Abortion may be legal in New York State, but the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade has caused a bidding war over an empty lot next to a Buffalo abortion clinic, where protesters frequent.
The clinic, Buffalo Women Services, as well as abortion-rights supporters and anti-abortion groups across the county, have expressed interest over the last month to buy the half-acre lot at 2516 Main St., according to the owner of the lot. The lot is located directly next to Buffalo Women Services, which provides abortions, as well as OB-GYN, prenatal and birth care.
Atanas Crngarov, who identified himself as a spokesperson for his family, who owns the lot, said the highest offer is currently “well over” $400,000, but no contracts have been made yet.
“The last month things really heated up with this property. There's all kinds of people showing interest right now. We've met with about four different groups already in the past two weeks,” Crngarov.
While the interest in the property has increased since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision last month, protestors utilizing the vacant lot have been a problem for the clinic — and the owner — for years.
“You can't be in an abortion work, reproductive work, if you're thin skinned or crumble when people don't like you,” said Dr. Katharine Morrison, who is the owner, medical director and provider at Buffalo Women Services. “So that's not an issue.”
Buffalo Women Services has not caved to opposition since it opened in the 1980’s, even after its practitioner Dr. Barnett Slepian was murdered in 1998 for the abortion services he provided. The clinic moved to its current location at 2500 Main St. because of protests at its previous location.
But Morrison is worried about the privacy and safety of patients post-Roe.
“The fear is that the protesters are becoming more emboldened by Roe being overturned,” Morrison said. “And the fact that apparently nobody will, can prevent them from being right up against our fence and harassing the clients.”
Morrison said that since Roe was overturned, the protestors, who usually remain within a yellow-lined zone in front of the clinic, have been protesting from the vacant lot next door instead.
Morrison alleges they’ve yelled through the fence near the back door where patients enter, and used free-standing ladders to peer over into their parking lot and yell and film patients.
On Thursday, multiple cars were parked in the lot, including a van with large signs protesting abortion and depicting fetuses.
“Now, by using that vacant lot as their staging area, they've circumvented the things that we did to keep them away from our clients,” Morrison said.
Morrison said she has contacted Buffalo Police but was told she did not have the standing to have the protesters removed because she does not own the lot.
Crngarov, whose family owns the lot, said he has also tried to work with police to remove the protesters.
“The cops come, they talk to them [protestors], they ask them to leave. But then it's the same thing again the next day,” he said. “So basically, we cannot stand at the property every day and kick people off.”
Crngarov said he has also had a fence on the property several years ago, but protestors continued to knock it over, so his family removed it. He’s also stopped at the property several times to tell the protestors himself that, legally, they need to be on the sidewalk, not his land.
“You cannot go on the property. I've told them that several, I mean, so many times, I can't even count, to put it that way,” Crngarov said.
Morrison and Crngarov had been discussing, as their latest attempt to remedy the problem, creating a written agreement that would give the clinic the right to have protestors removed.
However, when the Dobbs decision came down from the Supreme Court June 24, Crngarov said he decided he doesn’t want to be connected to this issue, either way.
“We don't want our name on anything that has to do with any kind of problems” Crngarov said. “I basically explained to the doctors if we sign this document, then that means we're involved too.”
He said he has “no problems” with Morrison or anyone involved, but people are contacting not only him, but his wife and children about this land. He wants his family to be left alone.
“We want to sell like, ASAP, like we want out of there,” Crngarov said.
Morrison said Crngarov told her after the Dobbs decision that he was going to sell the land to an anti-abortion organization, but didn’t name the group.
She said at that time, he asked for $290,000 from the clinic for the land. The land was last assessed at $192,000. According to Realtor.com the lot sold for $75,500 in 2010.
Crngarov said his family originally bought the land to build a gas station, but they faced opposition from the neighborhood. He said they attempted several projects, but haven’t been able to get approval, and need to make a decision about what to do now.
“We never imagined that it would get to this,” Crngarov said.
Morrison said the clinic does not have the money to purchase the lot.
“I've poured all of my resources into keeping the abortion aspect going, and then adding a birth center, which was quite costly. To build and to obtain licenses and such,” she said. “So everything I have is tied up in those businesses. I'm also one person, so I didn't really envision taking on a lot that had to be cleaned up and put to some sort of use.”
The clinic has started a Go Fund Me to purchase the lot. It's raised over $48,000 so far.
Crngarov didn’t want to share who he is receiving offers from, but mentioned the interested parties are from around the U.S. He said he received a call about that land from someone in Texas on Thursday.
WBFO approached several activists outside the clinic on Thursday. A man standing with the anti-abortion posters and the van parked in the lot refused to comment.
Rachael Kohlbacher was among a group of individuals distributing pamphlets and holding signs on the sidewalk, but said she doesn’t know about the sale.
Kohlbacher she said she typically stands inside the yellow box on the sidewalk in front of the building, but added she sometimes enters the vacant lot in order to talk with clinic patients through a tall fence that separates the vacant lot from the clinic’s entrance and parking lot.
“I will occasionally walk to about here and talk over the fence where women can hear me and just say, once again, ‘We are here to help you, never here to judge, or here for not just your moment appointment, but for a lifetime,’” she said.
When asked about if she’s concerned with the legality of being in the lot, Kohlbacher said it is worth the risk.
“I never want to be disrespectful. But I do believe that when you are passionate, and you know that lives are on the line, then that is worth perhaps that risk,” she said.
“If I was alive when the Holocaust was happening, I hope I would do something radical to save those lives. And so I do believe that we do need to be a little bit radical to not only save the life of that baby, but to affect and help and change the life of that woman, that mom, because her life is truly on the line as well,” she added.
Morrison hopes Buffalo Women Services can buy the lot before someone else does, or at least use the donated funds to erect a larger wall between the two properties, so they can continue providing services to pregnant individuals with privacy.
“Women know when they are ready to have a child, when they're ready to add to their family, and when they're not,” she said. “And nobody is better equipped at knowing that than the woman herself.”
