Without Tiller, anti-abortion militants adrift

By Mary Sanchez

Is Operation Rescue on its last legs? That's the question many are asking in light of an Internet appeal the once-prominent anti-abortion organization made recently pleading for donations to save its life. “There's no time to lose,” wrote Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, “we're getting very close to the point of shutting everything down if emergency help doesn't arrive soon.”

Many in the media seized on the appeal to speculate as to whether the protest group was finished. Indeed, times have not been good for Operation Rescue lately, especially since a gunman killed the organization's greatest fundraising tool. In Dr. George Tiller, the recently murdered Wichita, Kan., abortion doctor, Operation Rescue had a worthy nemesis. In fact, the organization relocated to Wichita from California in 2002 explicitly to harass Tiller. Without him, the group is floundering. Tiller was worth much more to the group alive and aborting fetuses than he is dead.

Frankly, I was a little suspicious when the letter popped up in my e-mail. It had a number I could call to make a donation using my credit card and an address where I could send a check. It gave me the option of using PayPal and even supplied a number I could call if I wanted to get around the fact that Operation Rescue lost its tax-exempt status. It helpfully reassured me that if I couldn't muster any money that my emergency prayers would be accepted, too! I suspect that Operation Rescue will be around as long as Troy Newman has fingers and an Internet connection. No, it will never relive the glory years it enjoyed at the head of the anti-abortion movement's most violent days, when it could collect a million dollars from its faithful.

And it's entirely possible Newman generated enough donations to make his recent e-mail plea worthwhile. But in Wichita, people are just plain weary of Operation Rescue. Even many opposed to abortion are revolted by some of its tactics, such as its “Truth Trucks,” which are basically moving billboards splashed with images of bloody fetuses. The group made life a living hell for anyone even tangentially linked to Tiller, and that was a non-trivial number of people around town. Now, Operation Rescue is focusing on Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Nebraska, who is vowing to take up the late-term abortion work of his friend Tiller.

Clearly, abortion crusades have caused enough bloodshed - of the doctors performing abortions and now of abortion protester James Pouillon, who was shot while holding vile signs of aborted fetuses in front of a Michigan high school. Many who are opposed to abortion - and that includes me - want to change the law, but in the meantime we believe that more reasoned measures can reduce the number of abortions in the U.S. Men and women - and teens who are sexually active - need better access to contraception, and education on how to use it, to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place.

Women seeking abortions shouldn't have to see anyone but trained counselors - professionals, not the kind of people who linger outside clinics to “sidewalk counsel” women hurrying from their cars to the clinics - to make sure that all options are known to them.

Such a future has no place for Operation Rescue.

n Contact the writer:

msanchez@kcstar.com