What the F****** F*** …

 

are the furious fundamentalists, fetus fetishists and/or far-right fanatics doing nowadays in the Excited States of America?

The latest tactic in Operation Rescue’s never-ending and ever-escalating campaign of legalistic and illegal harassment is to target individual people staffing Dr Tiller’s clinic for violence prayer by publishing their photos and personal information. From ChristianNewsWire:

Operation Rescue has released the most up-to-date list of abortion clinic workers employed by George R. Tiller at his late-term abortion mill, Women’s Health Care Services, in Wichita, Kansas. The list includes twenty-two people, including three out-of-state abortionists who travel to Kansas to do abortions, including late-term procedures that are illegal in their home states. “We are releasing this list of abortion workers in order to expose them to the community, and to elicit prayers for their repentance,” said Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger.

“As Christians, we are concerned about them as people, and understand that sometimes it takes ‘tough love’ to help someone see the destructive path they are taking, so that they can make the changes necessary to have a better life,” Sullenger said. “Most people who quit the abortion industry tell us that they are relieved to be out of that business, and say that leaving improved their lives.” …

Today’s abortion worker list is in the form of a photo gallery with captions telling the public a little about each worker.

It appears Operation Rescue is expanding its murderous stranglehold urging its followers to pray for the staff of Dr Tiller’s clinic. Birth Pangs has blogged about Dr Tiller here, here, here and here. Here’s one well-informed perspective on his medical practice.

Just in case you spent the last 15 years or so in a deep coma, let us refresh your memory about the possible consequences of being on Operation Rescue’s Hit List. In 1996, a website called the ‘Nuremberg Files’ was set up by anti-abortion activists. It displayed images of abortion providers, their names and addresses. It offered rewards of $500 for each doctor who was “persuaded” to stop performing abortions. Though ‘Nuremberg’ claimed that it did not advocate killing anyone, whenever someone on its list was murdered, a strike through their name appeared. In spite of its disclaimer,

the “wanted” program was pretty effective at dissuading abortion doctors. After his name appeared on a poster in 1993, Dr. David Gunn was shot and killed entering a Florida abortion clinic. Five months later and after his name appeared on a wanted poster, Dr. George Patterson was shot and killed. In 1994, after his name appeared on a poster, Dr. John Britton was killed by Paul Hill.

From here.

For decades, pro-choice activists in Canada have felt secure in feeling that we are not like the US, and could never be. Dr Morgentaler has faced legal prosecution and been physically threatened, but nothing quite as extreme as the persecution and danger Dr Tiller has experienced.

Unfortunately, the hijacking of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada by the Reform/Alliance Party has produced a political party that has been cultivated and fertilized by right-wing religious fundamentalist ideologues. And some of their tactics are leeching into our political culture. Operation Rescue is one tentacle of a large, evangelical supremacist movement in the US.

Consider Bills C-484 and C-537. They are Trojan Horses, with back ends that will disgorge the incrementalist manure that fetus fetishists need to start re-criminalizing abortion.

91% of Canadians support access to abortion, of which 49% support it unconditionally. Furthermore, 66% of Canadians approved the decision to award the Order of Canada to Dr Morgentaler.

It would seem that every time pro-choice activists and supporters excise one slimy religious fundamentalist tentacle, another one takes its place.