Page 65 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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38———Antiabortion Movement

incidents were relatively rare in the mid-1970s, the tactics. Similarly, the Browns formed ALL to raise the
level of violence rose quickly. In February 1977, an level of direct action in their protests.
activist entered the Concern Women’s Clinic in Bolstered by the conservative political climate of the
Cleveland, Ohio, and set fire to its interior after throw- 1980s, ALL and PLAL chapters and other like-minded
ing flammable liquid in the receptionist’s face. Two groups sprung up around the country. Clinic violence
years later, Peter Burkin, then 21 years old, stormed and antiabortion picketing were regular features on the
into a Hempstead, New York, clinic with a two-foot news by the early 1980s. In January 1982, the Hope
flaming torch, threatening to “cleanse the soul” of the Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, was gutted
abortion provider, Dr. Bill Baird. (Baird was then by fire. Four months later, antiabortion activist Don
known for his 1972 Supreme Court case that legalized Benny Anderson set fire to two clinics in Florida. That
the sale of contraceptives to unmarried couples.) August, Anderson and brothers Matthew and Wayne
Moore kidnapped Dr. Hector Zevallos, of the Hope
Clinic for Women, and held him, along with his wife,
EARLY ORGANIZATIONS
for eight days. During that time, Zevallos was ordered
By 1980, two of the most significant direct-action to make an antiabortion tape to be sent to President
antiabortion groups had been founded. Paul and Judie Ronald Reagan in support of anti-Roe legislation. The
Brown, of Stafford, Virginia, started the American kidnapping was the first of its kind; it was the debut
Life League (ALL) in 1979. A year later, Joseph action of the Army of God, a group that, by the end of
Scheidler, widely considered to be the father of the 1990s, was one of the most feared in the country.
antiabortion direct action, created the Pro-Life Action While clinic staffs were terrorized by the threat of
League (PLAL) in Chicago. (PLAL is now known as more kidnappings, antiabortion activists continued to
Pro-Life Action Network [PLAN].) Both the Browns disrupt clinics in increasingly creative ways. Activists
and Scheidler were part of the National Right to Life cut the hoses to abortion equipment in Toledo, Ohio;
Committee (NRLC), the largest antiabortion group in placed nails in parking lots in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida;
the United States. Scheidler had been the executive called in bomb scares in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and suc-
director of the Illinois chapter of the NRLC from 1973 cessfully firebombed clinics in Washington, Mary-
until he was dismissed in 1978 because of his radical land, and Florida. In 1984, activists twice bombed
the Ladies Center, one of
two abortion clinics in
Pensacola, Florida, as part
of a well-coordinated attack
that included two private
physicians’ offices. Despite
the escalating violence, in
December 1984 FBI direc-
tor William H. Webster
claimed that clinic bomb-
ings did not conform to the
federal definition of terror-
ism and were therefore not a
federal priority.
The 1985 publication of
Joseph Scheidler’s direct
action manual, Closed: 99
Ways to Stop Abortion, and
Kevin Sherlock’s The
Abortion Buster’s Manual
encouraged antiabortion
Sign at abortion rights rally in New York City, February 1986.
forces. Sherlock’s book
Source: © Owen Franken/Corbis.
focused on ways to identify