by Laura Allan
Following the terrorist bombing of Fthe Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Feminist Majority Foundation National Coordinator Katherine Spillar testified about the relationship between anti-abortion extremists and militia groups at a Senate subcommittee special hearing on violence at women's health clinics in early May, along with Kate Michelman of NARAL and Pamela Maraldo of Planned Parenthood.
In her testimony, Spillar related examples of how these right-wing groups are intertwined. For example, opposition to abortion appears to be an important organizing issue for many of these right-wing extremist groups. Spillar pointed out that the political ideologies around which many in the anti-abortion movement and the militia movement are organized are strikingly similar: anti-feminism, anti-Semitism, anti-federal government and anti-gun control.
At the hearing Spillar said, "We have seen in the anti-abortion extremists' literature, public phone messages, and statements several references to Waco, to the Branch Davidians, to Randy Weaver, to identification with what they call the "persecuted Christians" (the Branch Davidians), and anger at the Attorney General, whom they call Janet 'Waco' Reno, as well as other law enforcement."
Spillar pointed out that an "Army of God" terrorist tactics manual was found in the yard of Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, convicted attempted murderer of abortion doctor George Tiller. This Army of God manual includes instructions for making a bomb using ammonium nitrate, the same chemical used in the Oklahoma City attack.
Planned Parenthood has also found evidence of the connection between anti-abortion extremists and militias. For example, a speech given by Matthew Trewhella, a leader in the antiabortion extremist group Missionaries to the Preborn, called for the formation of militias. The speech was given at a meeting of the U.S. Taxpayer's Party , an extreme right wing group, in June of 1994.
At the meeting, a militia field organizing manual was distributed. The manual contained a list of civil rights that that group claimed are being violated by the Federal Government. The first right on the list was the "right to life" because of legalized abortion.
Spillar strongly emphasized the continuing need for investigation into links between anti-abortion extremists and militias, and into whether a conspiracy to commit violence at abortion clinics exists.
"Until now, law enforcement has been treating each episode of clinic violence as a separate incident," said Spillar. "Now we have new information about an active conspiracy to perpetrate clinic violence. Shelley Shannon has just released a letter in which she writes that she has provided information to federal authorities of 'a nationwide conspiracy of anti-abortion terrorists whose aim is to kill physicians and shut down abortion clinics.'"
The Feminist Majority Foundation also joined Representative Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Representative Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and several other organizations in a press conference held on May 16, calling for congressional hearings into the militia movement and its connections to the extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement.
In a legal victory for abortion-rights supporters, the United States Supreme Court in June rejected a challenge to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) law brought by abortion foes. The challengers claimed that FACE, which makes it a federal crime to blockade or commit violence against abortion clinics, violates their free speech rights. By rejecting the challenge, the Supreme Court in effect agreed that FACE does not violate free speech rights and is in fact constitutional.
Just prior to the Supreme Court ruling, Operation Rescue had attempted to shut down clinics in Los Angeles, billing the action as a challenge to the FACE law. In response, the Feminist Majority Foundation's National Clinic Defense Project mobilized 600 prochoice clinic defenders, outnumbering Operation Rescue ten to one. Leaders of the most extremist faction of the antiabortion movement from Portland, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Fargo, North Dakota were at the Los Angeles clinics, and two of the anti-abortion demonstrators arrested are promoters of justifiable homicide.
Because of the continued threats to clinic personnel, the National Clinic Defense Pro ect's Women's Health Center Hotline has expanded, to provide even more clinics with advice about security and information about anti-abortion extremists in their area. The Hotline is now serving close to seventy clinics nationwide and is available to provide expert security assistance to clinics that call.