National NOW Times >> Spring 2010  >> Article

Anti-Abortion Terrorism Threatens Lives, Women's Rights

On April 1, Scott Roeder was sentenced to life in jail for the deliberate killing of Dr. George Tiller last year. Judge Warren Wilbert handed down the strictest sentence possible, ensuring that Roeder will not be eligible for parole for more than 50 years.

"George Tiller was a courageous, caring doctor who provided women with safe and legal abortions," said NOW President Terry O'Neill. "Because he was one of the few doctors in this country who performed late-term procedures, many of the women he treated were in desperate circumstances with no where else to turn."

In order to care for his patients, Tiller braved blockades, harassment, assault and countless threats, as well as a previous attempt on his life. After Tiller's murder last May, anti-choice extremists set their sights on Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who regularly drove to Kansas to assist at Tiller's clinic and who continues to provide late-term abortion care to women. In August, O'Neill traveled to Nebraska to help present a united front when Operation Rescue and other opponents of reproductive freedom descended upon Carhart's clinic.

"As we stand in peaceful support of women's rights in Nebraska, we know that every clinic in the United States is a potential target," said O'Neill. "I call on the Obama administration to respond to this threat using the strongest means possible."

For decades, NOW and the NOW Foundation have worked to stop the violence directed against abortion providers, clinic workers and their patients. The NOW v. Scheidler lawsuit charged that the self-described "pro-life mafia" was engaged in a nationwide criminal conspiracy to close clinics through extortion, violence and threats of violence. After 20 years of litigation, a final 2006 ruling by the Supreme Court favored the defendants, dismantling protections NOW had won.

Susan Hill, a clinic owner and key plaintiff in NOW v. Scheidler, who passed away earlier this year, said at the time of the ruling: "We cannot allow anti-abortion extremists to take this decision as a signal to once again increase violent activity aimed at clinics and clinic staff."

Three years after the ruling, we witness the first anti-abortion rights murder in more than a decade. While NOW is grateful that Roeder is behind bars, the issue of anti-choice violence is far greater than one man. There is no question that an organized network facilitates these acts. NOW calls upon the Justice Department and Homeland Security to investigate and prosecute the criminals, funders, co-conspirators and ringleaders of what rightly can be termed a campaign of terror.

Legislation at the state level also targets women's reproductive health needs. Nebraska has enacted a law prohibiting abortions past 20 weeks, a restriction the Beatrice Daily Sun says is aimed at driving Dr. Carhart out of business. The law rests in part upon the late-term abortion ban signed into law by George W. Bush in 2003 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007.

"Congress, state legislators, and the judiciary exert far too much control over women's access to the full range of reproductive health services," said O'Neill. "With a Supreme Court nomination and a mid-term election before us, it's critical that feminists get engaged. After all, we the people have the ultimate control -- at the polls."