The Abortion War’s Uncertain Future

Eyal Press is the author of Absolute Convictions, which chronicles the rise of the anti-abortion movement in the 1990s culminating with the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1999. After Slepian’s death, Press’ father became the only abortion provider in Buffalo, and as such, the target of death threats and violence. He has written on the topic for multiple publications including The New York Times Magazine and The Nation. I spoke with Press on his thoughts on the recent shooting of Dr. George Tiller, what it means for the future of the anti-abortion movement and the role the administration will play as an advocate for the abortion provider community.

Kate Klonick:  You wrote extensively about the “Spring of Life,” the anti-abortion communities’ big attempt in the ’90s to raise awareness and shut down clinics. Do you think that Tiller’s murder could re-ignite that kind of frenzied activity?

Eyal Press: It’s too early to tell, right now. On the one hand, there is an out of the blue element to this, given that it’s been ten years since such an act of violence has been carried out. Which is not insignificant — the murder and bombings of the mid-90s culminating with Dr. Slepian’s murder really tarred the pro-life movement. It was not activity that all pro-life people endorsed, but it was seen that way by people outside the movement, because [it appeared to be just] a continuum of extreme rhetoric.  The people that [committed violent acts on abortion providers] just said, “We’re taking the rhetoric of the moment and acting on it.” 

KK: Yesterday, the New York Times reported that Tiller’s clinic was closed and quoted the leader of a pro-life group saying, “Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason. . .  Every kook in the world will get some notion.” Do you think that’s a genuine feeling among leaders in the pro-life community?

EP:  It’s a terrible image blow to all of the culture of life people. These are the people who are not about demonizing women and calling them whores when they go and decide they want to have an abortion. [They're] not about demonizing physicians and calling them murderers. [They're] about the dignity of the unborn child and the culture of life. So you can see if that’s the message, than this act is extremely unwelcome.  I don’t think that’s disingenous.  I think many people who want to see abortion made illegal think the only way to go forward is through non-violent means.

But there is one very serious concern that comes out of this — which is if Tiller’s clinic stays closed, it’s a feather in the cap of the extremists.   There is a risk that some extremists may draw a certain conclusion from this — namely, that violence works. And every place you see violence fueled by extremism — to the extent its seen as more effective –  it becomes more common.  In that sense, I think the reverberations could be profound.

KK: Do you think it’ll cause a change in the rhetoric of the pro-life movement?

EP:  I think many people in the pro-life movement actually do believe abortion is murder, even if they’re not going out and committing violent acts against abortion providers. William Saletan would disagree, but I don’t think it’s that simple. They can really believe [abortion is murder], but tactically it’s a disaster. If what you believe in principle is tarnishing the movement– then you have to start questioning the rhetoric.

There’s no question the pro-life movement realized this [decades ago] in how they talked about women. When Operation Rescue [a major pro-life group] got going  they were calling women whores and yelling at them, “Dont kill your baby!” But there’s a slight problem there: about one in three women in America will have an abortion. Which means just about every woman in America knows someone who has made that decision, or if not made it, come very close to it and wrestled with it. When you are telling every woman that the message is that they’re whores, you’re going to be seen as an obnoxious sexist and you’re going to lose your popularity very quickly. So nowadays women are seen as victims [in the anti-abortion movement]. They were transformed. Which is equally demeaning.

KK: There’s been talk that the FBI really wasn’t on the ball for this, and could have done more to prevent Tiller’s death. Do you think there’s an underestimation of these kinds of extremists?

EP: Well FACE law ( Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) has been ignored and lay dormant during the Bush era. The excuse was that there wasn’t a lot of violence. [The administration] also had a lot of other things they were worried about, but they also had very little interest in coming forward and saying, “We are helping abortion providers.” And then this murder happened.

I think it’s a legacy of Bush, but to some extent I think they were caught by surprise. It now falls to the Obama administration to take this very seriously. Where there is extreme rhetoric and also action — tearing out security cameras, putting glue in locks — this merits scrutiny and investigation and prosecution– vigorous prosecution or we could have more such acts.

I think the response from the Justice Department was very appropriate — which was to say we will offer protection to people who need it. But it should go beyond that. There should be a proactive effort to preserve the safety of people who work in clinics. No other niche of the medical or professional world has been the brunt of such violence as the community of abortion providers in this country. When you count up the bomb threats, the death threats, the daily trespassing and harassment, the anthrax with a record of shootings and attempted shootings — it’s a community that has a long, long record of violence for providing a legal medical service, and that should be the starting point of the conversation.