American Prospect: Why Clinic Violence is Obama's Problem

[HopeOverFear]

(snippets, read the entire article here)

I shouldn't have been shocked to see the news that Dr. George Tiller, an outspoken advocate for abortion rights and one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers, was gunned down yesterday morning as he attended church. Despite the fact that it's been more than a decade since an abortion provider has been murdered in America, I pay enough attention to hard-line anti-choice groups to know that a violent incident like Tiller's murder was all too predictable.

The last time an abortion provider was murdered, when Dr. Barnett Slepian was killed in 1998, it was a wake-up call to the fact that passing the FACE Act wasn't enough. Attorney General Janet Reno established the National Task Force on Violence against Health Care Providers, which committed the Department of Justice to enforcing FACE, coordinating information on national anti-abortion extremist groups, funding clinic safety efforts, and training local law enforcement. The following year, the White House budget requested $4.5 million to beef up security at abortion clinics. But other than finally bringing James Kopp, Slepian's killer, to justice in 2003, the task force was largely dormant for eight years under the Bush administration.

Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement responding to Tiller's murder, promising that "Federal law enforcement is coordinating with local law enforcement officials in Kansas on the investigation of this crime, and I have directed the United States Marshals Service to offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation." He also pledged to take steps to prevent related acts of violence. Obama expressed that he was "shocked and outraged" by the killing. Neither mentioned the FACE Act or reviving the task force.

Tiller's death is a wake-up call to the fact that our existing laws and regulatory bodies to protect against clinic violence aren't working as well as they should. As written, FACE provides a lot of protection for reproductive health providers. But we need an active task force -- or some other means of accountability -- to make sure the law is fully enforced. This is something Obama's Justice Department could commit to doing tomorrow, sending a strong signal that this type of domestic terrorism is not acceptable.

[bluestateguy]

1. I wish these clinics would get armed private security

They could perhaps hire men just home from Iraq to stand on top on the clinics with fully automatic weapons; a sort of show of force in case the "pro-life" protesters get a little too uppity.

[hlthe2b]

2. How are they supposed to afford that?

You have to include the many many thousands of family planning clinics that may not perform abortion, but advise on the issue as they have also been the focus of bombings and other attacks.

[bluestateguy]

3. I have no idea

I came up with the idea. Someone else can figure out how to pay for it.

[hlthe2b]

5. Oh, for Heaven's sake....

You think you've offered up a solution????? Geebus.

[Blue_Tires]

4. many of them did in the 90s

but you can't afford to guard every clinic and every worker 24 hours...also, by the late 90s the violence started to fade as the hate groups put a mainstream public face on their extremism -- a lot of people let their guard down, thinking the bloody days were behind them....

[T Wolf]

6. Instead - bring ALL the troops home and put them on guard duty protecting these

institutions against the domestic terrorists who harass workers and patients every day.

As long as the clinics and staff are unprotected, the KoC, catholic church, Operation Rescue, Phelps, etc. will be threats against whom force is necessary.

Works for me.

[Clio the Leo]

8. But he wasn't even at work.....

... I fear that's just a band-aid.

The harder thing to do is to change people's attitudes so they dont WANT to kill ..... that's going to be very difficult, but it's the only thing that will work.

[CTyankee]

9. Here's the deal. Train primary care physicians who want to become family docs in first trimester

abortions. They will be part of a network of PCP's, not in isolated, stand alone "abortion clinics", and can safely do these procedures. The anti choicers won't be able to attack their workplaces because they won't be identified as "abortion clinics." They will be family health practices.

Mainstream abortion care and you will solve a LOT of the problem...

[Cha]

7. I agree..

"...sending a strong signal that this type of domestic terrorism is not acceptable."