Freedom Writer - March 1996

Clinic violence:the python of choice

By Anne Bower

Like a python surrounding its prey, violence at the 
nation's reproductive health clinics is choking the 
life out of legal abortion. It's been that way for 
years, and it will continue into the twenty-first century.

Since 1993, when Dr. Gunn was shot in the back outside 
a clinic in Pensacola, Florida, there have been five 
murders (assassinations, really) and twelve attempted 
murders at clinics which provide reproductive health 
care ranging from abortions to pap smears. 

While murder is a new tactic of the religious extremists 
attempting to impose their religious principles on 
the public, their mayhem goes way back.

The National Abortion Federation (NAF), an organization 
of doctors committed to education and improving abortion 
health care, has been keeping statistics on clinic 
violence for the past two decades. As early as 1977, 
just four years after the Roe v. Wade decision legalized 
abortion in all 50 states, there were signs of trouble. 
From 1977 to 1983 NAF recorded 149 incidents including 
bombing, arson, invasions, vandalism, and death threats. 


There was even a kidnapping. Dr. Zevalos and his wife 
were taken prisoner by a group calling itself the Army 
of God. After holding the couple for a week, they were 
released after the doctor agreed to cease providing 
abortion services. Don Benny Anderson, a soldier in 
that "army", was convicted and sentenced to 30 years 
in prison.

A few months after this trial, Justice Harry Blackmun, 
author of the Roe v. Wade decision, was sent a threatening 
letter, supposedly from the Army of God. In March 1985, 
a shot went through the Justice's window while he and 
his wife were watching television. No one was ever 
apprehended.

When people think of clinic violence, they often remember 
Operation Rescue (OR) and its blockades which swam 
into public consciousness during the 1988 Democratic 
convention in Atlanta. Lead by Randall Terry, founder 
of Operation Rescue, fanatics laid siege to clinics 
across the city and the nation. NAF statistics report 
182 blockades in that year with 11,732 arrests, including 
Terry who spent time in a Georgia work camp for his 
trouble.

The height of OR's power came in the summer of 1991 
with  the siege of Wichita, which lasted six weeks 
and resulted in almost 3,000 arrests. Dr. George Tiller, 
who operates one of the few late-term abortion facilities 
in the country, was the prime target of its attacks. 
(This distinction  almost cost Tiller his life in 1993.) 


However, by 1991, Randall Terry had relinquished control 
of OR to the Rev. Keith Tucci and over the next few 
years, the number of blockades and arrests diminished. 
Perhaps passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic 
Entrances Act (FACE), a law making it a federal crime 
to block clinics and threaten staff had some impact 
on OR's activities. With penalties of up to a year 
in jail and $10,000 fines, the era of blockades has 
subsided, but the violence is far from over.

When Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) 
was passed in 1994, the anti-choice community engaged 
in much wailing and gnashing of teeth claiming now 
that "peaceful" protests (i.e., preventing women from 
accessing health care) were outlawed, all that was 
left was fanaticism. National Abortion Federation statistics 
show that there never was a diminution of violence 
during the blockades, just an increase in harassment 
and disruption of service.

Of course, 1994 did have one outstanding characteristic 
— four murders. In July, the Rev. Paul Hill, a former 
Presbyterian minister and supporter of convicted murderer 
Michael Griffin, walked up to a car carrying Dr. Britton 
and his escorts, Col. Barrett and his wife June, and 
pumped fourteen shots into their vehicle, blowing the 
two men apart and wounding Mrs. Barrett. Rev. Hill 
was immediately apprehended, eventually tried, and 
sentenced to death in Florida's electric chair. 

This minister of death was the author of a petition 
claiming that the murder of Dr. Gunn was "justifiable" 
because the Bible teaches that it is permissible to 
take the life of one who threatens that of another, 
i.e., a doctor about to perform an abortion. Six months 
before these murders, Rev. Hill lovingly wrote of Phineas, 
who speared two fornicators in a tent. One can imagine 
the righteous images going through his twisted mind 
as he pumped shell after shell into the bodies of the 
two unarmed men.  

Then, at year's end, John Salvi III went on a killing 
spree in Massachusetts, which resulted in the death 
of clinic workers Shannon Lowney and Leanne Nichols, 
plus the wounding of five others. 

Were these murders the result of FACE being signed 
into law? Of course not! In 1993, five months after 
David Gunn was murdered, Shelley Shannon, a Grants 
Pass, Oregon housewife, decided that bombing and burning 
clinics was just not enough "good works" for her. Shannon, 
a great admirer of Michael Griffin, decided to take 
her training from the Army of God (AOG) manual (copies 
of which the police dug up in her backyard), to the 
final test and engage in what the AOG calls "u.d.r.," 
— ultimate direct rescue. She would kill a doctor. 
Her target was George Tiller.

Her attempted murder of Dr. Tiller was enough to end 
her career as a terrorist, and she was sent away for 
eleven years. Since then, Shannon has had 20 years 
added to her sentence for all the arson and bombings 
she engaged in during peaceful 1992 — before FACE. 


To the steady drumbeat of the old Operation Rescue 
motto, "if abortion is murder, then act like it's murder," 
anti-abortion fanatics have marched across the land 
for years. The most extreme have signed up for a hitch 
in the Army of God, proving their worth by attacking 
clinics and murdering providers, assured of their place 
in heaven as martyrs for the faith.

There will be no end to this madness in the foreseeable 
future. These fanatics have painted themselves into 
a corner from which there is no escape. In the name 
of God and their cause, they have justified everything 
— including homicide. Only vigilance by clinics, doctors, 
escorts, and law enforcement will prevent further mayhem.

_Anne_Bower_is_the_publisher_of_The_Body_Politic,_a_
monthly_magazine_focusing_on_pro-choice_issues._For_
more_information,_call_(607)_648-2760,_or_email_[ref001]annebower@delphi.com._

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