VIOLENCE & HARASSMENT
AT U.S. ABORTION CLINICS

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Overview

Violent protests, in the form of arson, firebombing, and vandalism started in the early 1970's in the U.S. Then, as now, most of the violence appears to be the acts of religiously-motivated criminals acting alone. However, recent cases involving the assassination and attempted murder of abortion providers in both the U.S. and Canada have shown that perpetrators appear to be sheltered by a network of sympathizers.

In recent years, the term "anti-abortion" has been used to identify individuals and groups which employ violence and murder to attain their political ends. They are differentiated from the vastly larger "pro-life" movement which rejects violence against persons and property. Both the pro-life and anti-abortion movements are motivated by one concept: that human personhood begins at the instant of conception. From this principle, it naturally follows that a newly fertilized ovum, an embryo and a fetus are all human persons who should be granted the same rights, privileges and protections as a child or adult. Some view an abortion clinic as the ethical equivalent of a Nazi death camp.

The pro-choice movement generally teaches that the fetus becomes a human person later in gestation, when it loses its neck structures which resemble gill slits, when it loses its tail, when it begins to look human, is viable, is born, or at some other transition point between conception and birth. From this viewpoint, a woman's access to a safe and affordable early abortion is viewed as a human right.

Level of violence and harassment at abortion clinics

One source reported in late 1996, that there has been "over $13 million in damage caused by violent anti-abortion groups since 1982 in over 150 arson attacks, bombings, and shootings." ₁

The National Abortion Federation reports "Incidents of Violence and Disruption Against Abortion Providers" in the U.S. and Canada. ₃ Their data for the past 16 years is shown below. The number of incidents of picketing is also shown:

Notes:

1. Includes 554 Anthrax hoaxes.
2. Partial data for 2004, as of 2004-SEP-16.

The "Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994", the FACE law, was signed into law in 1994. First-time offenders can receive fines of $100,000 and jail sentences of up to one year. In 1994-JUL, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that federal marshals will provide protection to any abortion clinic requesting it. These actions seem to have had a sudden dampening effect on the number of blockades and the number of arrests at blockades. The anti-abortion movement seems to have changed tactics, and engaged in hate letters, harassing phone calls, bomb threats, etc. There has been a fairly steady rise in the number of incidents of picketing.

The RICO law, which was originally aimed at combating organized crime, has been used against organizers of abortion clinic blockades in the mid 1990's. More recently, RICO has been used against the Pro-Life Rescue League and Operation Rescue.

It is too early to reach a definite conclusion. However, data for the year 2004 may indicate a lessening of blockades, arson, harassment and other attacks on abortion clinics.

Multiple instances of anti-abortion violence in Florida:

Pensacola, FL: This city was a focal point for anti-abortion crime from mid 1984 to mid 1994: ₉

The "killing season" in Canada and northern New York state:

Late October and early November esd referred to as the "killing season" by some abortion-rights advocates. Abortion providers in northern New York state and Canada were attacked on five of the six years from 1994 to 1998:

All five were shot through a glass window or door at their homes. Rewards totaling $547,000 (about $365,000 in US funds) were offered by Canadian authorities for information leading to the conviction of the person(s) responsible. There is speculation that the timing of the shootings was tied to Remembrance Day, celebrated in Canada on NOV-11, and to Veteran's Day celebrated in the U.S. on the same day. This is the occasion when the country remembers its war dead. The shooter in each case used a rifle, and shot from the rear of the doctors' homes at dusk or in the evening. James Charles Kopp (a.k.a. Atomic Dog) was indicted in 1999-JUN for the murder of Dr. Slepian. He was on the FBI's "10 most wanted Fugitives" list for years until he was arrested in France and returned to the U.S. for trial. It is obvious that Kopp was helped to remain out of sight by an underground group. 

In 2003-MAY, James Kopp was given the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the Slepian murder. He claims that the death of Dr. Slepian was an accident; he only meant to injure or disable him. Some speculate that Kopp was also responsible for the other "killing season" attempted murders.

Other violence and harassment in Canada:

Long known for their love of peace and tranquility, Canadians have not been immune to the abortion controversies. In addition to the attempted murders cited above, there were other examples of violence and harassment:

During the late 1990's, two Canadian pro-life groups lost their charitable status with Revenue Canada, because of excessive political activity. The Roman Catholic church withdrew its funding of some pro-life groups after they started to cause disturbances in the neighborhoods of abortion providers. Attendance at abortion protests now fail to attract large numbers of supporters. They are reduced to the occasional candlelight vigil.

Bioterrorism scares:

Between 1998 and 2000, more than 80 letters which threatened Anthrax contamination were sent to U.S. clinics in 16 states. Anthrax is a potentially fatal bacteria if its spores are inhaled into the lungs. All of the letters turned out to be hoaxes.

Following the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington on 2001-SEP-11, similar Anthrax letters started appearing in political offices and news media in New York, Washington, and other cities. Some letters actually contained the deadly bacteria. In late October, abortion clinics in 13 states throughout the U.S. received about 150 letters marked "Time sensitive security information enclosed" with return addresses from law enforcement groups. They were mailed from five states. Inside was a powder and a death-threat letter allegedly signed by the "Army of God." That group allegedly advocates violence against abortion providers. Heather Herndon, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania said: "I absolutely believe it's the anti-choice extremists who are taking advantage of our national crisis." As of OCT-17, four letters had been given preliminary field tests and had been found to be hoaxes. ₁₃

Resolution to clinic violence:

Since there appears to be no possibility of compromise on abortion access, the conflict between pro-life and pro-choice groups in the U.S. will probably continue into the foreseeable future. This will inspire anti-abortion radicals to continue attacks on people and facilities.

It is to be noted that the essentially all pro-life groups are opposed to violence. Most groups that advocate violence tend to be small, often one person organizations. Perpetrators of violent crimes often work independently. The U.S. Justice Department has investigated attacks on clinics and has determined that no conspiracy is involved.

The American Life League has written a "Pro-life Proclamation Against Violence" which was endorsed by 31 other pro-life groups by 1999-MAR-13. ₁₀ Neither Rescue League nor Operation Rescue had signed on.

This essay continues below.

Web sites allegedly promoting violence

California leads nation in violence:

A report prepared by the California Senate showed that abortion clinics in that state were torched and bombed more than in any other state: 30 incidences out of 224 crimes nationwide. Most of the clinics responding reported threats, vandalism, assaults, blockades and other crimes from 1995 to 2000. 30% reported that their personnel was "stalked, harassed, threatened and otherwise targeted at their homes or in other places away from clinics and medical offices." Other states with large numbers of attacks are: Florida with 19, Texas with 14, New York with nine.

Related essay

References

1. "Anti-Abortion Violence Movement," Office of International Criminal Justice of the University of Illinois at Chicago at: http://www.acsp.uic.edu/
2. Feminist Majority Foundation and New Media Publishing, Inc collects and publishes data on the levels of violence at abortion clinics. See: http://www.feminist.org/
3. National Abortion Federation maintains extensive clinic violence statistics at:  http://www.prochoice.org/
4. Data on abortion clinic violence was extracted from: http://www.cais.net/
5. "Abortion battles move to the Net," USA Today, 1997-DEC-12.
6. Diane Lore, "Abortion foe reports anthrax threat," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1998-NOV-11.
7. "AMA Response to Nuremberg Files Leads to Post Abortionist Assassination Seminars  (PAAS)," The Creator's Rights Party, at: http://www.ama-assn.org/
8. Jeff Builta, "Anti-abortion violence movement increases," Office of International Criminal Justice, at: http://www.acsp.uic.edu/
9. Naral Fatchseets: "Clinic violence, intimidation and terrorism," at: http://www.naral.org/
10. The text of the Pro-life Proclamation Against Violence is at: http://www.all.org/ The list of agencies that support this proclamation is at: http://www.all.org/
11. "Planned Parenthood vs. American Coalition of Life Activists," at: http://www.lektrik.com/
12. Carol Ness, "Attacks on state abortion clinics most in nation," San Francisco Chronicle, at: http://www.sfgate.com/
13. Marie McCullough, "Anthrax letters to clinics hoaxes, early tests show," Philadelphia Inquirer, 2001-OCT-17 at: http://inq.philly.com/

Copyright © 1998 to 2004 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
Last update: 2004-NOV-09
Author: B.A. Robinson