By Barry Sheppard
TV reports of two bombings on January 16 of an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, startled the country. A particularly vicious aspect was that the second bomb was set to explode an hour after the first, which was a so-called "sucker bomb" to lure clinic workers, reporters, doctors, police and firefighters to the scene.
The second bomb was more powerful than the first, and would have killed many people except for the fact that police cars were fortuitously placed and absorbed the impact. While there were minor injuries, the power of the blast was indicated by the finding of shrapnel on the roofs of nearby buildings.
Federal authorities have concluded that the bombs were made of dynamite, an explosive rarely used in home-made bombs. The second bomb was packed in a military-style metal container, held three-inch nails and was designed to spew metal fragments over a wide area. Both bombs left craters.
Since reporters were present, the second bombing was recorded on TV. Just as the bomb went off, the Fund for the Feminist Majority and the National Abortion Federation were holding a press conference in Washington, DC, to bring attention to the continuing violence at clinics nationwide.
Then, on January 19, a clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fire-bombed. FBI agents released a recording of a male who claimed responsibility for two earlier fire-bombings on September 18 and 21 at a nearby Planned Parenthood centre. "I did that", the caller said. "May do something worse again. Me and my buddies are out to get you. You better tell your employees. It's going to get dangerous."
Also in the past month, a doctor at a clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was stabbed.
It appears the earlier attacks were timed to occur near the anniversary of Roe v Wade, on September 22. That was the case in which the Supreme Court legalised abortion 24 years ago. Anti-women bigots target that date for demonstrations and other protests, and held a march in the capital this year, too.
Claudette Bégin, a board member of Oakland/East Bay NOW (National Organization for Women) in the San Francisco area, pointed out: "Since the killing of two women at clinics in the Boston area in December 1995, press coverage on abortion appears rarely and usually refers to cases of prosecutions and appeals relating to past violence.
"Activists and the public at large have been encouraged by the deterrent effect of federal legislation and prosecutions against harassment at clinics and abortion providers' homes, and against violent attacks. This legislation and prosecutions were achieved after many years of organised, militant protests by the women's movement."
Bégin pointed out that the new attacks "occur in a period of lull of the movement. For example, the San Francisco Area Pro-Choice Coalition, responsible for several major West Coast actions in the past, went into retirement since we could no longer muster more than three or four activists to meetings. NOW has been busy on many other issues, including affirmative action, lesbian/gay rights, sexual harassment and the bipartisan attacks on women and children on welfare.
"Lack of press coverage means the public has been unaware of the continuing harassment and violence, even though it has been on a reduced scale. Clinics continue to be picketed, although in fewer locations. Operation Rescue and its sister anti-choice organisations have clearly become marginalised even if they have not gone away.
"In 1996, 30% of clinics reported acts of violence, down from 39% in 1995. Bombings and arson showed the biggest decline, from at least 15 per year in the period of 1993-1995 to seven last year. These latest attacks could prefigure a new round of violence, however, and must be vigorously protested."
In another development, a federal judge has made a bizarre ruling justifying illegal actions of two anti-choice demonstrators. The two, Bishop George Lynch and Brother Christopher Moscinski, have been arrested more than 20 times for blocking access to clinics.
In May 1995 they were again arrested for sitting in the driveway access to a clinic in Dobbs Ferry, New York. At that time Judge John Sprizzo issued a permanent injunction against the two men under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994. Last August, after both men were again arrested for blocking the driveway, the United States Attorney's office asked the judge to find them in contempt of his own order.
But the good judge instead exonerated the men because they had acted out of supposedly religious convictions! All those convicted of murdering clinic workers and doctors in the past few years have used the same "defence." This ruling undercuts the gain made in the Freedom of Access law, and underscores, as do the recent bombings, that abortion rights are under constant threat, and there needs to be constant vigilance by supporters of women's rights.