Anti-Abortion Activists Worry That a New City Law Will Make Their Task Harder

By JULIE BOSMAN
June 5, 2009

The walk from the No. 6 subway station to Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center, in the South Bronx, is only a few steps long, past the Congress Pharmacy, the Gabriel jewelry shop and Marina’s Beauty Salon. But to finally get in means passing by the likes of Julie Beyel.

Ms. Beyel, a 32-year-old with wavy brown hair and a purple T-shirt, stood outside the clinic, which offers abortion, birth control and pregnancy tests, one day this week and beamed a smile at an approaching woman. “Miss?” Ms. Beyel said, her smile widening. “I just want you to know that there are alternatives.”

Hour after hour, several days a week, Ms. Beyel tries to engage women who come to New York City abortion clinics with pamphlets and pleas. Much of the time, she gets no response. the rest