Terrorist Attacks on Abortion

After the Sept. 11 attacks, it was only a matter of time before American extremists tried to take advantage of the new climate of fear. The victims in the latest wave of homegrown terror are women across the nation.

For over two months now, anti-abortion terrorists have openly threatened a germ-warfare campaign against many facilities that offer health care to women. In an apparently coordinated mailing, on Nov. 8, more than 200 Planned Parenthood health facilities and abortion clinics nationwide received envelopes containing white powder and a letter stating that the powder was anthrax. It was the second such wave of threats; 250 abortion clinics received similar letters last month. While none of the powder has tested positive for anthrax, the letters caused serious disruptions to the facilities as the FBI reported the mailings to be a coordinated effort by a radical anti-abortion group to shut down abortion clinics across the nation.

These acts are only part of a long list of violent, extremist actions taken by anti-abortion activists. According to the National Abortion Federation, opponents of choice have directed over 2,500 reported acts of violence against abortion providers since 1977 including bombings, arsons, death threats, kidnappings and assaults, as well as over 55,000 reported acts of disruption, including bomb threats and harassing calls.

Whether abortion itself is right or wrong, two wrongs never make a right. Sending letters filled with white powder is a terrorist act in the current environment, promoting unwarranted fear and disrupting a larger, critical national security investigation.

Pro-life extremists fear that the more abortion is made available, the less time women will take to consider all the options they have available. However, their concern is unwarranted. The decision to have an abortion is difficult to make, but it is a choice women ultimately have to make for themselves, in accordance with their own life circumstances and their own consciences, and not by the threat of pro-life extremists.

These extremists also believe that violence and scare tactics like the recent anthrax mailings will weaken laws protecting the practice of abortion and constitutional decisions that uphold the woman’s right to choose. However, if these extremists have so much confidence and faith in their beliefs, then they should have faith in the government to do what is right, the constitutional way. They have more hope than ever with a pro-life president in office ready to support them.

In many ways, recently passed legislation actually has begun to strip away the right to abortion. With the lack of global funding for organizations and clinics that provide abortion resources, poor women were the first to have their right to end a pregnancy severely restricted. Through laws that ban abortion in most military facilities, military and federally employed women (and wives and daughters of men in the military or federal work force) have limited access if any to abortion. Young women cannot receive help from anyone without parental consent through the passage of the Child Custody Protection Act. This act makes it illegal to assist a teenager to get an abortion without parental consent. Through this law, adult friends, counselors, ministers and even grandmothers who help a teen in this way may end up in federal prison.

While this legislation is misguided, at least it has been pursued through legal means—pro-life terrorists are hypocritical. Just as the deaths of 6,000 at the hands of international terrorists are wrong, isn’t this also true for the murders of leaders, doctors, security guards, nurses and patients? If pro-life activists value human life so much, then why are so many silent when it comes to violence branded in their name? Regardless of whether they are directly or indirectly associated with these extremists, pro-life activists across the country have to start taking responsibility for the climate of hate and fear that they have helped create in this country. Many pro-life organizations are very much aware of those who are involved in anti-abortion violence and have continually updated thinly veiled hit-lists of doctors who perform abortions. Many assert that they are not associated with such extremists but do not do much to help find or stop these attacks. Their silence is much worse than any association they could possibly have.

Terrorism existed in this country long before the recent attacks. Twenty-five years ago, during the heyday of the feminist movement and after the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade, no one would have thought a woman’s right to choose could be as threatened as it is now. Unfortunately, these recent acts of domestic terrorism have hindered access to abortion services and threaten the lives of those dedicated to ensuring a woman’s right to choose. We should pay more attention to attempts by extreme pro-lifers to derail this nation’s open, free society. Let’s not treat our women like the Taliban treats theirs.

Anat Maytal ’05 is a first-year in Thayer Hall.