From: katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago)
Subject: STOP THE TERRORISTS!!!
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 03:09:33 GMT

I'm brand new to talk.abortion, so I don't know if this subject
has been talked to death. It doesn't matter, because it's a
very important subject and I plan to keep it in front of everybody's
face whenever I can. 

It's not going to matter one little bit if abortion is legal or not,
because soon, there won't be any more doctors performing abortions.
One by one, all across the country, doctors are being pressured into
giving up doing the procedure.

Here is an example of the terrorist tactics being used by Pro-Fetus
Zealots (PFZs) to harass doctors and health care workers.

This example happened in Dallas, TX and the doctor's name is
Dr. Clay Alexander. I'm going to liberally quote from an article
by Steve Blow which appeared in the July 26 Dallas Morning News.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

On June 2, members of the Dallas Pro-Life Action Network (PLAN) fanned
out in Dr. Alexander's Richardson (TX) office building and across the
street at Richardson Medical Center.

"They passed out a one-page leaflet in every single office," Dr. Alexander
said. "It said, 'Abortionist Alexander murders babies in Dallas. Please 
beg him to stop. Here is his home phone number and address. Here is his
office number and address. Please call or write or join our picket to
end this slaughter.'"

Protest leaders announced their intention to hound Dr. Alexander seven
days a week until he discontinued abortions.

Dr. Alexander was somewhat mystified. Although he had previously worked
part-time in an abortion clinic, he was performing only two or three
abortions a year in conjunctions with his obstetrics and gynecology
practice. "I really thought this would all blow over in a few days,"
he said.

But day after day, week after week, the picketing continued - alternating
outside his office, the hospital and his North Dallas home.

He said some of the protest signs mentioned his wife and 2-year old 
daughter by name - "Lisa's Husband Is A Murderer," "Barbara's Daddy
Kills Little Boys and Girls."  "It really was relentless," Dr.
Alexander said. "It's virtually extortion. It's blackmail. It's
intimidation in its worst form. It's terrorism."

When the picketing had been underway one month, PLAN director Tom Cyr
wrote in the organization's newsletter: "Right about now, abortionist
Clay Alexander must be realizing that, until he agrees to stop killing
preborn children and exploiting their mothers for profit, his life
will never again be peaceful."

I asked Mr. Cyr this week if his activities are a form of terrorism.
"No, it isn't at all," he said. "We consider people who brutally
dismember innocent human beings as terrorists. What we're doing is 
exposing the terrorists to the public, to their neighbors, to anyone
they come into contact with."

And that includes following Dr. Alexander's wife and children. "We will
put the family or the doctor under surveillance at various times, yes.
In order to do an effective protest, you have to know pretty much
what the family patterns are," he said

Most of the abortion debate in this country has focused on the courts
and legislatures. But both sides agree that abortions-rights opponents
have found a successful, backdoor strategy in fighting abortion by
intimidating doctors.

"Clearly, if a few courageous doctors don't stick it out and continue
doing pregnancy terminations, then who cares if Roe vs. Wade stands?"
Dr. Alexander said. "If there is no physician, no abortion will be
done 

Other doctors have been picketed sporadically, but Dr. Alexander is the
first in the Dallas area to be targeted non-stop. Mr. Cyr promises
that more will follow. "We're in ongoing discussions with a number of
abortionists to see if they can't be persuaded to avoid the same sort
of pressure Clay Alexander experienced," he said.

Dr. Alexander certainly never thought that he would succumb to the
pressure. "I said, 'I can outlast these people. There's no way they're
going to keep my patients from exercising their legal choice.' Yet
seven weeks later, tehre's my pen on the paper."

On July 16, Dr. Alexander wrote the letter that Mr. Cyr had demanded:
"I remain pro-choice,...but agree to no longer perform elective preg-
nancy terminations."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*THIS IS SICK*! How can this be allowed? How can we spend so much time
protecting medical clinics and yet ignore the torture the PFZs are
putting doctors and other health care workers through, not to mention
their families and neighbors?

Does anyone know of any orginizations that are focusing on this issue?
I want to hear ideas, legal and practical, about how this sort of thing
can be stopped.

My idea would be a nationwide system set up to track these sort of stories,
then pursue any and all legal means to end the harassment. The doctors
shouldn't have to bear the burden alone.

My radical idea would be to give the harassers a taste of their own
medicine. Harass them back, as blatently and as hard as they are
giving. If it's legal for them, why not for us? If I lived in Dallas,
I wouldn't mind marching out in front of Mr. Cyr's house with a sign
saying "MR. CYR TERRORIZES INNOCENT, LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS."

I'm pissed!

Vickie
Anti-abortion, Pro-adoption, Pro-birth control, Pro-sex education, Pro-life*

    *** PRO-CHOICE ***   *** PRO-CHOICE ***   *** PRO-CHOICE *** 

*I love life. I'm taking back this phrase. It'll be in my .sig from now on.