Abortion-related violence

Abortion-related violence is criminal violence committed against individuals and organizations that provide abortion. Incidents of violence have ranged from the destruction of property, in the form of vandalism, arson, and bombings, to kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder. The most recent act was an arson at an abortion clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia on May 9, 2007.

This type of violence has also been documented as occurring in Australia and Canada. G. Davidson Smith of Canadian Security Intelligence Service defined abortion-related violence as "single issue terrorism".

Anti-abortion violence
Anti-abortion violence is aggression specifically visited upon people who or places which provide abortion. Such incidences range from the vandalism, arson, and bombings of abortion clinics, as committed by Eric Rudolph, to the murders or attempted murders of physicians and clinic staff, as committed by James Kopp and Peter James Knight.

A small fraction of those opposed to abortion have sometimes resorted to very public demonstrations of violence in an effort to achieve their objective of curbing the termination of pregnancy. Those who engage in or support such actions defend the use of force — as justifiable homicide or defense of others — in interest of protecting the life of the fetus.

Murder
In the U.S., violence directed toward abortion providers has killed 7 people, including 3 doctors, 2 clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort.
 * March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of the year before. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Dr. Gunn's murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
 * June 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot outside of another facility in Pensacola. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.
 * December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in a clinic attack in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International, was arrested and confessed to the killings. He committed suicide in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.
 * January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama died when his workplace was bombed. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.
 * October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot dead at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York state which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian's murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001.

A fourth doctor, George Patterson, was shot in Mobile, Alabama on August 21, 1993, but it is uncertain whether his death was the direct result of his profession or rather a robbery.

Attempted murder, assault, and threats
According to statistics gathered by the the National Abortion Federation (NAF), an organization of abortion providers, since 1977 in the United States and Canada, there have been 17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidences of assault or battery, and 3 kidnappings committed against abortion providers. The attempted murders were:
 * August 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot outside of an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Shelley Shannon was charged with the crime and received an 11-year prison sentence.
 * June 29, 1994: June Barret was shot in the same attack which claimed the lives of James Barrett, her husband, and Dr. John Britton.
 * December 30, 1994: Five individuals were wounded in the same-day shootings which killed Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols.
 * December 18, 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second-degree attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years.
 * October 28, 1997: A physician whose name has not been revealed was shot in his home in Rochester, New York.
 * January 29, 1998: Emily Lyons, a nurse, was severely injured in the bombing which also killed Robert Sanderson.
 * September 11, 2006 David McMenemy attempted a suicide bombing of a women's clinic in Davenport, Iowa after scouting targets throughout the Midwest. It was later revealed that the targeted clinic did not perform or make referrals for abortions.

Anthrax threats
The first letters claiming to contain anthrax were mailed to U.S. clinics in October 1998, a few days after the Slepian shooting, and since then, there have been a total of 655 such bioterror threats made against abortion providers. None of the "anthrax" in these cases was real.
 * November 2001: After the genuine 2001 anthrax attacks, Clayton Waagner mailed hoax letters containing a white powder to 554 clinics. Waagner was convicted of 51 charges relating to the anthrax scare on December 3, 2003.

Arson, bombing, and property crime
According to NAF, since 1977 in the United States and Canada, property crimes committed against abortion providers have included 41 bombings, 173 arsons, 91 attempted bombings or arsons, 619 bomb threats, 1630 incidences of trespassing, 1264 incidences of vandalism, and 100 attacks with butyric acid ("stink bombs"). The first clinic arson occurred in Oregon in March 1976 and the first bombing occurred in February 1978 in Ohio. More recent incidents have included:
 * October 1999: Martin Uphoff set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, causing US$100 worth of damage. He was later sentenced to 60 months in prison.
 * May 28, 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire on resulted in damage estimated at US$20,000.
 * October 1, 2000: A Catholic priest drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being shot at by a security guard.
 * June 11, 2001: A bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington on destroyed a wall, resulting in US$6000 in damages
 * July 4, 2005: A clinic Palm Beach, Florida was the target of an arson.
 * December 12, 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison, and Dunahoe to one year.
 * April 25, 2007: A package left at a women's health clinic in Austin, Texas contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device.
 * May 9, 2007 An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Attempted murder
Violence has also occurred in Canada, where three doctors have been attacked to date. There is speculation that the timing of the shootings is related to the Canadian observance of Remembrance Day. The physicians were part of pattern of attacks, which targeted providers in Canada and upstate New York, including Dr. Barnett Slepian. All victims were shot in their homes with a rifle, at dusk, in late October or early November. James Kopp was charged with the murder of Dr. Slepian and the attempted murder of Dr. Short; he is suspected of having committed the other shootings as well.


 * November 8, 1994: Dr. Garson Romalis of Vancouver, British Columbia was shot.
 * November 10, 1995: Dr. Hugh Short of Ancaster, Ontario was shot.
 * November 11, 1997: Dr. Jack Fainman of Winnipeg, Manitoba was shot.
 * July 11, 2000: Dr. Romalis was stabbed by an unindentified assailant in the lobby of his clinic.

Bombing and property damage

 * February 25, 1990: Two men broke into a clinic in Vancouver and destroyed $C30,000 worth of medical equipment with crowbars.
 * May 18, 1992: A Toronto, Ontario clinic operated by Henry Morgentaler was firebombed, causing the entire front wall of the building to collapse.

Incident in Australia

 * July 16, 2001: Steven Rogers, a security guard at a clinic in Melbourne, Australia was shot in the face and killed by Peter James Knight. Knight was charged and was sentenced to life in prison on November 19, 2002.

Support of anti-abortion violence
Some organisations in the United States which oppose abortion either explicitly or implicitly advocate violence against abortion providers in contrast with the majority of the pro-life movement. Two such organizations are The Army of God, an underground network of activists who believe that the use of violence is an appropriate tool for fighting against abortion, and the American Coalition of Life Activists, who published the Nuremberg Files.

The Nuremberg Files was a controversial anti-abortion web site which published the names, home addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal information of abortion providers – highlighting the names of those who had been wounded and striking out those of which had been killed. The site was accused of being a thinly-veiled hit list intended to incite violence; others claimed that it was protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision finally shut the site down in 2002 after a prolonged debate.

In August 1982, three men identifying as the Army of God kidnapped for eight days Hector Zevallos (a doctor and clinic owner) and his wife, Josalee Jean. In 1993, law enforcement officials found the Army of God Manual, a tactical guide to arson, chemical attacks, invasions, and bombings. The Army of God justified the actions of Paul Jennings Hill on the grounds that "whatever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child... if in fact Paul Hill did kill or wound abortionist John Britton, and accomplices James Barrett and Mrs. Barrett, his actions are morally justified if they were necessary for the purpose of defending innocent human life".

Pro-life reactions to anti-abortion violence
Nearly all mainstream pro-life organizations reject violence as a form of opposition to abortion. Advocates of force tend to be small groups or lone individuals. Pro-life activism generally consists of activism such as picketing, vigils, and "sidewalk counseling" outside abortion clinics. Some of these activities become so disruptive that some governments have responded with laws that protect access to abortion, particularly the creation of buffer zones where protesters are not permitted to approach those entering or exiting facilities providing abortion.

In response to incidents of anti-abortion violence, many groups in the pro-life movement have sought to isolate themselves from violent factions in a number of ways. Many pro-life advocates have vocally condemned violent actions against abortion providers as running contrary to the values and goals of the right-to-life cause.

Following the 1998 bombing of a clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, Feminists for Life offered a reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible. In 2001, Priests for Life, a group of pro-life Catholics in the United States, put in place a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of fugitives wanted in connection with violence against abortion providers. The American Life League issued a "Pro-life Proclamation Against Violence" in 2006. Other pro-life groups to take a stand against violence include Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and Pro-Lifers Against Clinic Violence.

Speakers on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church have stated that Catholic doctrine describes violent acts as being as equally detestable as war and abortion. The Church withdrew funding for two Canadian groups that had resorted to harassment of abortion providers.

Human Life International, a Catholic pro-life organization, argues that anti-abortion violence is relatively minor by citing instances of politically-motivated violence from other groups, such as labor unions, animal rights activists, and communists.

Pro-choice reactions to anti-abortion violence
Pro-choice organizations have responded to anti-abortion violence by lobbying to protect access to abortion clinics. The National Abortion Federation and the Feminist Majority Foundation collect statistics on incidents of anti-abortion violence. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was passed in 1994 to protect reproductive health service facilities and their staff and patients from violent threats, assault, vandalism, and blockade. State, provincial, and local governments have also passed similar laws designed to afford legal protection of access to abortion in the United States and Canada.

One form that this legislation can take is in the creation of a "buffer zone" around an abortion clinic or around the home of someone who works there; pro-life demonstration is limited to a specific distance from the building or prohibited altogether. In the U.S., three states — Colorado, Massachusetts, and Montana have passed "buffer zone" laws — and, in Canada, the province of British Columbia has enacted The Access to Abortion Services Act.

Pro-abortion violence
Human Life International (HLI), a Catholic pro-life group, publishes statistics on what they term "pro-abortion violence". Their figures include crimes which are both possibly political in motivation, such as an assassination plot against Catholic bishops opposing the legalization of abortion in Nicaragua, concocted by a supposed opponent of the bishops, as well as crimes not political in motivation, such as the murders of pregnant women who were murdered for reasons not directly related to the availability of abortion. Their figures also include cases of medical malpractice, and any crime committed by an abortion provider. HLI also double counts a homicide if more than one person was charged.

HLI concludes that there have been 360 "fatal botched abortions", 405 murders, 86 attempted murders, 23 arsons and firebombings (both successful and attempted), 787 incidents of assault and battery, 13 bomb threats, 351 death threats, and numerous incidents of vandalism and other illegal activities.

Human Life International also compares the number of murdered abortion doctors to all workplace homicides to suggest that the former is relatively minor: We’ve heard endless stories in the mainline media about “anti-choice violence” and an “organized campaign of terror and intimidation against reproductive health centers.” We have all heard about the seven murders committed by self-identified anti-abortionists during the time period 1994-1998. But to put this into perspective, according to the United States government, more janitors, bartenders, secretaries, hairdressers and cosmetologists have been killed on the job than abortionists. The most violent social movement of all time is so-called “pro-choice.” Not only have “pro-choicer's” [sic] killed tens of millions of innocent preborn babies in the name of convenience, they have murdered hundreds of men, women and children.

Literature

 * The Fourth Procedure, a 1995 novel by Stanley Pottinger, is a medical thriller and murder mystery that features abortion-related violence in its plot. Two men responsible for the bombing of an abortion clinic turn up dead with baby dolls surgically implanted inside of them.


 * Insomnia by Steven King has much of the plot focusing around violent pro-life campaigners and their opposition towards a pro-choice speech due to be held in their town. The group murders several women they believe to be seeking abortion and attempts to assassinate the speaker. They are motivated by a conspiracy theory that the speaker is part of secret society that was a continuation of Herod's Massacre of the Innocents.

Music

 * The song "Get Your Gunn" from Marilyn Manson's 1994 album Portrait of an American Family is about the killing of David Gunn.
 * The song "Hello Birmingham" from the 1999 album To The Teeth by Ani DiFranco was written in response to the bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, as well as the murder of Dr. Slepian in Amherst, New York (nearby to DiFranco's hometown of Buffalo).