Blocking Clinic Doors

Last Saturday morning an abortion clinic in Asheville, N.C. was bombed. While no one was hurt in the blast, the continued violence against abortion clinics and abortion providers is a threat to Americans' constitutional rights. The bomb, which did not explode completely, was placed next to a wall near the waiting room. Had it achieved its aim, it could have killed or injured people waiting to be seen for any of the number of services that the clinic provides.

The intimidation and harassment of clinic workers has led to a decline in doctors willing to provide abortions, as well as created a culture of fear for those who go to them. This violent targeting of abortion clinics and their doctors must end. Most pro-life activists do not condone these acts, however many of the major anti-abortion groups do not condemn them either. On the whole there is a dismaying lack of response from these groups, a silence which many take to be a form of consent. If opponents of abortion rights wish to give their movement any integrity, they must eliminate the violent elements which now conduct terrible acts under their banner.

Already there has been a Justice Department Injunction to prevent Operation Rescue volunteers from physically blocking clinic doors. Still, the Operation Rescue Web site urges anti-abortion activists to, "Picket the communities, clubs, churches, and offices of baby killers." There is no justification for the use of these tactics against private individuals. Public protest in a public forum is a constitutional freedom, but the targeting of individuals in the places they live and work constitutes harassment and intimidation.

As it stands now, the hypocrisy of killing for people for "pro-life"' and lawlessness of these radicals stand as a direct affront to the constitution as defined by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. Abortion rights activists must do more to defend their rights against these mounting threats. A lot has changed since 1992 when over 500 pro-choice demonstrators showed up at a Brighton, MA clinic to protect it from Operation Rescuers. Opponents of abortion rights have become even more resistant and violent, while pro-choicers have become increasingly apathetic. It is hard to find more than 10 pro-choice activists at a clinic on a Saturday morning to counter the dozens of pro-life protesters.

The decision whether or not to have an abortion is a hard one, but ultimately is a woman's decision to make, not that of religious extremists. The pro-life movement only discredits and defames itself by silently consenting to bombings and murder.

Dissent

While the staff rightly condemns the taking of life as a means of expression by those who claim to be pro-life, it is wrong to criticize anti-abortion activists for exercising their right to free speech.

A substantial part of the population--no less intelligent or insightful than the pro-choice activists--condemns abortion and believes that aborting a growing, moving fetus which has not yet emerged from the womb amounts to taking that life in the same way that suffocating a newborn child would amount to murder. For these people--and I count myself among them--there is no choice to be made. Peaceful demonstrations by anti-abortionists in front of churches and clinics, even those targeted at specific individuals, serve a purpose in voicing these concerns--a purpose that should be protected by law.

The staff is hypocritical in advocating women's right to choose abortion but not conceding--indeed not aggressively defending--the constitutional right of others to protest that choice in a way that does not physically harm their opponents.

--Jenny E. Heller '01