Ms. Magazine | Terror in the Name of the Lord

'WELCOME PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS-HAVE A BLAST,' read the marquee outside a little motel in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1985. Members of the Pro-Life Action Network (PLAN) were in a festive mood following dozens of arsons and bombings of abortion clinics around the United States. Some wore firecrackers on their conference name badges. A letter from imprisoned clinic arsonist Curt Beseda was read. This small but seminal meeting in many ways epitomized the brazen yet banal nature of organized antiabortion extremism-a rah-rah atmosphere, like some perverse parody of a pep rally, in which threats of future violence were cloaked as free speech, and past criminal acts were celebrated as valid tools for intimidating fellow citizens. A fringe culture was coalescing. (...) Antiabortion extremists, including many who would become leaders of the then newly-formed American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA), argued that the murder of Dr. Gunn was "justifiable." A wave of four murders and seven attempted murders of doctors and clinic personnel came in the next two years. No group was held responsible for the attacks, although individuals were prosecuted. In 1995, ACLA launched a campaign it called the "Deadly Dozen" that featured Old West-style "unwanted" posters of 13 leading abortion providers. Some of the posters included the providers' home and work addresses. The targeted physicians said they were acutely aware that similar posters-not attributed to ACLA-had preceded the murders of three of their colleagues. The providers said they viewed the posters as a hit list, and the FBI contacted those on the list and offered protection; the abortion providers donned bulletproof vests and took other security precautions.