Abortion Clinic - Anti-abortion Violence

Anti-abortion Violence

Abortion clinics have frequently been subject to anti-abortion violence. The New York Times cites over one hundred clinic bombings and incidents of arson, over three hundred invasions, and over four hundred incidents of vandalism between 1978 and 1993, and the National Abortion Federation, an organization of abortion providers, cites over 300 attempted or completed instances of bombing or arson, thousands of invasions and vandalism incidents, as well as other attacks, between 1977 and 2009. According to the NAF, the first instance of arson at an abortion clinic took place in March 1976 in Oregon, and the first bombing was in Ohio in February 1978. Some notable incidents are:

• In 1993, Dr. David Gunn, one of a number of doctors murdered by opponents of abortion rights, was shot and killed outside as he arrived at his clinic.
• In 1993, Dr. George Tiller was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon outside his clinic. Tiller would later be murdered in church by another opponent of abortion rights.
• In 1994, Dr. John Britton, another doctor, and James Barrett, his escort, were shot and killed by Paul Jennings Hill as they arrived at a clinic. Barrett's wife June was also wounded.
• In 1994, John Salvi shot and killed two abortion clinic receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, and wounded five other people.
• In 1998, a remote-controlled pipe bomb that Eric Robert Rudolph set outside a clinic killed security guard Robert Sanderson and maimed nurse Emily Lyons.
• In 2001, Peter James Knight shot and killed a security guard, Steven Rogers, at the abortion clinic where Rogers worked.

In the United States, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was passed in 1994 in response to these acts of violence. It prohibits the use of force or obstruction to interfere with a person's attempt to obtain or provide reproductive health services, and the intentional damage of a reproductive health care facility such as an abortion clinic.