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The article says the guy just came out to smoke a cigarette - didn't say what he was doing there, or if anyone else was even with him. That's what made me think he was a hired goon.
But even if he (or his girl) was being filmed, - if you took my picture as I was coming out of the grocery store, would I have a right to physically assault you?
Pro-lifers being assaulted and abused is not a rare thing - it's pretty common.
Ask anyone who spends time there. Garden hoses turned on them, verbal abuse, things thrown at them - it's all pretty common.
But like Ann Coulter says, this past election seemed like God was giving America one last chance - we can turn back toward him, or wind up like the ancient Hebrews...

FYI to all posters on this thread:

I live in Iowa City, and the Karen Kubby mentioned in the article used to be on the City Council. She is a card-carrying Socialist (many times an epithet here at FR, but she REALLY has a card), and is married to an ex-military guy.

Iowa City, speaking as a transplanted South Carolinian, is a very odd place. The town, and county, is very Democrat, even Green, and controlled by a liberal University which dominates the employment picture. But Iowans in general tend to the conservative viewpoint. Tom Harkin shows up about a year before the elections, and is shown on all the local news broadcasts helping out some farmer or other citizen with some issue.

Then the election comes, and the Republican candidate blows up, saying something stupid. It really speaks to the power of incumbency here in Iowa; a lot of inertia once someone is in office. The state is in a big budget crunch, and the Dem governor came into office with a $900 million surplus. He got re-elected, too.

Your analogy of punching someone if they took your picture leaving a grocery store is somewhat bogus.

Are you saying that leaving a grocery store is just as controversial as leaving an abortion clinic? I would put taking pictures outside of an abortion clinic on par with taking pictures outside of a brothel or topless bar. It's not exactly something you would want anyone to know about thus creating a much greater potential for a volatile environment. If you're the photographer/protester/flag burner, you ought to know what you're doing may incite some people to violence. That doesn't necessarily make it right, that's just how it is.

Now to put a variation on your scenario: say you had been caught boffing the 18 year old cashier at Piggly Wiggly, your wife finds out and says she'll Bobbitt you if you ever go near that place again. Silly you, thinking you can get away with something decide to pay Miss Piggy a visit anyway. As you leave the store, the PI your wife has hired to bust you snaps a photo, in turn you snap and pop the guy in the face (a much more apples to apples analogy). Are you wrong in doing so? Sure. But I'm sure many would understand why you were so upset and lost it and not have too much sympathy for the PI.

Maybe God is giving us one last chance and maybe new Judges will reverse Roe v Wade. But until that happens, last chance or not abortion on demand is the current law and in- your-face confrontational tactics only slow that process down.