The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against the leader of a notorious anti-abortion group after it allegedly “invaded” a clinic at San Francisco General Hospital and stalked and harassed a doctor.

Aaron Jonathan Hurley, a Los Angeles resident, faces a felony stalking charge and multiple vandalism and trespassing charges — including a misdemeanor “obstructing freedom of access to a clinic” charge — after an alleged dayslong campaign in which he and other anti-abortion activists harassed a doctor and patients looking for reproductive care. The charges were filed Thursday by District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office.

According to a news release provided by the office, Hurley is a member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. The group gained national notoriety last month when it claimed to have taken 115 fetuses from Curtis Bay, a Baltimore-based medical waste company, for burial. (The medical company told local news station WUSA that it is against company policy to transport fetal remains.)

On March 13, the release said, Hurley, along with other individuals, allegedly desecrated a “Madonna and Child” statue at the hospital — covering it with fake blood and stickers with the doctor’s name listed. 

A day later, a group of anti-abortion activists allegedly ransacked the Women’s Options Center at the hospital, where the doctor is believed to be employed. One of the members allegedly pretended to be “in need of counseling to illegally gain access” to the clinic, the statement read. While a nurse was talking to her, Hurley and other trespassers allegedly barged through the clinic doors and began filming and harassing patients and staff. They chanted, “We know who you are, we know what you do.” 

They also allegedly attempted to break into operating rooms.


Later that day, Hurley and other individuals went to the doctor’s home — allegedly placing stickers on the front door of the doctor’s home and of neighbors’ homes that read “a killer lives in your neighborhood.” Flyers were also allegedly plastered around the neighborhood with a QR code to a website identifying the doctor and listing “false, inflammatory” claims about abortion.

The doctor, fearing their safety, changed their “entire personal routine” to evade the anti-abortion activists.

“Reproductive rights are under attack across the country — and here in San Francisco. Right here in our city, doctors who provide critical health care along with vulnerable patients are being stalked at their homes and places of work,” Boudin said in a statement. “My office will unconditionally protect all medical providers and women who exercise their constitutional right to seek abortion or other reproductive health care.”

Hurley will be arraigned Thursday afternoon.



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