Abortion Clinic Violence
Last year, one in five clinics experienced some
form
of violence, including arson, bombings and murder.
Not long after the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision
that made abortion legal, anti-abortion extremists began their assault
on women's health care providers. Anti-abortion extremists have
invaded, blockaded, vandalized and bombed clinics across the country,
as well as murdered and wounded abortion providers and their supporters.
Twenty-eight
years of anti-abortion violence has spanned the country and claimed
dozens of victims.
Last year, one in five clinics experienced some form of severe
violence, including arsons, bombings, blockades, invasions, death
threats, stalking, and murder. Abortion providers, fearing for their
lives, frequently must work behind bullet proof glass, metal detectors,
and bullet proof vests. As a result, fewer and fewer doctors are
willing to provide abortions. Anti-choice violence endangers the
lives of doctors, clinic workers, and the women who turn to clinics
for abortion and other reproductive health care services.
Pro-Choice
Response to Clinic Violence
The pro-choice movement developed several legal strategies
to combat anti-choice violence, including the Freedom
of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) of 1994; the creation
of safe "buffer
zones" surrounding reproductive health clinics that protect
women and doctors and the RICO
strategy, which acknowledges anti-abortion clinic violence as
a form of domestic terrorism.
National
Clinic Access Project (NCAP)
The Feminist Majority Foundation's National Clinic Access
Project, the largest clinic access project in the nation, leads
efforts to keep women's health clinics open in the face of violence
and harassment by abortion opponents.
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