THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190621
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Gina Martin thought they were all on the same side. The Chesapeake woman always figured those opposing abortion were fighting the good fight and, until recently, fighting it clean.
That was, until:
A Florida abortion doctor, David Gunn, was shot and killed on March 10, 1993, outside his office.
Another Florida abortion doctor, John B. Britton, and his clinic escort, James Barrett, were killed last month.
And then it hit closer to home:
A petition - signed by two local men, David Crane and Donald Spitz - surfaced that defended the right to kill abortion doctors to save the lives of unborn children.
Federal marshals were dispatched this week to Norfolk to escort Hillcrest Clinic employees after they had been harassed and threatened.
The local Planned Parenthood organization allowed reporters to watch a videotape of an anti-abortion group based in Northern Virginia that is rallying churches to take up arms in the fight against abortion. Parents should blindfold their children, the speaker says, ``sitting them down on the living-room floor and saying, `Now, put the weapon together.' ''
An article by a lawyer at the American Center for Law and Justice at Regent University outlines a possible defense for the killer of an abortion doctor. The article, which says justifiable homicide can be argued, was published and scheduled for release this month, but pulled at the last minute by school officials.
``People see these extremists and begin to think we're all hateful, violent people,'' said Carolyn Venable, a volunteer with the Tidewater chapter of the Virginia Society for Human Life.
``But we're not.''
Mainstream abortion opponents, like Martin and Venable, are busy enough trying to reverse legal changes brought by the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973. But recently they've had to channel their energies inward, trying to distance themselves from their extremist counterparts.
Venable is a member of the Virginia Society for Human Life, a subsidiary of the National Right to Life Committee. The organization is quick to say it isn't affiliated with Operation Rescue. And Operation Rescue, known for its massive blockades of abortion clinics, has distanced itself from Spitz - who calls his outfit Operation Rescue Chesapeake - because of his extremist views.
And both national groups distance themselves from the politics of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, a Northern Virginia-based group, that has released a manual calling for training militant and ``unmerciful'' activists for a new age of radical right politics.
The Planned Parenthood videotape shows a May meeting of the group featuring the Rev. Matthew Trewhella, leader of Missionaries to the Preborn in Wisconsin.
``My son Jeremiah, I'm teaching him to be a free man,'' Trewhella says on the tape. ``I grab his trigger finger - and he's 16 months old - and if you ask him, `Jeremiah, where's your trigger finger?' he'll go like this immediately,'' Trewhella says, pointing to his index finger, while members in the audience laugh.
They break into cheers and applause when another speaker, Jeffrey Baker, takes the podium and announces:
``Abortionists should be put to death.''
Mainstream opponents say their passive weapons in the war against abortion - counseling troubled women - go largely unnoticed in the wake of shootings and rallying videotapes.
Venable's group is not allowed to protest. She said she recently offered her home to a pregnant teenager who said she was going to be thrown out of her parents' home if she did not have an abortion.
``Their (extremist) message works against what we're trying to do,'' Venable said. ``We're trying to help mothers through education.''
The National Right to Life Committee has worked diligently the past two years to stress the differences in the factions of the movement.
``After the first doctor was killed, we sent out press releases, we were calling for peace but the person in front of the television cameras was Paul Hill,''said Michele Arocha Allen, communications director for the Committee, referring to the man charged in the July 29 killings of a Florida abortion doctor and his escort.
``Then he was on Donahue and said to be the national spokesperson for the right-to-life movement. . . . Whenever you focus on anything besides saving the lives of unborn children, it distracts from the true message and hurts the movement.''
The group's mission is to ensure protection for all human life through education and legislation and to seek ``positive nonviolent solutions to human problems.''
Martin is sickened by all the violence.
``I think we've made a lot of progress over the years. I don't know what this will do for us now.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
IAN MARTIN/Staff
Local anti-abortion activist David Crane, confronting Amy Zappia
near Norfolk's Hillcrest Clinic, has signed a petition defending the
right to kill abortion doctors.
by CNB