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NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2009
Abortion rights battles continue
When Democratics are in power, the religious right intensifies its efforts. Anti-abortion groups have focused on changing state laws to make abortion illegal in the event of an overturn of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Several state legislatures have been voting on "Personhood Amendments," which would grant personhood to a cell or embryo at fertilization, conception, cloning, or a "functional equivalent."
"Born Alive Truth," led by Gianna Jessen, who claims to have survived a saline abortion when she was a fetus, launched television attack ads on Obama during his campaign saying he voted against a bill making it mandatory to give medical care to a fetus that had survived a late-term abortion. Obama voted against this bill because similar laws were already in place. Operation Rescue, headed by Troy Newman, led a campaign against the nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius for Attorney General because of her support of Dr. George Tiller, who runs one of only three clinics in the U.S. that perform late-term abortions. Newman demonstrated against Sebelius dressed as a cockroach, implying she was allowing clinics to operate under filthy conditions.
Operation Rescue (OR) focuses on harassing Dr. Tiller. They harass clinic staff as well as businesses involved with clinics, including those that provide medical services, cabs, hotels, and landscaping. Newman recruits Tiller's former employees and patients to give testimonies, usually consisting of their discomfort with late-term abortion. They are attempting to have Dr. Tiller's license revoked by influencing anti-abortion District Attorney Phill Kline to obtain patients' files to prove that Tiller was not reporting statutory rapes. However, the DA also tried to obtain files of adult patients. Though Kline lost an election to pro-choice DA Paul Morrison, Tiller was put on trial in March 2009. The charges had changed to 19 misdemeanor counts of illegally conducting a post-viability abortion. Tiller was pronounced not guilty of all counts.
Newman was disappointed by this verdict because he had said that "this trial is expected to have huge implications for the pro-life movement nationwide." The judge tolerated demonstrating OR members outside and even inside the courtroom. OR still has hope of destroying Tiller because he is now being tried again on 11 similar charges brought by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts by Cheryl Sullenger, an OR member.
The religious right influences the public with its lies through the mainstream media as well as its own. The result is a youth anti-abortion movement as well as public tolerance of a war on reproductive rights that includes physical harassment. There needs to be more knowledge of the realities of abortion, including late-term abortion, such as the fact that it is usually performed for important medical reasons. It is critical to make known the deception of the religious right, which believes that it is moral to lie to achieve their goals. The causes of the religious right, including the war on reproductive rights, are tools in their attempt to create a theocratic state.
--A.H.
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