Terror in Charlotte
The posters have the word “WANTED” in large black letters at the top and contain the following language: “We would like to introduce you to Drs. X and Y [names withheld here]. Their specialties are Obstetrics, Gynecology and Murder. Not only do these two men assist women and deliver babies, but they also harm women and kill babies…. You may contact them at their office or the clinic in which they perform the abortions.”
Read full article by Carol Joffe, Ms. magazine Washington Correspondent
Violence Escalating at Abortion Clinics
A post-election call by anti-abortion extremists to “return to the streets” has resulted in an escalation of activity, threats, and violence around several women’s health clinics nationwide. Threats have again intensified since the May 31, 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas.
The Feminist Majority Foundation is working with local and federal law enforcement to protect threatened clinics. However, in some local jurisdictions law enforcement has been allowing varying levels of harassment. There must be nationwide zero tolerance of violence and harassment aimed at vilifying doctors, health care workers, and denying women’s fundamental right to reproductive health.
Current Threats
Some doctors and clinic administrators are being taunted with chants of “you’re next.” Right now, clinics in the following states are reporting harassment and threats:
- Alabama
- California
- Colorado
- Iowa
- Kansas
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| - Michigan
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
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| - North Carolina
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
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Operation Rescue's New Target
With the closure of Women’s Health Care Services Clinic in Wichita, Kansas, following Dr. Tiller’s murder, Operation Rescue, based in Wichita, has announced a new target: Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Bellevue, Nebraska. Dr. Carhart regularly traveled to Wichita each month to work with Dr. Tiller and has announced he intends to continue providing late abortion services and may open a clinic in Kansas.
Troy Newman of Operation Rescue along with Larry Donlan of Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life announced a new multi-group campaign called “Keep it Closed.” The campaign aims to make sure Dr. Carhart does not open a late abortion clinic in Wichita, any other place in Kansas, or nearby Nebraska. And Newman hoped “through the use of peaceful, legal means” that Dr. Carhart “will soon be out of the abortion business for good.”
Operation Rescue launched its “Keep it Closed” campaign with targeted demonstrations and so-called “street counseling” in Omaha and at Carhart’s Bellevue clinic August 28-29. Also present was Norman Weslin, leader of the Lambs of Christ.
Escalating activities targeting Dr. Carhart and his staff eerily resemble the harassment of Dr. Tiller. Operation Rescue has posted photos of Dr. Carhart on its website and in a meeting with Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning submitted “evidence” of alleged “illegal” activity at Dr. Carhart’s clinic which Bruning referred to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Jon Bruning has previously spoken against Dr. Carhart and said “I hate it that he’s in America.”
As threats against doctors and clinics continue in some 14 states, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Planned Parenthood in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 28 but fell just short of the building, burning the pavement.
Dr. George Tiller: A Man Who Trusted Women
Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late abortion providers in the country, was murdered May 31, 2009, allegedly by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder. He was. For years, Dr. Tiller endured countless threats, stalking, and harassment at the hands of anti-abortion extremists. In 1993, he was shot in both arms, surviving an assassination attempt by an Army of God follower, Shelley Shannon. His clinic was bombed and frequently vandalized. In early May, the clinic sustained $10,000 of damage by vandal(s) who purposefully disabled security cameras and sliced the roof prior to a rainstorm.
Scott Roeder was caught both the week and day before Tiller’s murder maliciously gluing shut the locks of a clinic in Kansas City, a tactic taught in the Army of God manual. The clinic director reported the vandalism and identified Roeder, who was captured on security cameras, to both federal and local law enforcement, but nothing was done.
Justifiable Homicide
Shockingly, some anti-abortion extremists are still calling "justifiable homicide" -- the murder of doctors -- a legitimate strategy to close clinics. Anti-abortion extremist Paul Hill, who in 1994 killed Dr. John Britton and a volunteer escort in a Pensacola, Florida was an early proponent of "justifiable homicide." Prior to the murders, for which Hill was ultimately executed by lethal injection, Hill was known to protest continuously outside the clinic, often holding a sign that stated “Execute murderers, abortionists, accessories?”
Even office holders have made statements that support justifiable homicide by anti-abortion extremists. During his 2004 US Senate campaign, Senator Tom Coburn (D-OK), said "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life.”
2008 Clinic Violence Survey
The Feminist Majority Foundation’s 2008 Clinic Violence Survey found that severe violence in 2008 impacted 20% of all abortion providers participating in the survey.
