Confronting Anti-Abortion Terrorism After 9/11
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Anti-Choice Violence and Intimidation
Anti-Choice Violence and Intimidation A campaign of violence, vandalism, and intimidation is endangering providers and patients and curtailing the availability of abortion services. Since 1993, eight clinic workers – including four doctors, two clinic employees, a clinic escort, and a security guard – have been murdered in the United States.1 Seventeen attempted murders have also occurred since 1991.2 In fact, opponents of choice have directed more than 6,400 reported acts of violence against abortion providers since 1977, including bombings, arsons, death threats, kidnappings, and assaults, as well as more than 175,000 reported acts of disruption, including bomb threats and harassing calls.3 The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) provides federal protection against the unlawful and often violent tactics used by abortion opponents. Peaceful picketing and protest is not prohibited and is explicitly and fully protected by the law.4 State clinic protection laws in 16 states and the District of Columbia, as well as general statutes prohibiting violence, provide additional protection.5 Although the frequency of some types of clinic violence declined after the 1994 enactment of FACE, violence at reproductive-health centers is far from being eradicated.6 Vigorous enforcement of clinic-protection laws against those who use violence and threats is essential to protecting the lives and well-being of women and health-care providers. Abortion Providers and Other Health Professionals Face the Threat of Murder MURDERS: Since 1993, eight people have been murdered for helping women exercise their constitutionally protected right to choose.7 . 2009: The Murder of Dr. George Tiller. -
Planned Parenthood V. American Coalition of Life Activists and the Need for a Reasonable Listener Standard
Touro Law Review Volume 29 Number 2 Article 13 October 2013 Speech as a Weapon: Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists and the Need for a Reasonable Listener Standard Alex J. Berkman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, First Amendment Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, Medical Jurisprudence Commons, and the Privacy Law Commons Recommended Citation Berkman, Alex J. (2013) "Speech as a Weapon: Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists and the Need for a Reasonable Listener Standard," Touro Law Review: Vol. 29 : No. 2 , Article 13. Available at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol29/iss2/13 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Touro Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Speech as a Weapon: Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists and the Need for a Reasonable Listener Standard Cover Page Footnote 29-2 This comment is available in Touro Law Review: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol29/iss2/13 Berkman: Speech as a Weapon SPEECH AS A WEAPON: PLANNED PARENTHOOD V. AMERICAN COALITION OF LIFE ACTIVISTS AND THE NEED FOR A REASONABLE LISTENER STANDARD Alex J. Berkman* ** I. INTRODUCTION On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed at his church in Kansas.1 Prior to his death, Dr. Tiller, one of the nation‘s only late-term abortion providers, was regularly targeted by anti- abortion extremist groups.2 Along with other physicians, Dr. -
A Remedy for Abortion Seekers Under the Invasion of Privacy Tort Rachel L
Brooklyn Law Review Volume 68 | Issue 1 Article 6 9-1-2002 A Remedy for Abortion Seekers Under the Invasion of Privacy Tort Rachel L. Braunstein Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr Recommended Citation Rachel L. Braunstein, A Remedy for Abortion Seekers Under the Invasion of Privacy Tort, 68 Brook. L. Rev. 309 (2002). Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol68/iss1/6 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brooklyn Law Review by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. NOTES A REMEDY FOR ABORTION SEEKERS UNDER THE INVASION OF PRIVACY TORT* INTRODUCTION The United States Supreme Court articulated the right to an abortion as a fundamental constitutional privacy right in Roe v. Wade.' The Court stated, "[t]his right of privacy, whether it be found in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action.., or... in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."2 The Court thus defined the constitutional privacy right encompassing abortion as a woman's right to be free from governmental interference in reproductive choice. In exercising this right, some abortion clinic clients, or "abortion seekers," have been photographed by anti-abortion protestors in the vicinity of clinics. Anti-abortion protestors have posted some of those photographs on the Internet. One such protestor, Neal Horsley, maintains a website on which he3 posts the names of abortion providers and clinic workers. -
How the Internet Has Changed Abortion Law, Policy, and Process
William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice Volume 8 (2001-2002) Issue 2 William & Mary Journal of Women and Article 4 the Law February 2002 Nat Effects: How the Internet Has Changed Abortion Law, Policy, and Process Kari Lou Frank Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons Repository Citation Kari Lou Frank, Nat Effects: How the Internet Has Changed Abortion Law, Policy, and Process, 8 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 311 (2002), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol8/iss2/4 Copyright c 2002 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl NET EFFECTS: HOW THE INTERNET HAS CHANGED ABORTION LAW, POLICY, AND PROCESS The issue has invaded state houses, political campaigns, church doctrine, talk shows, newspaper opinion pages, the Internet and even the streets. Most recently, those latter two venues have attracted considerable attention, for protests have escalated from civil demonstrations to deadly violence.' Although abortion in America has remained an issue over which this nation is divided, the methods activists use to voice their views have continued to change and evolve. With the emerging influence of technology, the Internet has become a new virtual stomping ground for abortion demonstrators.2 In the past four years, several cases concerning abortion websites (both pro-life and pro-choice) have been tried in federal court.3 One of the more notorious cases involved a website which, as part of its propaganda, reported the names and addresses of abortion doctors and included a color-coded list of which doctors had been killed.4 Other cases at the crossroads of abortion and the Internet include a 1997 case, Sanger v. -
Abortion Doctor Shot to Death in Kansas Church by JOE STUMPE and MONICA DAVEY
May 31, 2009 Suspect in Tiller's death supported killing abortion providers, friends say Judy L. Thomas Kansas City Star The suspect in custody for the slaying of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was a member of an anti-government group in the 1990s and a staunch opponent of abortion. Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., a Kansas City suburb, was arrested on Interstate 35 near Gardner in suburban Johnson County, Kan., about three hours after the shooting. Tiller was shot to death around 10 a.m. inside Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. In the rear window of the 1993 blue Ford Taurus that he was driving was a red rose, a symbol often used by abortion opponents. On the rear of his car was a Christian fish symbol with the word "Jesus" inside. Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide. "I know that he believed in justifiable homicide," said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti- abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. "I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn." Dinwiddie said she met Roeder while picketing outside the Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996. Roeder walked into the clinic and asked to see the doctor, Robert Crist, she said. "Robert Crist came out and he stared at him for approximately 45 seconds," she said. -
The "True Threat" to Cyberspace: Shredding the First Amendment for Faceless Fears
THE "TRUE THREAT" TO CYBERSPACE: SHREDDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT FOR FACELESS FEARS Robert D. Richards* Clay Calvert** "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First thoughts whirling together to form a truly "unin- Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit 4 the expression of an idea simply because society finds hibited, robust, and wide-open" marketplace of 1 the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." ideas. That notion ended abruptly in February, When the late Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. 1999 when a Portland, Oregon jury ordered over wrote that passage in 1989, admonishing the $100 million dollars in damages against the cre- 5 Texas state legislature to avoid passing a flag-dese- ators of an anti-abortion World Wide Web site, cration thus triggering the next major battle over just how law simply because citizens there objected 6 7 to burning the national symbol as a form of pro- much protection speech in cyberspace deserves. test, he reminded the nation that the Constitution was not created to reflect the current conscious- FREEDOM OF SPEECH V. FREEDOM ness of the majority. Indeed, the powerful nature OF CHOICE of the First Amendment 2 lies in safeguarding mi- nority viewpoints, which at times can be distasteful Like so many constitutional skirmishes before to mainstream society but should co-exist to en- it, this one presents some unsavory elements, such 3 sure a vigorous national discourse. as graphic images of botched abortions and fetal For a time, the internet appeared to provide a parts." However, the more pernicious political in- safe haven for both mainstream and radical vective found on the challenged web site-The * Associate Professor of Journalism & Law and Co- 4 New York Times Co. -
Murders and Attempted Murders
Anti-choice Terrorism: Murders and Attempted Murders This chronological table lists all murders (13) and attempted murders (29) of abortion providers and clinic staff (as well as patients, escorts, and clinic defenders) in North America, and one murder in Australia. Note that the shootings of Dr. Wayne Patterson, Dr. Paul Hackmeyer, and Dr. George Klopfer were never officially attributed to anti-choice motives, but the pro- choice community is strongly suspicious. Date Name Site of Attack Location Assailant Description 1991 Dec 28 Don Catron Central Health Springfield, Never caught Wounded by gunshot (building manager) Center Missouri Claudia Gilmore Wounded by gunshot (office manager) 1992 Jan 14 Dr. Douglas Karpen Women’s Pavilion Houston, Texas Never caught Wounded by gunshot 1993 Mar 10 Dr. David Gunn Pensacola Pensacola, Michael Griffin Murdered by gunshot Women’s Medical Florida convicted; life in prison Services 1993 May 19 Dr. Robert Crist His residence Overland Park, Never caught Shots fired into home, Kansas no injuries 1993 Aug 19 Dr. George Tiller Women’s Health Wichita, Kansas Rachelle Shannon Wounded by gunshot Care Services convicted 1993 Aug 21 Dr. George Wayne Parking lot Mobile, Alabama Suspect acquitted; Murdered by gunshot Patterson case unsolved 1994 Mar 20 Dr. Paul Hackmeyer His residence, in Los Angeles, CA Never caught Wounded by gunshot driveway 1994 Jul 29 Dr. John Britton The Ladies Pensacola, Paul Hill convicted; Murdered by gunshot James Barrett (escort) Center Florida executed Murdered by gunshot June Barrett -
Nuremberg Files: Testing the Outer Limits of the First Amendment
The Nuremberg Files: Testing the Outer Limits of the First Amendment MICHAEL VITIELLO* The NurembergFiles, an anti-abortionwebsite with both graphicimages as well aspersonal information about abortion doctors, lists the names of abortion doctors, their addresses, and other personal information, noting the healthy abortion doctors in black type, "wounded" abortion doctors in gray, and murdered persons with lines through their names. Together with "wanted" posters of abortion doctors, a magazine promoting and celebrating abortion clinic violence, a yearly banquet honoringthose imprisonedfor acts of abortion violence, and a book about the use offorce againstabortionists entitled "A Time to Kill," the members of the American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA) maintained that these expressions were entitled to full First Amendment protectionaspurelypolitical speech, spoken in opposition to abortionrights. This FirstAmendment defense was rejected by the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists, finding that the defendants' conduct was a true threat of violence in violation of the Freedom ofAccess to Clinic EntrancesAct of 1994 (FACE), requiringboth legal and injunctive relief In the face of much criticism of the verdict, criticism focused on the FirstAmendment protection of such volatile speech, Professor Vitiello argues that ifthe Brandenburg test of incitement to imminent lawless action allows prohibition of any speech, it would allow the prohibition of the speech ofACLA. Professor Vitiello argues that, viewed in its entirety, within a context of abortion clinic violence that the defendants supported, encouraged, andpromoted, the speech of ACA falls outside the bounds of protected First Amendment speech, and is properlysubjected to civil andcriminal penalty. -
Bachelor Thesis
Západo česká univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Bakalá řská práce EXTREMIST CHRISTIANS IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY Barbora Turková Plze ň 2014 Západo česká univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Katedra politologie a mezinárodních vztah ů Studijní program Mezinárodní teritoriální studia Studijní obor Mezinárodní vztahy – britská a americká studia Bakalá řská práce EXTREMIST CHRISTIANS IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY Barbora Turková Vedoucí práce : David Eugene Franklin M.A. / PhDr. Ivona Mišterová, Ph.D. Katedra anglického jazyka Fakulta filozofická Západo české univerzity v Plzni Plze ň 2014 Prohlašuji, že jsem práci zpracovala samostatn ě a použila jen uvedených zdroj ů a literatury. Plze ň, duben 2014 …………………………….. Barbora Turková Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor David Franklin M.A. for his useful help, advice, and guidance in the process of my writing. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 2. EXTREMISM ........................................................................................................... 4 3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDS .......................................................................... 7 3.1 Overview of American extremism ................................................................................................. 7 3. 2 First Amendment ........................................................................................................................ 12 3. 3 Second Amendment .................................................................................................................. -
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Grabiner Reproductive Health 2011, 8:20 http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/8/1/20 RESEARCH Open Access A Question of Choice Gene Grabiner Abstract Women’s reproductive rights, reproductive health, and constitutional privacy rights in the United States are addressed in light of the contemporary onslaught of the Christian Right. The misuse of State power by fundamentalist social forces in America is critiqued. The article also briefly reviews the question of State control over women’s bodies. Introduction A memorandum to Adolf Eichmann from Nazi-occu- Freedom and self-determination are under attack by the pied Poznan, Poland noted that “...all the Jewish women, Christian Right in the United States today. The defense from whom one could still expect children, should be of a woman’s right to end an unwanted pregnancy must sterilized so that the Jewish problem may actually be be part of everyone’s larger struggle to protect our civil, solved completely with this generation.” [1] And, from political and human rights. Central to the question of a the Nazi-occupied Netherlands we read that: woman’s right to choose to have children or not is the tension between our American Enlightenment-demo- For the remaining Jews and Jewesses the aspired goal cratic traditions of the rights of the individual opposed is voluntary sterilization which is to be carried out in to intrusive State power. The Catholic Church hierarchy Amsterdam. In case of refusal, forced sterilization has employed lobbying, picketing of reproductive health should follow in Camp Hertogenbosch[2]. clinics and Papal Encyclicals to oppose abortion rights. -
From the Right
a special report from the southern poverty law center’s intelligence project TERROR FROM THE RIGHT PLOTS, CONSPIRACIES AND RACIST RAMPAGES SINCE OKLAHOMA CITY terror from the right TERROR FROM THE RIGHT At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a 7,000-pound truck bomb, constructed of ammo- nium nitrate fertilizer and nitromethane racing fuel and packed into 13 plastic barrels, ripped through the heart of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explosion wrecked much of downtown Oklahoma City and killed 168 people, including 19 children in a day-care center. Another 500 were injured. Although many Americans initially suspected an attack by Middle Eastern radicals, it quickly became clear that the mass murder had actually been carried out by domestic, right-wing terrorists. The slaughter engineered by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, men steeped in the conspiracy theories and white-hot fury of the American radical right, marked the opening shot in a new kind of domestic political MEDIA AND GENERAL INQUIRIES extremism — a revolutionary ideology whose practitioners do not hesitate Mark Potok or Heidi Beirich to carry out attacks directed at entirely innocent victims, people selected essentially at random to make a political point. After Oklahoma, it was no LAW ENFORCEMENT INQUIRIES longer sufficient for many American right-wing terrorists to strike at a target Joseph Roy Sr., Chief Investigator of political significance — instead, they reached for higher and higher body counts, reasoning that they had to eclipse McVeigh’s attack to win attention. Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Avenue What follows is a detailed listing of major terrorist plots and racist rampages Montgomery, AL 36104 that have emerged from the American radical right in the years since (334) 956-8200 Oklahoma City. -
Nealhorsley-Fbi1.Pdf
This document is made available through the declassification efforts and research of John Greenewald, Jr., creator of: The Black Vault The Black Vault is the largest online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document clearinghouse in the world. The research efforts here are responsible for the declassification of hundreds of thousands of pages released by the U.S. Government & Military. Discover the Truth at: http://www.theblackvault.com U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D.C. 20535 December 22, 2016 MR. JOHN GREENEWALD JR. FOIPA Request No.: 1362670-000 Subject: HORSLEY, OTIS O’NEAL, JR. Dear Mr. Greenewald: Records responsive to your request were previously processed under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Enclosed is one CD containing 41 pages of previously processed documents and a copy of the Explanation of Exemptions. This release is being provided to you at no charge. Documents or information referred to other Government agencies were not included in this release. For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of law enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the FOIA. See 5 U.S. C. § 552(c) (2006 & Supp. IV (2010). This response is limited to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is a standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist. For questions regarding our determinations, visit the www.fbi.gov/foia website under “Contact Us.” The FOIPA Request Number listed above has been assigned to your request.