The murder of Dr. George Tiller recalls the long history of anti-abortion violence
3 JUN 2009
by Angela Williams as told to Fiona Morgan
In 1989, Operation Rescue came to Washington, D.C., where I lived while attending graduate school ... A group of us in the direct action group OUT! (Oppression Under Target!) worked with a liberal Catholic peace and justice organization called the Quixote Center and other groups to organize a counterprotest ... Our goal was to create a line of people that broke their line, so that eventually clients could enter the clinic again ... There were a lot of very angry people screaming and holding fetus signs, yelling at everyone that they're murderers ...
As I wiped the blood off my face with an old T-shirt, I felt angry and shocked. Up to that point, I had this idealistic belief that although we took opposing positions, we were just there stating our beliefs. I grew up in South Carolina, and I guess I had this notion that anti-abortion protesters would be like the Sunday school teachers who believed in life and were also, say, opposed to the death penalty.
Since then, I've learned a lot more about Operation Rescue. Part of their standard operating procedure is to intimidate people with threats of violence. I think they train specifically for what to do if someone breaks their line; when I did, the response was immediate ...
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