A Round of Applause for Courageous Female News Anchors

In case you hadn't noticed, this has been a big week for coverage of the tactics of anti-abortion extremists, and the ways in which they terrorize abortion providers and clinic staff.

The recent buzz began 2 weeks ago when Rachel Maddow announced that she would be airing a documentary on Mon Oct 26, "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller." In the same week she announced this, it came to light that a grand jury was questioning associates of Scott Roeder, who is serving life in prison for Tiller's murder. The grand jury is investigating whether or not Roeder acted as part of a conspiracy, a subject which has been explored previously in the Ms. Magazine piece from the Spring 2010 issue, "Not a Lone Wolf," by Amanda Robb.

Following the airing of Maddow's documentary this past Monday, Katie Couric pointed her focus towards the ongoing harassment of abortion providers during the CBS Evening News (video). Highlighted in both the Maddow and the Couric videos is the fact that WANTED posters have preceded the murder and violent attacks of dozens of clinics, including the 1993 shooting of Dr. Tiller.

Common in the early 1990's, posters have begun to resurface in Charlotte, NC, where earlier this year, Feminist Majority Foundation's National Clinic Access Project helped defend clinics from Operation Save America's annual clinic siege.

While we ultimately wish that women could receive care peacefully from doctors who did not fear for their safety on a daily basis, we are grateful for Maddow and Couric's national coverage of this issue, exposing what is happening every day at clinics across the country.

What you can do to keep clinics in your area safe and open:

• Adopt-a-Clinic! Contact us to see what clinics in your area are in need of volunteers, escorts, and defenders.
• Thank a provider! Send your local clinic a thank you card to remind them that there are people who appreciate their work and their bravery.
• Keep an eye out for warning signs of clinic violence. If you see WANTED posters and protests in your area, report this to your local law enforcement agencies and/or Feminist Majority Foundation. This kind of activity too often has preceded violent attacks of clinics.
  

Clinic Defense & Campus Organizing - A Natural Partnership

Bonjour Campus Choices! Meghan here, and this is my first of many posts as the newest member of Choices Campus Leadership Program’s team of National Campus Organizers. Although new to this position, I am no stranger to the dangers of clinic harassment and violence, or FMF’s work to assist in defending clinics against it.

This July, I joined FMF as a volunteer to keep the clinics of Charlotte, NC safe from the harassment of Operation Save America’s (OSA) annual clinic siege. If you’ve ever seen your average weekend “sidewalk counselor” protests outside a clinic, take that image and quadruple it. Meditate for a moment for sanity’s sake, and then double it again, totally approximately 250 anti-choice harassers.

As a part the National Clinic Access Project, FMF brought in volunteers from miles and miles away to combat the extreme tactics of OSA, which included posting WANTED posters of the brave and committed abortion providers who staff the Charlotte clinics, holding up oversized posters which featured graphic and medically inaccurate images of dead babies, blocking driveways, and using an amplifier to preach hate to the patients, staff and pro-choice volunteers.

Although there were three clinics that were targeted by OSA, Family Reproductive Health requested a presence of pro-choice clinic defenders throughout the week and we spent the majority of our time there. I had never seen anything like what I saw in Charlotte, and it is hard to articulate how sad and infuriating it was to see the way these self-proclaimed intolerant people would attack women who were simply trying to receive basic reproductive health care.

I would, without a doubt, just as soon favor every woman in America have safe and free access to reproductive health services, but what surprised me most was how much I enjoyed my time in Charlotte. Banding together with dozens of passionate and committed pro-choice volunteers, FMF staff, students from UNCC Feminist Union, and Charlotte Pro-Choice Coalition members to keep FRH and the other Charlotte clinics safe and protected by our efforts – including clinic defense, counter-protesting, legal observation and close contact with law enforcement – was inspiring, to say the least.

On the last day of the clinic siege, we managed to rally over 75 clinic defenders in the wee hours of the morning so that when OSA arrived to set up their Harassment HQ, they promptly turned their vans around and drove away. According to the fantastic clinic staff, it was the first Saturday without harassment and protest in the 8 years the clinic had been open.

Luckily, it is not every Saturday that OSA brings hundreds of people from all over the country to target a clinic, but virtually every day of the year there is some form of harassment outside of hundreds of clinics across the US. Get involved to help keep these clinics safe by joining in our Adopt-a-Clinic Campaign. There are so many ways you can help keep your clinic safe and open. Vocal pro-choice support can keep patients safe when entering the clinic, help maintain law enforcements attention to this issue, and show clinics that their hard work is appreciated and important.

This blog post is part of the October eZine. To receive our monthly eZine, click here.

Book Review - Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism (Baird-Windle)

Cross-posted at Ode to Patriarchy

So as part of my work on the National Clinic Access Project was reading up on the history of violence against abortion providers, clinics, staff, and patients. The book I was given was Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism by Patricia Baird-Windle and Eleanor J. Bader. Starting in the 1960's and tracking up until the book was published in 2001, Targets of Hatred recounts the major events regarding clinic violence and harassment (wins and losses).

While most people know or remember individual events, few are aware of the massive amounts of simultaneous battering that clinics faced. From stalking charges, to bombings, to cancelled insurance policies, to legislative losses and of course death threats, murder attempts, and murders clinics and their employees were denied refuge where ever they went. Many burned out after the threats increased in fury and hatred.

One of the most important messages from this book is that cooperating law enforcement is absolutely essential to a clinic's safety. Clinics that had a positive relationship with impartial local law enforcement that enforced injunctions against the antis who violated them had less violent activity from protestors and/or were able to recover more quickly from attacks. On the other hand, lazy, biased and involved reactions from law enforcement only served to encourage illegal activities by antis. Even though the police are there to enforce the law, doesn't mean they always do.

But by far, the best aspect of this book for me was the personal accounts of those affected. It's one thing to hear that two people died in a clinic shooting, it's another to read someone's story of actually being there when it happened. They have accounts of day to day death threats, worries concerns, fears, and victories. There's a lot of talk about what clinics and providers need, but not always do you directly from those affected. It's no longer just a part of abortion history, it's real life.

The book was published in 2001, and since then there have obviously been a few big updates needed. Kopp was convicted in 2003, Dr. George Tiller was murdered, the Stupak Amendment was included in HCR, and state-by-state, limitations to access abortion have become rampant. As a third wave/radical/difference feminists, we have to educate ourselves on what our history is and what's happening now. You can follow the escalating violence in the novel; it's no surprise that we are where we are today with another murder and restricted access.

We also have to be the front-runners in approaching clinic violence for what it really is: terrorism working in terrorist cells. Not every protestor is part of the terrorist network, many do not condone violence against providers as a way to stop abortion. However, the proof is there. We're not just talking clinic blockades (which violate FACE), we're talking FIREBOMBS, EXPLOSIVES, SHRAPNEL BOMBS, and SNIPER EXECUTIONS. If we're supposedly fighting a war on terror, why aren't we investigating the Army of God which has a MANUAL ON HOW TO ATTACK CLINICS AND THE PROVIDERS, and has also been connected to the murderer James Kopp (Dr. Slepian 1998), Scott Roeder (Dr. Tiller 2009) and numerous attempted murders, firebombs, and acid attacks? That many of the people connected to it are advocates for "justifiable homicide" against providers, clinic administrators, and pretty much anyone associated with a clinic? How is any of it different from a terrorist cell?

Because we, as a nation, choose not to treat it as such.

--
Photo-credit: MacMillan, also where you can purchase the book - http://us.macmillan.com/targetsofhatred

One Year Later

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a year since the world lost Dr. George Tiller. Just writing that sentence makes my heart hurt--one year later and I still can't think about Dr. Tiller without shaking a little bit, without having to stop and catch my breath for a moment.

On May 31, 2009, Dr. Tiller went to church, like he did every Sunday. Most of the time, Dr. Tiller traveled with a bodyguard, a necessity thanks to the anti-choice extremists who stalked him and his family, the constant death threats, and the previous attempts on his life. But that Sunday morning, Dr. Tiller was without a bodyguard as he served as an usher and welcomed other congregants to the service. It was there, in the lobby of his church, his sanctuary, that Dr. Tiller was assassinated, murdered in cold blood by an anti-choice extremist. It was an act of violence, it was an act of hate, it was an act of terrorism.

It's tempting to write more about that terrorism, about the network of anti-choice extremists who perpetuate acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation every day. But I don't want this to be about Operation Rescue or Scott Roeder or Shelley Shannon (though you can learn more about them here).

This is about Dr. George Tiller.

Dr. Tiller was a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who spent a week at Disney World with his family just weeks before his murder.

Dr. Tiller was the leader of an embattled clinic, rallying his staff with his trademark catchphrases, among them "Trust Women," "Attitude is Everything," and my personal favorite: "When the going gets tough, the tough go to Dairy Queen." When anti-choice terrorists bombed his clinic in 1986, he responded by posting a sign in front of the clinic: "Hell no, we won't go!" He believed deeply in his work, and refused to be intimidated by the hordes of protesters who stood outside his clinic and house every day.

Dr. Tiller was a healer and a caring physician. True to his motto, he trusted the women who visited his clinic to make their own reproductive health choices. Some of the women he saw were in the final months of their pregnancies, forced to make a choice few of us can even fathom. Women who discovered their unborn children had severe birth defects and would soon die in the womb. Women who would risk their own lives by carrying their pregnancies to term. Children who had no idea they were pregnant until late into term because they were too young to understand the rhythms of their bodies yet. Rape survivors facing serious psychological issues. He offered these women a path to healing. He provided abortions to them when no one else could, gave them the compassionate and competent care that they deserved.

I can't help but consider these women every time I think about the life of Dr. Tiller. Then I think about his courage, his sense of humor, his stubbornness, and his extraordinary heart.

The world is a colder place without Dr. George Tiller. I never realized how much one could miss a person she had never met until we lost Dr. Tiller. I'm not normally the praying kind, but I think about Dr. Tiller and whisper into the ether: Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are missed.

40 days for life is back at it again

Hello feminist activists,

As an FMF intern and Cal State LA FMLA member, I’m back blogging about a crucial issue that is near and dear to my heart. Anti-choice organizers are at it again – as its kick-off campaign for 2010, 40daysfor(so-called) life fanatics are harassing women out in front of local comprehensive women’s health and Planned Parenthood clinics from February 16 – March 28th. And these anti-abortion zealots are targeting womyn’s health care providers in 167 cities across the country. For a complete list of the clinics they are harassing with protest, you may visit their anti-abortion website here: http://www.40daysforlife.com/location.cfm. (Please note: this is an anti-choice website.)

This campaign of fear and intimidation makes it all the more important for us as students to develop meaningful relationships with comprehensive womyn’s health care providers in our communities. If you haven’t yet, now is the time to find out who your providers are and to reach out to help them and offer to help.

Because many anti-abortion protesters like to demean and harass every and any person looking to enter a womyn’s health center, a positive, safe, pro-choice presence outside targeted clinics can help support patients and clinic employees. I have seen these people in action firsthand as a pro-choice advocate, activist and clinic defender. Their actions against womyn’s clinics and the patients they serve are outrageous. This is why we as students need to step up and out to protect and support our local clinics. And this is why the FMF’s Choices Campus Leadership Program is launching its new Adopt-A- Clinic Program.

It is equally important to work with your clinic in the ways they want your help – whether they need help with clinic escorting, legal observing, or if they simply need more clinic volunteers.
I hope all you this month will take it upon yourselves to each out to your local womyn’s health clinics and offer to help where it is needed. Especially since March 10th is National Abortion Providers Appreciation Day! Help stop anti-abortion harassment and defend our right to choose. We should always remember to trust womyn and their bodies!

Frank Perez, FMF CHOICES intern

Justice Served

Thirty seven minutes. That is how long a jury deliberated the charges against Scott Roeder, 51, in the murder of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in Wichita, Kansas. After five days of testimony it ended with one sentence: "In the state of Kansas versus Scott Roeder, 2009-CR-1462, we the jury find the defendant, Scott Roeder, guilty of the crime of first-degree murder."

Roeder was also found guilty of two counts of aggravated assault and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years (prosecutors are seeking the "hard 50" which would make him ineligible for parole for 50 years). The facts of the case were never disputed. Roeder admitted on the stand that on May 31, 2009 he approached Dr. Tiller, who was serving as an usher in his church, placed the gun to his head and shot him. While fleeing the church Roeder threatened two additional church members with his gun before driving away.

But the events of that Sunday were not by chance. Jurors learned of the years of calculated plotting and surveillance by Scott Roeder. While "sidewalk counseling" patients of Dr. Tiller's clinic (including sending them to the nearby crisis pregnancy center) he monitored the patterns and security measures of Dr. Tiller. On the stand, Roeder admitted to considering other ways of killing Dr. Tiller, including a sniper shooting, cutting off his hands, and a car accident, but none of them would guarantee his death. And that had to be certain.

His decision to kill Dr. Tiller in his church was his only possible window of opportunity to ensure his plan would succeed. Frequently protesting outside of the church, Roeder attended services to learn the lay out and exits. He planned to kill Dr. Tiller the weekend before but he was not in attendance. Dr. Tiller, a father and grandfather, was at Disneyland with his family.

Roeder's testimony also detailed what we have always known to be true: that he did not act alone. He regularly visited Shelly Shannon, who shot Dr. Tiller in both hands in 1993, in jail and received information, including Tiller's home address, from organizations like Operation Rescue. A pan of the courtroom audience was a who's who of anti-abortion extremists. Individuals who have been convicted of clinic arsons, authors of the Army of God manual, and signers of the justifiable homicide petition sat in the courtroom every day.

Roeder, whose life was detailed in an extensive piece in GQ magazine, distrusted the government and had little income. So how did he find the money for the murder weapon, his frequent hotel stays, gas, or even the pizza he ate just minutes after assassinating Dr. Tiller? From other anti-abortion extremists.

The Feminist Majority Foundation has called on the Department of Justice to fully investigate the connections of Scott Roeder and the very realy threats they pose to doctors across the country. “We can only hope that the network will be dismantled, and until it’s dismantled, we’re waiting for the next murder,” stated Kathy Spillar, Exectuive Vice President of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Just days after the conviction of Scott Roeder, Shelly Shannon released a statement from prison issuing a warning that abortion providers will "continue to be stopped." In an interview with the Associated Press before his trial Roeder also warned of "many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal."

Dr. Tiller faced these attacks of harrassment, stalking, and violence for years. He was known to wear a bullet proof vest, drive an armored vehicle and lived in a gated community. He routinely changed his patterns and had personal security guards. His clinic was routinely attacked and was equipped with bullet proof glass and metal detectors. All this, just to perform a legal medical procedure.

But we all know that abortion is more than just another medical procedure. Abortion providers like Dr. Tiller save the lives of women. They trust women. And that trust is the thing that scares men like Scott Roeder the most. Today many clinics are currently under attack and we must continue to stay vigilant in the fight against clinic violence and ensure that our law enforcement agencies enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). Dr. Tiller was a champion for women and his legacy lives on in every activist who writes a thank you note to their local clinic, becomes trained as a clinic escort, donates to an organization that supports safe access to abortion, and chooses to go to medical school and become an abortion provider. We all must remember the power of collective action to stand up for justice.

This article was featured in our February 2010 monthly Choices eZine. Sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date with the latest feminist news and to receive the monthly eZine.

Get on board for FMF's national conference!

Registration for FMF's 6th annual National Young Feminist Leadership Conference is now open! Join us March 20-22 to network and share feminist organizing strategies with hundreds of activists, including top feminist leaders in advocacy organizations, universities, public office, and more.

We’ll be focusing on domestic and global repro rights and health, anti-abortion harassment and violence, gender-based violence, the legislative process, and other critical topics at this 2-day conference. Then join us Monday 3/22 for our Congressional Day of Action and tell your members of Congress what issues are important to you!

Early bird registration for both the conference and day of action is only $15 through Feb. 1 so act fast! Group discounts are also available. Prices go up to $25/person after 2/1.

For more info, check out the conference site and Facebook event. The Facebook page also has a room and ride board if you want to save on travel and lodging costs. If you have any questions, email our DC campus organizers at campusteam (at) feminist (dot) org or call 703-522-2214.

NY Law Passed to Protect Reproductive Healthcare Workers

New York Governor David Paterson signed the Protections for Reproductive Health Care Act last week that will help protect those who work in reproductive health. The new law (see PDF) increases penalties for criminal activities that target healthcare providers and also expands protections to include volunteers for the first time as well as paid employees of women's health clinics.

The bill, first introduced in June by Assembly member Sam Hoyt (D-114) following the murder of Dr. George Tiller, creates new class E and C felonies for causing physical or serious physical injury to "someone obtaining, providing, or assisting someone to obtain or provide reproductive health services." It also attempts to effectively punish repeat offenders.

"Given the history of violence committed against patients and employees of women's health clinics across the United States and in New York State, establishment of these new offenses is appropriate," Governor Paterson said in a press release regarding the signing of the new law. "I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to quality, affordable health care in a safe environment."

Lynne Slepian, widow of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was murdered by sniper James Kopp at his home in 1998, spoke at a news conference on the enactment of the new law. She said that the new law is "going to set a precedent for the whole country, we hope. The issue [of clinic violence] is not going to go away. The issue will never go away. Hopefully, strong penalties will decrease the violence," reported the Buffalo News.

Source: Feminist News

Image Credit: .Laura. on flickr.com