Uses Law Degree to Help the Most Disadvantaged, the Unborn

By Susan Greenleaf
July 2001

Ten years ago, Tom Harvey was challenged to use his law degree to help the disadvantaged.

While attending a meeting of the Catholic Lawyers Guild, a pro-life speaker gave a talk and asked for volunteers to defend seventy individuals from a pro-life group called, "Operation Rescue." Harvey volunteered. "I was motivated by my Catholic faith to do something for the most disadvantaged people I could think of --  the unborn."

A graduate of Tufts University in 1978 with a degree in political science, Harvey followed in the footsteps of his two brothers and become a lawyer. He graduated from Suffolk University Law School in 1981 and served in the U.S. Navy as a lawyer from 1981 to 1985.

Looking back on his experience with the Operation Rescue group he says, "It was a different kind of case because typically the right thing to do is to plead guilty but because these people were acting on principle we couldn't go that route." In closing arguments he gave an analogy about the Underground Railroad and its historical perspective. "We can now see that those people helping the runaway slaves were heroes: yet they were in violation of the law, and here we are thinking that they were great!" Operation Rescue members were famous for their sit-downs at abortion clinic entrances, which led to a conviction for some of the leaders. "Some of them went to jail for a year or two. They were very courageous," says Harvey.

Harvey practices general civil litigation law from his office in the scenic Charlestown Navy Yard.  He volunteered again to be part of a legal team that challenged the constitutionality of the "Buffer Zone Bill" that passed last August. It says that a person can't approach another without their consent and be within six feet of that person when that person is in an eighteen-foot buffer zone around an entrance of a building that does abortions (other than hospitals).

Harvey said, "Our position is that this law is just an attempt to silence the pro-life people called, 'Sidewalk Counselors' who pass out literature to inform the girls entering the clinic that there are other options." The Attorney General claims that this is supposed to be a public safety measure to prevent violence. Harvey's rebuttal to that is that there are already a number of laws on the books preventing violence but there are none against freedom of speech. "The sidewalk is a traditional public forum; people can air their views and if some people are uncomfortable about that ... that's our system!"

"The people on the sidewalk are the real heroes," Harvey said. "I went out one January morning and there was one of my clients, a sixty-year old woman standing in five degree weather waiting for an opportunity to help someone."  Harvey said it would be tough to measure but the counselors do have "turn-arounds." He said one girl who was a turn-around came to the Statehouse with her twin babies to testify how happy she is with her twins. She expressed how thankful she is for the sidewalk counselor who approached her.

Harvey and the pro-life team made a motion in front of Judge Harrington back in November at the Federal District Court level and he agreed with their arguments and granted the injunction they were looking for. The Attorney General appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals and the court issued a stay of Judge Harrington's order. So the law was virtually put back into effect. There was a hearing in April and they are waiting for the decision. "We don't know whether they will send it back to the District Court again for more evidence. We don't really see that as necessary. We don't need evidence. Based on the face of a law, the way it stands, it's unconstitutional. It could end up in the Supreme Court."

Harvey got involved with Mass Citizens for Life after his experience with the Operation Rescue people and is on their Board of Directors. He also sits on the Board for the Pro- Life Legal Fund and for A Woman's Concern Pregnancy Help Center. "I have come to the realization that this is the issue of the era, just like slavery was in the 1800's," he says. "This is the big issue today, so it's exciting to be involved in it."

He believes that most people are apathetic when it comes to the subjects of pro-life and abortion, especially at the voting booth. "When you see a candidate running on the Pro-Life issue, I'm always amazed how defensive the candidates are. You're doing a good thing, you're defending the vulnerable, the human that is in the most need of help. So what do we have to be apologetic for?"

Although Harvey and the legal team feel it's going to be tough to win the fight in this Commonwealth, he feels optimistic about the country changing its position concerning the unborn. Being a history buff he brought up the example of the Boston publisher and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. "They were ready to lynch him but he kept fighting and fighting and fighting until he finally lived to see the day that slavery was abolished. So it's encouraging that public opinion can be changed."