June 28, 2014

Pro-Life Terrorism

By hessianwithteeth

Rachel Maddow reported on the history of violence within the “pro-life” movement. There has been a number of members responsible for a lot of terrible things. One group tried to keep people out of an abortion clinic by parking cars in front of the doors and trapped themselves inside the vehicles. That same group later held celebration for someone who a year earlier murdered a man who was trying to get a doctor into the clinic safely. There have been a number of murders. There have been bombings. There have been people who attempted to crawl into the buffer zone to physically stop people from entering the clinics. Sadly, many aren’t happy with holding signs and yelling at people. Many are willing to do whatever it takes to stop people from having abortions.

But, despite the history of violence, the US supreme court doesn’t believe a buffer zone is necessary. Do they not care that women and doctors could be in danger? Are they trying to make it easier to make abortion illegal?

I’m so glad I live in Canada…

http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2014/06/27/maddow-the-long-history-of-violence-in-the-anti-choice-movement/

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5 responses to “Pro-Life Terrorism”

  • Destroyer of Exoplanets
    July 3rd, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    The buffer zone would be nice to protect from the psycho screaming the protesters get into. I wonder if you could sue the protesters for emotional distress. Surely somebody has tried that.

    I think you make an interesting point. It is terrorism. It’s using any tactic they can to stop abortions, up to and including explicit threats of violence. Obviously most death threats aren’t meant to be carried out, JUST to scare. I will add that falls under the definition of terrorism. Then there’s the actual killings on top of it.

    To answer your rhetorical question, there’s five old white men who are in fact, yes, trying to make abortion illegal. Five old white men who make a majority on the Supreme Court. I sincerely hope the court changes before they get a direct challenge to Roe v Wade, otherwise it’s not looking good.

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    • hessianwithteeth
      July 3rd, 2014 at 9:00 pm

      I’m quite surprised its gone as far as it has. It’s kind of funny (in a very sad way) that the one country that has gone out of its way to tout separation of church and state is the one country that can’t get religion out of its government. At least as far as the western world goes.

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  • HJ Hornbeck
    June 28th, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    [cough hack]

    There were many instances of anti-abortion violence against Morgentaler, his staff, his patients, and his colleagues. … Death threats against Morgentaler were frequent. In the 1980s, a reporter noted that the stack of death threats for a single month was six inches thick. In 1983 a man attacked him with garden shears outside of his Toronto abortion clinic. Judy Rebick blocked the attack and Morgentaler remained unharmed. Augusto Dantas was charged with assault and with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public good. On July 29, 1983, protesters attempted to firebomb his clinic; the clinic suffered only minor damage, but the neighbouring Toronto Women’s Bookstore was nearly destroyed.

    In May 1992, the Morgentaler Clinic on Harbord Street in Toronto was firebombed during the night by two people (caught on security camera) using gasoline as fuel and a firework to set off the explosion. The next day, clinic management announced that the firebombing failed to prevent any abortions, since all scheduled abortions were carried out in alternative locations. No one was hurt but the building had to be demolished. The Women’s Bookstore next door was also damaged, specifically the women and childbirth section. On the day after the firebombing, Morgentaler came to inspect the damage and a crowd of abortion-rights supporters appeared at the clinic with signs that read, “Just Say No to Bombs” and “Honk for Choice.” As a result of the arson, the Ontario government decided to spend $420,000 on improved security for abortion clinics.

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  • Willis Vida
    June 28th, 2014 at 1:34 pm

    We have laws against killing, we have laws against blocking entrances. People protest a wide variety of companies for a wide variety of reasons. Calling out this one group of protesters and putting special laws in place to restrict them was unconstitutional.

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    • hessianwithteeth
      June 28th, 2014 at 9:46 pm

      Except now they are more free to do as they please than other protesters. Want to picket a funeral? You have to stay outside of the cemetery and away from the gates. Want to picket the government? You have to stay so faraway that they can’t even see you. Want to picket at an abortion clinic? You can walk right up to the people and yell in their faces. Does it really sound like they had special restrictions to you?

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