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Connie Youngkin

Originally published in Lifeline IX/1 (April 1999)

ONE WOMAN CRIME WAVE

She’s a missionary in Central America now, but pro-life activist Connie Youngkin continues to be a presence in San Diego.

For more than a decade, she was among the city’s best-known pro-life workers. She picketed abortion clinics and held posters outside high schools. When the pro-abortion side called, police came running if Youngkin was involved. “Oh, she was a hardened criminal,” her attorney joked. One time, six squad cars converged on a San Diego intersection where she was picketing—solo.

Legal entanglements became almost common as she provoked unease by holding signs that showed the effects of legal abortion on the unborn child. She was accused of causing disturbances, upsetting public safety, and of battery against another woman who was in an angry group that surrounded her at one demonstration. Although Youngkin now is following a new calling in Central America, her last legal case continues a life of its own. That case is scheduled for dismissal, but her attorney is keeping an eye on the case until it is closed.

Youngkin’s lawyer, Rick Vattuone of San Diego, speaks of her with open admiration and says pro-life activity in his city has not been the same since she left.

Vattuone gave Youngkin a significant share of his pro bono time. Life Legal Defense Foundation helped him to follow her cases to the end. Some were lost in trial, then later won on appeal. Others were won at the outset. But LLDF was the key to success, he said. Vattuone budgets about 40 percent of his time for pro bono work. Neither he nor Youngkin could pay the court costs for her cases, he said, so LLDF’s payments for those expenses made legal defenses possible. In addition, LLDF helped coordinate information that allowed him to refine his arguments.

In addition to case work, Vattuone was sometimes able to help Youngkin avoid arrest. Those were the “greatest victories,” he said. “It is a great victory not to have to go to court: winning on the street.” Once when Youngkin decided to hold a pro-life sign outside a public high school, Vattuone helped keep all her actions legal. She picketed at the proper time—after school—and in the proper place—on public property.

Later, when angry staff members shouted her down and the principal insisted on her arrest for disturbing the school, police declined to arrest because they had no grounds for action.

When cases did go to court, Vattuone proved that opponents really objected to her message, because she was not, in fact, creating disturbances. In the case involving six squad cars, for instance, an officer had to admit that traffic was fine until all the police officers arrived on the scene. Using the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, Vattuone argued in case after case that the message could not be silenced.

The First Amendment has protected other pro-life volunteers in San Diego County. Youngkin was sometimes joined by others, who were also defended by Vattuone. None of his pro-life clients have had to serve jail time for trying to get their message across, Vattuone said. Such a record “is unheard-of outside this area,” and the credit goes to “legitimate arguments based on the First Amendment.” Vattuone does not get into the details of the pro-life message in court, he said, although he is firmly pro-life. He refers to the message in opening and closing remarks, and encourages clients to make their pro-life statements when they are in the witness box. That allows the judge to hear the message and make an independent assessment.

Vattuone praises fellow attorneys Bill Gillespie, Kevin Snider and Gary Kreep as “essential” to the San Diego pro-life cause. Without the dedication of a few colleagues and the backing of LLDF, generously funded pro-abortion attorneys would hold sway, he said. “Planned Parenthood has millions and uses them to pay attorneys,” he said.

Meanwhile, he gives 40 percent of his time to pro bono work because “someone has got to handle these cases.” Devoting a large chunk of his practice to causes meant sacrificing a downtown office, but that was OK. At this stage, his family has “everything we need.” Giving his time is “the right thing to do.” However, “the only way we can do it is with Life Legal.” Covering expensive court filing and copying costs is “absolutely essential.” Absent that support, “I would not be able to handle these cases.”

In addition to two other current cases, Vattuone is monitoring Connie Youngkin’s final case, the one involving the alleged battery. It is scheduled for dismissal later this year. In all, he represented Youngkin in five cases over the past three years. It was “a pleasure and an honor,” he said.

Youngkin never wavered from her commitment to unborn children and their mothers, according to LLDF Executive Director Mary Riley. Riley, who spoke with Youngkin by telephone several times a year, described her as “tenacious and faithful . . . she even ran for political office. Connie tried all avenues to get the message out. Her family suffered both financially and socially at times for her stand but she never caved in. She is a heroine.”

[Victory! In People v. Youngkin, Connie had been arrested for distributing materials advocating alternatives to abortion on a public school ground (after registering in the school office in compliance with state law). On appeal to the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, appellate division by Kevin Snider of the U.S. Justice Foundation, Connie’s conviction (in Municipal Court) was unanimously overturned late in 1998. LLDF is pleased to continue its collaboration with the U.S. Justice Foundation (Escondido, Calif.) which has been of significant help over the years.—Ed.]