The Other Terrorism

Daily Kos published a great piece on anti-abortion extremism and violence, called "The Other Terrorism". While you may be familiar with anti-abortion activities, extremism and violence - whether you've been following the trial of Scott Roeder for the murder of women's health care provider Dr. George Tiller, or have had to push your way through protesters when trying to get birth control at your local clinic, or have even seen anti-abortion displays on your campus - you may not have considered the anti-abortion movement's link to terrorism.

Yes, terrorism. No, not international terrorism, or Islamic terrorism - not the type of terrorism our politicians, news pundits and society just can't talk enough about. I'm talking about domestic terrorism.

To paraphrase, the term "domestic terrorism" encompasses activities that violate U.S. criminal law and intend to coerce or intimidate a population or change policy or law through coercion and intimidation.

The Daily Kos article critically examines the activities associated with the anti-abortion movement: from misinformation, propaganda and scare tactics, to death threats, bombings and murders. It all seems to fit the mold. So why don't we talk about anti-abortion extremism in terms of the terrorist network that it is?

The article reads:

"...the violence is condemned, but always with the qualification that these are 'difficult issues.'

What's so difficult? What makes this kind of terrorism different from the terrorism some think we can't talk about enough? When discussing international terrorism or "Islamic" terrorism, there is no equivocation. There is no acknowledgment of the "difficulty" of the issue. There is no consideration for the different "sides" and "feelings" in this "debate." You want to affect policy by killing and terrorizing people? You're a terrorist.

But if you want to affect abortion policy by killing and terrorizing people? Well, then, the most blatant acts of violence are to be condemned, of course, but always with the caveat that it's complicated."

I highly recommend reading "The Other Terrorism" and giving it some thought. In the days to come, with the trial of Scott Roeder for the murder of Dr. George Tiller underway you can expect to read a lot more on this topic here and at www.feminist.org.

Msg from Ellie Smeal: Dr. Carhart needs your help!

Operation Rescue of Wichita, Kansas, has a new target: Dr. Leroy Carhart and his clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska.

Dr. Carhart had traveled to Wichita each month to work with Dr. Tiller, who was murdered in May. Dr. Carhart needs our help now. The situation is urgent.

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue has announced a new multi-group campaign called "Keep it Closed," which 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 is initiating targeted demonstrations and so-called "street counseling" in Omaha and at Carhart's Bellevue clinic August 28-29.

We must do all we can to keep Dr. Carhart and his staff safe and his clinic safe and open.

You can help Dr. Carhart and his embattled clinic by making an emergency, tax-deductible contribution today. Half of your contribution will go directly to Dr. Carhart's clinic to defray the increased legal and skyrocketing security costs - a new metal detector to screen everyone entering the clinic, more security cameras, and other enhanced security measures.

And the other half of your emergency contribution will support our efforts to help keep this clinic and other targeted and embattled clinics nationwide safe and open. Since Dr. Tiller's murder, hostile activities towards clinics are increasing in more than 10 states against abortion providers.

We are working closely with Dr. Carhart, his clinic staff, federal and local law enforcement, and pro-choice community volunteers to prepare for the Operation Rescue-led demonstrations.

Escalating activities targeting Dr. Carhart and his staff eerily resemble the harassment of Dr. Tiller. Operation Rescue has posted photos of Dr. Carhart on their website and has submitted a formal request to Nebraska's Attorney General to investigate Dr. Carhart on many of the same allegations previously used to investigate Dr. Tiller.

Dr. Carhart needs our help. Without clinics, there can be no choice for women. Please make a special tax-deductible emergency contribution now.

Together, we can make a difference.

For Women's Lives,

Eleanor Smeal
President

P.S. Dr. Carhart needs our help now. Keep this doctor and his staff safe and his clinic open - and help clinics nationwide.

2004 Rolling Stone article details campaign against Tiller

Rolling Stone Magazine published an article in 2004, entitled The Anti-Abortion Campaign Against Dr. George Tiller which displayed the daily work of members of Operation Rescue in Wichita, Kansas. From activities such as stalking clinic employees to their homes, to digging through their trash to find information about past patients, the article describes head of Operation Rescue Troy Newman as stopping at nothing to get his anti-choice point across. Newman, who moved his entire family to Wichita (so that he could harass Tiller on a more personal note), spent his free time while not harassing clinic employees threatening local business owners to stop serving Dr. Tiller, or face the risk of losing business.

In a town where seven out of ten residents are anti-choice, such blackmail could truly damage a business. The article describes how Newman’s supposed “successful” boycott of cab companies prevented many women from being able to access the clinic. In response, Tiller’s clinic had to start a shuttle service to pick up women up. I believe that Operation Rescue does not realize that as much as they harass the clinic, women still need the services that the clinic provides, thus they will continue going.

I think that perhaps one of Operation Rescue’s lowest blows is the use of helpless children to scare clinic employees. The article explain how Rescue’s team told children that Dr. Tiller and his staff were “baby-killers,” and pleaded with children to knock on the doors of clinic employees and kindly ask them to consider changing occupations. Taking advantage of children who probably still think that babies come from storks is incomprehensible.

However, the most chilling message through the article was Newman’s statement that “‘Wichita isn't big enough for George Tiller and me,’ [he] declared in a full-page ad he took out in a Catholic paper called The Wanderer.” While this Rolling Stone article was written half a decade ago, it is horrifying that this article remains relevant, and that Operation Rescue continues to threaten the lives of clinic employees on a daily basis.

The very real anti-choice terrorist threat

There has been some debate in the wake of the Tiller assassination about free speech, and many are questioning whether the murderer was acting as a "lone wolf" or as a member of a larger terrorist network.

On The Rachel Maddow Show last week, GW constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley argued that Scott Roeder is not a terrorist but rather one crazy guy "at war with the world."



I strongly disagree with Turley's assessment of the situation. Roeder is not a loner, but an active member of the anti-choice movement. People underestimate the sophistication of the anti-choicers, evidenced by this astounding manual Amanda Marcotte of RH Reality Check brought to light last week. While four bumbling ex-cons who can't even tell they bought fake bombs are given the "terrorist" label (a categorization with which I agree) quickly and without question by law enforcement and the media, there is resistance to acknowledging the very real threat of the anti-choice movement.

Anti-choice groups have realized that the right to choose is constitutionally sound and that it is difficult to overturn Roe v. Wade through legal means, as they have been trying to do for thirty-six years. Instead, they use terror to scare abortion providers and limit the procedure's availability to women. The news has reminded us time and time again this past week that Dr. Tiller was one of the few physicians in the country who performed late abortions. The implication is that low number is due to a moral choice, when in reality so few doctors are willing to put themselves in that risky position, a choice for which I do not blame them. Dr. Tiller faced an assassination attempt in the 90s, multiple threats against himself, his family, and staff, acts of vandalism at his clinic, and millions of dollars in legal fees before his tragic murder. Those working against him were not exercising their right to free speech--they were terrorizing him, his loved ones, staff, and the women he helped everyday.

We are not dealing with people carrying a couple of "choose life" placards and rosary beads. This article from the New York Times describes the typical scene at Dr. Tiller's clinic:

"trucks bearing enormous images of bloody fetuses, the signs offering the home addresses of clinic workers, the crowd of protesters yelling to women as they enter."

They are all gone now, as the clinic remains shuttered, its future uncertain. Sadly, the future of the thousands of women Dr. Tiller served is also uncertain. They are the other victims of this terrorist act.

Dr. Carhart fights back

Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a late abortion provider and a colleague of Dr. George Tiller, posted a compelling call to action on the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice website. Carhart has twice brought cases before the Supreme Court, challenging the late abortion laws in Nebraska. The cases are Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) and Gonzales v. Carhart (2007).

Statement of Dr. LeRoy Carhart
Dr. Carhart is a member of the RCRC Board of Directors

With the senseless murder of Dr. George Tiller, we have lost a champion of women’s rights, a talented caring physician, a devoted Christian, a loving husband, a father of four, a grandfather of eight and one of my family’s best friends.

1. I cannot and am not here to speak for “Womens Health Care Services” or “Dr G.R. Tiller, P.A.” These are individual corporate entities that are owned by the Tiller family and their spokesperson is attorney Dan Monnat of Wichita, KS.

I am here to speak for the Doctors: Shelly Sella, Susan Robinson and myself to reassure the women of the United States, and the rest of the world, that those in need of abortion through the advanced stages of pregnancy will continue to be able to receive the same safe, legal care based upon TEAM TILLER’s concept of “Kindness, Courtesy, Justice, Love and Respect” that they so deeply deserve.

We along with the staff of TEAM TILLER are committed to providing the same care we have been providing for the past 4 years. Dr. Tiller believed and has taught each of our team that “Abortion is not a cerebral or a reproductive issue. Abortion is a matter of the heart: for until one understands the heart of a women, nothing else about abortion makes any sense at all.”

2. It is time to condemn those who commit violent acts against abortion providers, and those who support and incite these violent acts, the radical religious right fundamentalist terrorists, as domestic terrorists. It is time to demand that these activities be added to the list of hate crimes, and that the perpetrators be prosecuted for hate crimes.

a. Is it any different to plant white crosses in front of a clinic or a clinic workers residence than it is to place one in the front yard of a minority member?

b. Is it any different to call a clinic worker a “murderer” or to use other slur words than it is to bully a child because he’s different, or to shout racial slurs at an individual because of their race or sexual orientation?

c. Is it any different to invade a house of God and murder a worshiper because of his religious beliefs than it is to drag someone from their home in the middle of the night and murder them by lynching because of the color of their skin?

The threat implied by these acts and the fear they cause is equal to similar hate crimes carried out based on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Abortion militants deserve the same condemnation and punishment.

To support abortion is a moral choice, to support abortion is a religious choice, to support abortion is a legal choice. To use violent means in order to deny anyone this right goes against the core values that America stands for.

Why do you allow these terrorists that dedicate their lives to deny rights, and that support murder of physicians and medical workers, the right to be identified as “pro-life”. They are certainly not.

3. It is time to chastise and, if necessary, replace local, city and state legislators that openly support hate crimes and terrorists. Every time a member of a government agency, looks the other way when any “illegal” activity is reported, they enable, perhaps even encourage the escalation of, further illegal activity.

There is a difference between “freedom of speech” and bullying and harassment. There is a difference between civil disobedience and terrorism. There is a difference between protesting and forced invasions.

In the past 22 years in Nebraska over 80,000 women have chosen abortion when faced with an unwanted pregnancy. Since Roe v Wade over 46 million American women have chosen abortion. Virtually every one comes with one or more supporters of their choice.

It is time for these women to come forward and demand that their elected officials enforce the laws on the books that protect us all from hate crimes, and if these officials don’t openly respect your rights to choose abortion, you have the power to vote them out of office.