New Jersey -- A federal law aimed at protecting abortion supporters from threats and violence must also be used to protect pro-life supporters, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

A Hasbrouck Heights woman who received death threats because she helped women with pregnancy counseling and prenatal assistance won the landmark ruling when U.S. District Judge Maryanne Trump Barry said she deserved the same protection against violence the federal government guarantees to employees of abortion facilities.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was enacted in 1994 in response to a rising number of attacks at abortion facilities. It bans all use of threats, blockades, and other violence at these sites.

Janet Greenhut's civil case marks the first time pro-life supporters have used the law against someone on the pro-abortion side, legal experts said.

The case centered on two midnight telephone calls Greenhut received in January 1995, when, as a volunteer for Birthright of Maywood, she provided helpful pregnancy counseling and drove young pregnant women to prenatal appointments. A pro-abortion woman left this message: "Janet, get your pro-lifers away from our clinics or we will kill you," according to police transcripts.

The woman called back later: "You will be killed," the transcript said.

The caller, Alice Hand, an abortion advocate who volunteered at a Suffern, N.Y., abortion facility, also threatened the life of another Birthright worker in Nanuet, N.Y., as well as a priest in Suffern, according to police records.

Hand pleaded guilty to harassment and making terroristic threats and was sentenced to probation, Teich said. Officers said they did not believe she planned to carry out any of the threats.

Greenhut wasn't satisfied with the conviction. She pressed the civil case in federal court because she wanted to prove a point: She wanted the same protection that abortion proponents have received under the law.

"A lot of the pro-abortionists are capable of inducing terror and I was truly terrorized by what she did," she said.

Barry agreed, awarding Greenhut $5,000 for each of the two phone calls. "For the first time, FACE is being invoked to penalize threats directed against a pro-life volunteer," Barry wrote in her decision. Barry ruled that it should also include programs that offer alternatives to abortion.

"When we brought this suit, the most common reaction was, 'The law doesn't apply to pro-lifers.' We have proven them wrong," said Russell J. Passamano, Greenhut's attorney. "Pro-lifers are threatened all the time," he said. "They need protection from this violence."

A documented incident in Los Angeles several years ago showed that Frank Mandiola called several abortion clinics and pro-choice leaders -- including himself -- with bomb threats. When caught, he was presented by the newspaper as being a poor confused dear who had caused a lot of problems but whose heart was in the right place, since he was wanting to have the media come down harder on prolifers. The idea that this was a slander against prolifers didn't occur to the court or to the reporter. To the contrary, the reporter was quick to say there was some truth in what he was doing, since the media had paid attention in other parts of the country. (Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1987).