from a dollar store, a car dealership and an assortment of churches. Motorists cruising down the four-lane road honk their horns at the gaggle of activists, who recite prayers through a megaphone and hold signs outside a nondescript beige building that would otherwise go unnoticed.

“Well, of course, as an American I’m against killing,” says Huntsville resident George Barry, who says he has participated in local anti-abortion protests since the early 1980s, and today grasps a large yellow sign that includes pictures of fetuses and the message “Killing a baby … is a bad choice”.

“It’s hard to believe that judges are allowing the killing of the innocent,” he says. “Justice is defending the rights of those who can’t defend their own rights. Who is more innocent than a child in the womb?”

Dalton Johnson, the owner of the Alabama Women’s Center, the only abortion clinic in northern Alabama, eventually pulls into the parking lot. He chats with several pro-choice advocates on site and heads inside the building without paying much attention to the protesters. The Ohio native, who has faced steadfast opposition from activists, legislators, and lawyers since opening his clinic 14 years ago, now faces a proposal that could force his practice to once again relocate – or close for good.

In one of the Alabama General Assembly’s final days in session, the House of Representatives on 26 May voted 79-15 to prohibit abortion clinics from operating near many public schools. If the law is passed, the Alabama department of public health will no longer be allowed to issue or renew a health center license to an abortion clinic located within 2,000ft of a K-12 school’s campus or property.

This week Alabama state representative Ed Henry, the sponsor of the anti-abortion legislation, told lawmakers the bill would keep schoolchildren away from protesters on both sides of the issue, effectively shielding them from seeing any kind of explicit signs or photos near their schools. Henry, who did not respond to multiple requests from the Guardian for comment, failed to mention to his fellow elected officials that abortion providers would face the same limitations as sex offenders.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reverend James Henderson protests outside the Alabama Women’s Center in Huntsville. Photograph: Max Blau/the Guardian

“Most of these women who have had abortions are bitter, shrill, and angry,” Reverend James Henderson, a former executive director of the Christian Coalition of Alabama who helped draft the bill, said at the protest. “All they need to do is what all of us as sinners do – just come to the place where we seek God’s truth, see that we’re sinners, in this case with this horrible sin, and confess it to Jesus Christ.”

Alabama Reproductive Rights Advocates, a local nonprofit opposed to anti-abortion efforts, blasted Henry for his “targeted attack”, which it said further denied access to women’s health-care services in northern Alabama. Democratic state representative Chris England said the anti-abortion measure would enforce an arbitrary restriction on abortion clinics, unnecessarily burdening women by forcing them to drive longer distances to obtain medical services that are protected by federal law.

“There’s no real rational relationship between that footage and keeping children from being exposed to things happening outside, not inside, the clinic,” England said. “In effect, it will shut down a Huntsville clinic for something that has nothing to do with the services provided by the clinic.”

The Alabama Women’s Shelter, one of only five abortion clinics in the entire state, would be directly impacted – a new school will open across the street later this year. The clinic has already faced numerous attempts to restrict how and where it performs abortions.

According to Johnson, the Alabama Women’s Center has averaged between 100 and 150 abortions a month. More recently, that number has risen to nearly 200 abortions a month, due to new restrictions on other clinics across the state. An estimated 9,000 abortions were performed in Alabama during 2012.

During last year’s legislative session, lawmakers passed a measure requiring women to wait at least 48 hours to receive an abortion. That law, Johnson says, not only has forced women to wait longer for an abortion, but meant they must make multiple trips to a clinic, effectively deterring them from exercising their constitutional rights in part due to financial constraints.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An activist, who declined to give his name, holds a pro-life sign. Photograph: Max Blau/the Guardian

A year earlier, Govenor Robert Bentley signed off on the Alabama Women’s Health and Safety Act. Among other things, the act required abortion clinics to meet new building code requirements such as upgrading emergency fire systems and making doors and hallways as wide as an ambulance gurney. Johnson says he tried to make those improvements to the Alabama Women’s Center’s long-time location in Huntsville’s medical district, but the process dragged on for months without resolution.

The center shut down for four months last year, in order to retrofit a new facility on Sparkman Drive. It then reapplied for a department of public health license and reopened in October 2014.

Along the way two separate legal fights, one challenging the clinic reopening and going after its primary physician for medical fraud, brought the clinic into dire financial straits. Johnson says he is now roughly $1m in the red, doubling his debt and draining his retirement account. For the first time he has launched a crowdfunding campaign to replenish the center’s funds.

A separate and ongoing lawsuit makes such preparations even more necessary. Alabama officials are currently appealing a federal judge’s 2014 ruling that tossed out a law requiring doctors who terminate pregnancies to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. If an appeals judge reserves the ruling, Johnson says the Alabama Women’s Center will effectively become the state’s only abortion clinic, as its doctor is the only person who both performs abortions and has admitting privileges.

“If the admitting privileges ruling gets overturned, this will be the only place for abortions,” Johnson says. “That would mean one clinic, and one physician, in the state … These are scary times for abortion in the United States.”

The current anti-abortion legislation now rests in the hands of the Alabama senate. The bill needs the upper chamber’s approval in the final days of the session. Then it would head over to the governor. A spokesperson for Bentley, who has signed off on pro-life measures during recent legislative sessions, did not respond to a request for comment.

Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Alabama chapter, said her group would consider taking legal action if the legislation passed through the statehouse. But, Johnson said, no matter who took the lead, a lawsuit challenging the anti-abortion legislation must happen, given its potential impact across the nation.

‘If the admitting privileges ruling gets overturned, this will be the only place for abortions,’ Johnson says. Photograph: Max Blau/the Guardian

There is a chance the Alabama Women’s Center will someday close. If that happened, Johnson said, Huntsville residents would be forced to travel at least 100 miles to the closest abortion clinics – Birmingham to the south, Atlanta to the east or Nashville to the north. He said the already difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy would take longer, become more costly, and for some people would no longer be an option.

Despite the high-stakes abortion battle, Johnson remains calm about what’s next, perhaps because he has somehow endured for so long in his lonely fight to ensure Alabama women have access to abortion services. He also remains vigilant, knowing the most important battles have yet to be decided.

“It’s like what my mother says: ‘You never get a break,’” he said. “There’s never been a quiet time. You’re constantly facing an uptick in the laws being passed.”