Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

Colorado Groups to Submit Another "Personhood" Initiative

The Gazette (Colorado Springs): Groups to make another try for 'personhood' measure, by Mark Barna:

Two anti-abortion groups, Colorado Right to Life and Personhood USA, will submit a new "personhood" initiative to the Colorado Legislative Council on Thursday in hopes of getting a measure on the 2010 state ballot.

Colorado voters soundly defeated a similar measure, Amendment 48, in the 2008 election.

But initiative sponsors say things will be different in 2010 because they will be better-funded and better able to articulate their message and will introduce a measure that's more accurately worded....

Last year, 73 percent of the vote went against Amendment 48, which was sponsored by Colorado for Equal Rights.

Senate Bill Condemning Anti-Choice Violence Faces Opposition

The Minnesota Independent: Klobuchar bill condemning Tiller murder faces GPO opposition, by Andy Birkey:

Weeks after Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed in his Kansas church, the U.S. Senate is debating a resolution condemning violence against abortion providers. But abortion politics has made even the simple task of passing a resolution denouncing violence into a contentious battle. The words “reproductive health care” could be a deal breaker with some Republicans and anti-abortion senators.

Dissuading Women from Seeking an Abortion

Guttmacher Policy Review:  All That's Old Is New Again: The Long Campaign To Persuade Women to Forego Abortion, by Rachel Benson Gold:

Just days after assuming office, prochoice President Barak Obama laid out his vision for a public policy agenda that would respond constructively to the ongoing national debate over abortion. . . . Within weeks, the administration announced an initiative to seek the advice of a wide range of individuals representing a diversity of views on how to move forward on this presumed common ground.

Leading abortion opponents reacted quickly with alarm. Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright, for one, requested a meeting with the White House, to protest how the administration's initiative was being framed. Calling concepts such as the need for abortion and unintended pregnancy "completely subjective," Wright argued instead for an explicit goal of reducing abortions. 

Indeed, the organized antiabortion movement has never thrown its weight behind efforts to address abortion by helping women avoid unintended pregnancies in the first place. On the contrary, most national "profamily" and antiabortion organizations are either actively hostile to or, as in the case of the National Right to Life Committee, resolutely "neutral" on contraception and family planning service programs. Instead, they have worked to eliminate abortion altogether, by trying to ban the procedure outright. Failing that, or as a way of laying the groundwork, they have promoted a wide range of policies aimed at deterring as many women as possible from having an abortion. Many of these policies, at their heart, are premised on the notion that women who intend to have an abortion (and, to some extent, the public at large) do not fully understand what an abortion really is—and that, if they did, they would behave differently. . . .

Julie Graves Krishnaswami

More on Common Ground

Daily Women's Health Policy Report: Antiabortion Group's National Convention Focuses on 'Common Ground' in Abortion-Rights Debate: 

The National Right to Life Committee last week held its national convention in Charlotte, N.C., attracting as many as 1,300 antiabortion-rights advocates from around the U.S., according to event organizers, the Charlotte Observer reports. According to the Observer, a large part of the convention focused on President Obama's appeal for "common ground" in the abortion-rights debate, with many participants arguing there is not much in common to be found between abortion-rights supporters and opponents.

NRLC Political Director Karen Cross said that Obama is "the most pro-abortion president" in U.S. history, telling convention delegates, "Look at the devastation brought by the first 100 days" of his administration. Cross was referring to Obama's decisions to ease restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, lift the "global gag" rule and his intentions to repeal the Bush administration's provider "conscience" rule.

Although Obama has sought to achieve common ground on abortion by promoting adoption and methods of preventing unintended pregnancies, his "view of common ground is not common ground at all" for "people with very strong pro-life positions," John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said.

Julie Graves Krishnaswami

Obama Seeks to Develop Common Ground on Abortion Policy with Faith-Based Office

U.S. News and World Report: Obama Seeks Common Ground on Abortion by, Dan Gilgoff

Over the last month or so, the Obama administration has met with ... dozens of ... activists on both sides of the abortion issue as it seeks what it calls "common ground" on thorny reproductive issues, including its goal of reducing demand for abortion. Now, as the White House begins drawing up a policy plan, advocates on both sides are jittery. . . .

The administration is expected to announce its plan as early as this summer, according to those involved in the process. Whether those proposed policies can satisfy the president's pro-abortion rights base while also winning over more conservative religious groups is the biggest test yet for Obama's vow to be a peacemaker in the nation's culture wars.

When Obama rolled out the revamped White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in February, he tasked it with exploring how to "support women and children, address teenage pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion." Crafting policy around those goals has been a joint project of the faith-based office and the new White House Council on Women and Girls. Both report to Obama's domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, who has led some meetings with outside groups.

Julie Graves Krishnaswami

DOJ Under Pres. Bush Did Little to Protect Abortion Clinics

Wash. Independent: DOJ Abortion Violence Suits Cratered Under Bush, by Daphne Eviatar:

...Just as federal law specifically penalizes hate crimes, the law also makes it a federal crime to threaten or commit violence against abortion providers, or to vandalize their clinics. Yet as TWI revealed last week, the criminal law was not being enforced. The day after Dr. George Tiller was murdered, TWI obtained data revealing that under the Bush administration, criminal enforcement of the federal law designed to protect abortion providers and clinics had declined by more than 75 percent over the last eight years.

But there’s also a civil component to that federal law, known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. That part of the law allows the attorney general to seek an injunction and compensatory damages for anyone who’s been harmed by any activity that violates the law. And it turns out that the Department of Justice over the last eight years didn’t use that part of the law to protect abortion providers, either.

Under the FACE Act, in addition to criminal charges, the Justice Department can obtain damages and an injunction against anyone who “by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with” anyone who provides or receives reproductive health services. It also allows the government to prosecute and sue anyone who “intentionally damages or destroys the property” of an abortion clinic, because they are frequently vandalized as part of protesters’ intimidation tactics. The clinic where Dr. Tiller worked, for example, was repeatedly vandalized, including just days before his murder.

Yet despite these broad powers that Congress granted the attorney general in 1994 to prevent and combat violence against abortion clinics and providers, the Bush administration almost never used them. From 2000 until 2008, during the eight years of the Bush administration, the Justice Department filed only one civil case under the FACE Act. From 1994 until 1999, in contrast, in just five years of the Clinton administration, the Department filed 17 civil cases under the FACE Act — in addition to its much heavier load of criminal cases that we’ve reported before.

Report: More Context for Higher Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Rates Among Women of Color

Guttmacher Institute news release: New Health Disparities Report: More Context for Higher Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Rates Among Women of Color:

An important new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation documents persistent disparities between white women and women of color on a broad range of health indicators, including rates of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, AIDS and cancer. The report also documents widespread disparities in access to health insurance and health screenings, and finds that there are “racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care in every state in the nation, often disparities that are quite stark.” It finds, moreover, that “there is growing evidence that social factors (e.g., income, education, occupation, neighborhoods, and housing) are associated with health behaviors, access to health care, and health outcomes.”

The new report provides further strong evidence debunking claims by anti–abortion rights activists, who, ignoring all other contextual factors, have long argued that high abortion rates among minorities are the result of supposed aggressive marketing by abortion providers to minority communities. . . . . . . abortion rates among racial and ethnic minorities—especially blacks and Hispanics—are directly linked to their higher rates of unintended pregnancy, which in turn reflect pervasive health disparities more generally.

Antiabortion Efforts Move to the State Level

Wash. Post: Antiabortion Efforts Move to the State Level, by Peter Slevin:

JACKSON, Miss. -- Twelve women sat gloomily in a windowless conference room as Joseph Booker, M.D., recited the instructions required by the state of Mississippi before he can perform an abortion.

"Try to bear with us," Booker began. "This is something we have to do."

Prenatal benefits may be available, prospective fathers are legally liable for support and a list of adoption agencies can be provided, he said, ticking through a list worn into his memory. He offered the women a packet that included a brochure containing color photos of tiny fetuses inside the womb.

Booker's clinic is the only place left in Mississippi to obtain a legal abortion. Access is no longer simple at a time when the biggest battles over reproductive rights are taking place not in Washington but in Jackson and Bismarck, Little Rock and Helena. In 2008 alone, state legislatures nationwide considered about 400 measures to restrict abortion. . . .

New York Times Editorial Calls on AG to Safeguard Clinic Safety

NY Times Editorial: Protection for Doctors:

After last month’s fatal shooting of Dr. George Tiller, Attorney General Eric Holder took the prudent step of ordering the United States Marshals Service to provide security for certain abortion clinics and physicians thought to be at heightened risk. The response by the federal government must not end there.

Mr. Holder and Congress should review the killing of Dr. Tiller to determine whether there are systemic problems that led to apparent gaps in the F.B.I.’s performance in the case...

An armed criminal bent on murder is hard to stop, and we do not blame the F.B.I. for Dr. Tiller’s death. But reproductive rights advocates say enforcement of the clinic protection law waned in the Bush years. Mr. Holder should make sure there is no underlying problem that inhibits efforts to combat intimidation and violence against the dwindling number of legal abortion providers — and the women they help.

Man Charged with Tiller's Murder Warns of More Violence

Huffington Post: Scott Roeder, Abortion Doctor Murder Suspect, Warns Of More Violence, by Roxana Hegeman:

WICHITA, Kan. — The man charged with murdering a high-profile abortion doctor claimed from his jail cell Sunday that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal, a threat that comes days after a federal investigation launched into his possible accomplices.

A Justice Department spokesman said the threat was being taken seriously and additional protection had been ordered for abortion clinics last week. But a leader of the anti-abortion movement derided the accused shooter as "a fruit and a lunatic."

Tiller's Clinic Is Closed; Protestors Contemplate What Happens Now

NY Times: Closed Clinic Leaves Abortion Protesters at a Loss, by Monica Davey:

For the first time in years, only a Wichita police car has been waiting outside the abortion clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, who was shot to death a week ago. Gone are the trucks bearing enormous images of bloody fetuses, the signs offering the home addresses of clinic workers, the crowd of protesters yelling to women as they enter. Over almost 20 years, a vocal, diverse constellation of anti-abortion forces has grown up in this conservative city with an intensity rarely seen elsewhere, converging around Dr. Tiller’s practice. With his death, its future suddenly seems uncertain, too.

Anti-Choice Activists Worry That a NYC Law Will Hamper Their Protests

NY Times: Anti-Abortion Activists Worry That a New City Law Will Make Their Task Harder, by Julie Bosman:

...About 80,000 abortions are done annually in New York City, according to state health statistics, but these days it is far from the center of the national abortion debate. The city is not known for abortion-related violence, and when an abortion provider is shot dead, as was Dr. George R. Tiller in Wichita, Kan., last Sunday, it can feel like it happened in another country.

But 36 years after Roe v. Wade, the abortion war goes on, even in a small way in New York, where next month, a new city law will take effect that could make it easier for anti-abortion demonstrators to be arrested if they restrict access to a clinic or harass people attempting to enter.

The law currently allows the police to make arrests only if the person directly affected — usually a woman entering a clinic for an abortion — is willing to press charges. The new law allows third parties, such as clinic workers, to press charges if they witness the activity.

The sidewalk counselors, as Ms. Beyel and her fellow demonstrators call themselves, say they are afraid they will be unfairly prosecuted.

Dr. Tiller Remembered as Devoted to Family and Women

NY Times: Kansas Doctor Remembered as Devoted to Family and Women, by David Barstow:

George R. Tiller the Wichita physician who was shot dead in his church last week, was remembered at his funeral Saturday as a man of courage who showed uncommon grace in the face of constant challenge to his medical practice, which included late-term abortions...

Dr. Tiller’s death leaves in doubt the future of Wichita’s only remaining abortion clinic. It also leaves even fewer options for women around the country who are seeking late-term abortions. But for the most part, Dr. Tiller’s funeral focused less on his work than on his life with his family and friends...

At the front of the sanctuary, beside a framed photograph of Dr. Tiller, was a large wreath that framed a simple sign, “Trust Women.” The family also announced the establishment of the George R. Tiller Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Women’s Health.

Violence Against Abortion Providers Not a Modern Phenomenon

NY Times Op-Ed:

Abortion Wars, the First Time Around, by Kate Manning:

At first glance, the recent killing of the abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in Kansas appears to be a modern phenomenon, the heinous byproduct of the politics of the last several decades. In fact, Dr. Tiller is just the latest in a line of brave people who have died for providing abortions. Perhaps the most infamous of these was a midwife named Ann Lohman, who killed herself in New York in 1878 after decades of harassment.

Amy Goodman on How the FBI and Local Police Failed Dr. Tiller

Truthdig: Dr. George Tiller Didn’t Have to Die, by Amy Goodman:

George Tiller did not have to die. He was assassinated while in church in Wichita, Kan., on Sunday, targeted for legally performing abortions. His death might have been prevented simply through enforcement of existing laws. His alleged killer was seen vandalizing a Kansas City clinic, Aid for Women, both the week before and the day before the murder, putting glue into its door locks. The manager of that clinic, who calls himself “Jeff Pederson” to protect his identity, told me he called the FBI and local police both times, but the vandal, the alleged killer Scott Roeder, was not arrested. Pederson had Roeder’s first name and his license-plate number. He had images of him on the security video. He recognized him from previous protests.

A Different Perspective on Alexia Kelley

Huffington Post: The New Pro-lifer, by Cristina Page:

In our pain, anger and profound sadness over the murder of Dr. Tiller, pro-choice people risk losing an opportunity to see a better day as a country and a movement. In the wake of our loss, it is tempting to continue to categorize in one fixed way all who oppose abortion. To do so would be easy, but also foolish. We must admit and accept that not all who are opposed to abortion are the same. Especially since a new movement of pro-lifers has extended a hand in search of a better way.

Yesterday offered a unique opportunity to make this distinction. Alexia Kelley, co-founder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, was appointed Director of Faith-based and Community Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...

Moments after the announcement, John O'Brien, president of the pro-choice group Catholics for Choice, released a statement calling the Kelley appointment "a defeat for reason and logic."...

O'Brien's complaint is that the choice of Kelley, given her previous role overseeing a Catholic, anti-abortion organization, puts important social policies in danger of being hijacked by those same Bushian forces. But Kelley is not the Bush-styled pro-lifer of yore. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which Kelley founded, is a progressive organization that has also played a primary role in instigating a nationwide discussion of common ground on abortion. Her group has championed policies aimed at preventing the need for abortion, policies that have been identified as those pro-choice people can support too. It would be a mistake to group Kelley among anti-abortion operatives who snub opportunities to improve the relationship between pro-choice and pro-life communities, and who refuse to do anything to reduce the need for abortion.

Documentary Spotlights George Tiller

Broadsheet (Salon.com): New documentary spotlights Tiller, by Judy Berman:

"We've been picketed since 1975," says Dr. George Tiller. "My office has been blown up. We have had 4,000 people arrested outside my office in 1991. In 1993 I survived an assassination attempt. From August of 1994 until March of 1997 I was under daily U.S. Federal Marshal protection."

Dr. Tiller's interview is part of the new film "What's the Matter With Kansas?" which puts a human face on Thomas Frank's bestselling investigation into conservatism's rise in the formerly liberal state.

The post includes a clip from the documentary.

Will Killing of Kansas Abortion Provider Hamper Whitehouse Efforts to Find Common Ground on Abortion?

LA Times: Doctor's slaying a setback for common ground on abortion, by Peter Wallsten & Robin Abcarian:

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- In calling last month for "common ground" on abortion, President Obama launched his search for an unlikely political sweet spot -- a popular stance on an issue that has long been dominated by extremes.

But the slaying Sunday of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller has raised the level of mistrust between the very factions that the White House has been trying to bring together.

Statement from Dr. Tiller's Church

Wichita Eagle: George Tiller's church releases statement about his death:

Wichita's Reformation Lutheran Church -- the church to which abortion provider George Tiller belonged and where he was killed Sunday -- has released a statement about his death....

Reformation Lutheran Church

The Reformation Lutheran Church family is shocked and deeply saddened by the violent murder of Dr. George Tiller, a longtime member of our congregation, that occurred in our church home May 31.

Our congregation strives to be a safe place for all people. We deplore the violence that took place within the walls of our church. Further, we reject any notion that violence against another human being is an acceptable way to resolve differences over any issue. We must always strive to engage in peaceful discussion. Our faith calls us to this. Our humanity demands it.

In the wake of this tragic event, our deepest concern is for the family of George Tiller. We ask the community to join us in prayer for them as they face the difficult days ahead. Our hearts ache with them. We also ask that the family's privacy be respected.

Members of Reformation Lutheran Church have been deeply affected by this tragedy. To address their needs, we are assembling a team of crisis intervention specialists.

In this time of uncertainty, we stand firm in the promises of Jesus Christ: forgiveness, hope, love, and new life, even from death. We pray for healing and peace to be restored. We offer our thanks for the many prayers of support from across the country. Your words of encouragement are a blessing to the people of Reformation Lutheran Church and Wichita.

The Rev. Lowell Michelson, The Rev. Kristin Neitzel

Police Gather Information on Suspect in Abortion Provider's Murder

NY Times: Suspect Identified in Killing of Doctor, by Susan Sauling and Monica Davey:

The man I married disappeared into this other person years ago,” Ms. Roeder, shaken and puffy eyed, said of Scott Roeder, who was being held in a Wichita jail in the death of Dr George Tiller, who was fatally shot at his Wichita church on Sunday. The authorities said charges were expected soon against Mr. Roeder.

“He wanted a scapegoat,” Ms. Roeder said. “First it was taxes, he stopped paying, then he turned to the church and got involved in anti-abortion.”

But Mr. Roeder, 51, had not been among the people considered most worrisome to abortion rights groups, some of which keep a close eye on anti-abortion groups and their Web sites to monitor what they consider threats, some leaders here said. “Nobody recognizes his name,” said Marla Patrick, a state coordinator for the National Organization for Women in Kansas.