Pro-lifers prevail.

During the summer of 2002, the Waco-McLennan County Public Library System in Texas signed a "memorandum of understanding" with Planned Parenthood of Central Texas (PPCT) authorizing the pro-abortion organization to use the library's cataloging system in exchange for ready access to the PPCT's Audre Rapoport Library of human sexuality and health books, pamphlets, curricula, teaching aides, and videos. The pact made the PPCT's library a de facto branch of the county system. It specified that PPCT library patrons could check out materials from any of the county system's four library locations by requesting that they be delivered to PPCT, and that public library card holders could return materials to the PPCT facility regardless of where they had originally been checked out.

When news of the agreement became public, local pro-life activists began speaking out against it and imploring city leaders to terminate the arrangement on grounds, among others, that allowing a private entity to meld with the county system in such a manner was illegal, and was also discriminatory, since other nonprofit organizations were not extended the same privilege.

Their pleas largely fell on deaf ears, and the agreement stayed in place. In October, during a Planned Parenthood open house intended to showcase the Audre Rapoport Library to the public, PPCT officials spotted, and barred from the open house, three peaceful, pro-life visitors. The PPCT, you see, has a patron policy stating: "Planned Parenthood of Central Texas reserves the right to deny access to the Audre Rapoport Library to anyone who may be a security risk."

On April 9th of this year, the Liberty Legal Institute (LLI) filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas on behalf of so-called security risks Donna Jernigan, Gloria Orozco, and Camille Hinajose. In addition to unspecified damages, the suit sought a judicial declaration that the pro-lifer's constitutional rights of free expression and peaceable assembly had been violated, and an injunction barfing PPCT from denying pro-lifers future access to the library. LLI attorney T. Dean Malone told the April 10th Waco Herald-Tribune that his clients were excluded "solely because they hold and have peacefully expressed views different than those espoused by Planned Parenthood," which "cannot operate as a branch of Waco's public library system and expect to deny access to patrons based upon their views."

On May 13th, PPCT announced that the Planned Parenthood library's ties to the county system were being severed. "We regret the necessity to end our successful collaboration with the Waco Library System," she lamented, "but have determined that the inherent limitations involved in collaborating with the city created insurmountable barriers to maintaining security in our facilities." Kelly Shackelford, chief LLI counsel, portrayed PPCT's retreat as "a clear admission of guilt." "Rather than make their policies comply with the Constitution," he said, "Planned Parenthood has pulled out of the public library system in Waco, so they can continue to discriminate against patrons who disagree with their viewpoint on abortion."

On June 30th, PPCT agreed to settle the lawsuit and pay undisclosed damages.