For the first time in New York City, federal prosecutors used the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act to successfully convict two men who blocked access to an abortion clinic, the New York Times reports.

Prosecutors used the statute to charge Richard Dugan and Theodore Puckett for blocking the entrance to the Margaret Sanger Center, a clinic affiliated with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and refusing to leave. Dugan and Puckett each face a maximum six-month sentence and a $10,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for June 10.

According to Justice Department spokesperson Alejandro Miyar, the department since 1994 has used the FACE Act to file 58 criminal cases nationwide, leading to 80 convictions. The department also has filed 19 FACE-related civil lawsuits, Miyar said.

Joan Malin, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of New York City, said she hopes the convictions will send a message, adding, "We provide health services, and for people to obstruct that is wrong."

Malin said that for about 12 months, several dozen antiabortion-right advocates have been protesting near the clinic on the first Saturday of each month. The protesters pass out pamphlets, display pictures of aborted fetuses and sometimes attempt to dissuade women from entering the clinic, though they are generally peaceful, Malin said. It was during one such protest that Puckett and Dugan blocked the clinic doors (Moynihan, New York Times, 4/27).

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