Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993 TAG: 9306140136
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The bright-yellow posters carrying blurry photographs of Dr. Abraham Anderson and Dr. Michael Girtelschmid were mailed last week. Headlines on the poster say "Not wanted in our community" and "Abortionist."
David Crane, Virginia director of Operation Rescue, said his group is responsible for the posters.
"The message, I think, is pretty straightforward," Crane said Friday. "We do not want men who make their living from taking advantage of women in crisis and killing their children in our community. . . . We believe they're doing evil, and we're exposing them."
Crane said he sent copies of the poster to hundreds of doctors in the Hampton Roads area.
But at least some of the posters had an unintended effect.
Hillcrest Clinic, where one of the gynecologists works, has been "inundated with calls" from doctors angry to find the posters in their mail, administrator Bonnie Collins said.
"They've all been supportive of us," Collins said.
Dr. William Robinette, a physician at the NDC Medical Center in Norfolk, said he was appalled.
"These tactics are outrageous," Robinette said. "It seems like their minimal intent is to have these people harassed, to give their home address and place of employment. But worse than that, it sets them up to be murdered, as Dr. Gunn was."
Dr. David Gunn, a physician who worked at Florida abortion clinics, was shot to death in March by an anti-abortion activist.
"It's absurd," Anderson said. "Abortion is not my primary aim in life. . . . I'm not an advocate of abortion to solve the world's problems, but I feel it's necessary in certain cases."
by CNB