Among the many hours of scheduled “praying” and “public witness” outside of  Carhart’s clinic is  a scheduled “live ultrasound.” The event takes place from July 30 to Aug. 7, and includes guest speaker Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. #

Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life and is president of the National Prolife Religious Council. He has spoken against Planned Parenthood and has backed some of the more extreme members of the anti-abortion rights movement, such as Randall Terry.#

Even though Terry had previously called Pavone a perfect example of “why [the anti-abortion rights movement] is losing this fight” to stop abortion, Pavone has publiclyvowed to vote for Terry. Terry, the founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, is running for president as a way to bring attention to abortion. He has admitted the campaign is a stunt aimed at creating “a crisis of conscience for Americans regarding the slaughter of the unborn and thereby hastening the end of legalized child-killing” and attacking “President Obama’s agenda starting with child-killing, but also including our battle against socialism, our enslavement to debt, and more.” #

In a statement Pavone released with Priests for Life, Pavone accused Planned Parenthood of “targeting the abortion of black babies.” He also said the chain of women’s clinics “is eager and willing to cover up the prostitution enslavement of young girls — including minorities — so long as they make money doing it.” #

According to a recent press release from Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, “Summer of Mercy 2.0″ is being “sponsored and organized by The Maryland Coalition for Life, The Christian Defense Coalition, Operation Rescue and the local churches of Maryland.” Mahoney describes the event as “celebrating the 20th Anniversary of ‘The “Summer of Mercy’ in Wichita, Kansas where over 50,000 pro-life activists gathered to cry out to God for an end to abortion in 1991.” #

The event that Mahoney is “celebrating” was a similar event also entitled “Summer of Mercy” that targeted abortion provider George Tiller in the early 1990s. Tiller was eventually  shot in 1993 by an anti-abortion activist in Kansas where the event took place. He was later murdered in 2009 by another activist in Kansas. #

Following Tiller’s assassination, Mahoney told Time magazine, “Politically, [Tiller’s murder] could not have happened at a worse time.” He said, “Please, don’t use this tragic situation to broad-brush the pro-life community as extremists.” #

Scheduled speaker Frank Pavone told The Washington Independent following the murder: #

“I wouldn’t put it past abortion advocates in Congress to use this tragedy to put more protections in place for the so-called right to choose,” said Frank Pavone. “That would just feed into the problem. There’s a lot of disappointment and frustration out there as a result of 2008 elections. People feel desperate. I’m not justifying what happened to Tiller at all when I say that it’s not surprising that a pattern begins to develop — the administration is hostile to the anti-abortion movement, there are acts of violence from people who feel helpless.” #

Two years after the death of Tiller, groups such as Operation Rescue and the Christian Defense coalition are planning to target yet another abortion provider. Carhart’s clinic is the site for the overwhelming majority of the “Summer of Mercy.” Carhart has already been the target of a number of attacks from the anti-abortion movement. #

Pro-abortion rights groups plan to make their presence known at this year’s “Summer of Mercy,” however. Side-by-side events called the “Summer of Choice” and “Summer of Trust” are scheduled to take place during the “Summer of Mercy” activities. #

Newman has previously said that he believes “there is no such thing as a ‘safe’ abortion clinic.” Thus, all abortion clinics should be treated as if they were already breaking the law, which is why Newman is asking for records on all abortion providers.

A recent statement from Newman reads:

Operation Rescue is asking for pro-life supporters around the country to assist us by contributing information for a ground-breaking new project that could help expose the full scope of abortion misdeeds in active abortionists nationwide. #

…

“We are currently conducting a massive research project to identify every abortionist in the country along with information about discipline, malpractice cases, and other problems. This is a huge project that could have national impact on the abortion cartel, which thrives when shrouded in secrecy. That’s why we need help from the pro-life community.”

Operation Rescue is asking activists from every community in America to call or e-mail information about abortionists in their areas. We are looking for the names of abortionists and the name of the clinic where they work. We would also appreciate any documentation concerning board discipline, criminal history, malpractice cases, verifiable botched abortions and other similar information. Once compiled, the information will be made available on-line.

Newman has previously said that the focus of the group would be to prosecute abortion providers, who he says continually break the law — now that the legislative session is over. #

“I have yet to find an abortion mill that doesn’t violate the law,” Newman said.

Operation Rescue is also currently preparing to reinstate the “Summer of Mercy” this year in Maryland. This year’s “Summer of Mercy 2.0″ will be a “round-the-clock prayer and worship, inspiring evening rallies with national political and Christian leaders, and cutting edge public events” targeting abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart.

In the past, putting a spotlight on abortion providers has had fatal results. The first “Summer of Mercy” held about 20 years ago targeted an abortion provider named George Tiller. That culminated in the first shooting of Tiller in 1993 by an anti-abortion activist and in his eventual murder in 2009 (committed by another activist).

In Florida, Operation Rescue has paid close attention to a case involving a Hialeah abortion-provider who was accused of illegally practicing medicine while performing a failed abortion in 2006. This March, the case against the provider was thrown out because “medical experts changed testimony,” making the case difficult to prosecute. #

Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, said the Hialeah case is an example of why anti-abortion rights groups such as Operation Rescue need to focus on getting abortion-providers prosecuted. #

Newman said that the group has done quite well getting candidates elected that share in the groups cause, as well as passing legislation that restricts abortion-rights. However, he believes the pro-life movement has “fallen down” when it comes to prosecuting abortion-providers, who he says continually break the law. #

“I have yet to find an abortion mill that doesn’t violate the law,” said Newman. #

Terry Sallas-Merritt, a vice president for Whole Woman’s Health, said that the group’s most common tactic is to harass doctors and clinics who are providing a legal service. Whole Woman’s Health is a chain of women’s health clinics in Texas and Maryland, and was among those targeted in Operation Rescue’s self-proclaimed “sting.” Over a dozen doctors who provide abortion services in Texas are under investigation because of Operation Rescue’s claims. #

According to reporting by our sister site, The Texas Independent, Operation Rescue and a group called “Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust” sent a team of 10 to 15 women undercover to clinics that provide abortions in Texas earlier this year. #

The Texas Independent reported that the women sought the help of these clinics under false pretenses in four cities, changing “information such as age, name and aesthetics such as hair color” when soliciting help from the clinics. #

According to The Fort Worth-Star Telegram, the group also dug through public trash receptacles in search of any wrong-doing: “Operation Rescue reported that its members found evidence that a dozen clinics illegally dumped hazardous and infectious waste or violated patient privacy laws and didn’t adhere to consent laws.” Most of the evidence against these clinics was “discovered by searching trash receptacles around clinics.” #

Sallas-Merrit tells the Florida Independent that she finds the validity of such evidence questionable. Because the dumpsters the group fished through were public, it is hard to say what exactly was disposed by the health clinics. #

“When you have a ‘public’ dumpster,” she said, “the ‘public’ will throw things in there.” #

According to The Texas Independent, Operation Rescue filed a complaint with the Texas State Department of Health and turned over all of its evidence to the Attorney General. A press officer for the Texas Department of State Health and Services said the department investigates “each and every complaint thoroughly,” regardless of the nature of the complaint or the complainant. The press officer also said that “abortion facilities are one of the most highly regulated centers in the state and receive very few complaints overall.” #

Whole Woman’s Health released a statement  following Operation Rescue’s allegations, stating that its clinics “provide high quality, compassionate abortion care for women.” The statement also explained that abortion care in Texas is “more highly regulated than most any other medical service and Whole Woman’s Health adheres to Texas laws and regulations.” #

Sallas-Merritt said that Operation Rescue is “using tried and true tactics that have worked for them in the past,” and that there is a distinct possibility that these tactics will be used in the future. #

“They disturb, distract, and harass, until [abortion-providers] quit,” she said. “That’s what they do.” #

The Texas Medical Board has since picked up the investigation and, according to Life News, “has notified Operation Rescue that it is conducting an investigation into the wide-ranging abuses the pro-life organization found when it conducted an undercover probe of several abortion businesses in the state along with another group called The Survivors.” Texas Medical Board officials have also contacted Operation Rescue for “additional evidence and affidavits related to the fourteen complaints it filed.” #

Newman says that his group is effective in “finding abortionists that are breaking the law,” a tactic they hope to achieve in Florida. #

Newman also said that “exposing the abuses of the abortion-cartel” will continue to play a big role in the group’s efforts now that the legislative session is coming to a close. #

“That is what we will be coming down on,” he said. #

Specifics about the complaints or complainants remain undisclosed while the Texas Medical Board continues its investigation. #

“We won’t know the outcome of this for a long time,” says Sallas-Merritt, adding that, if the anti-abortion rights groups in Texas achieve what they are hoping, this has a good chance of being copied elsewhere. #

Operation Rescue made an announcement just this week that signals the group will continue to intimidate abortion-providers throughout the county. The group announced that it would put together an event with other anti-abortion rights groups called “Summer of Mercy 2.0” in Germantown, Maryland. This summer’s event explicitly targets abortion-provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart. The first “Summer of Mercy” held about twenty years ago targeted another abortion-provider named George Tiller. The efforts of those groups culminated in the first shooting of Tiller in 1993 by an anti-abortion rights activist and eventually his murder in 2009 (committed by another activist.) #

“Abortion providers today are dealing with attacks on many fronts,” says Sallas-Merritt. #

She explained that regardless of the outcome of the investigation, it has “emboldened anti-abortion groups.” #

The last “Summer of Mercy,” took place twenty years ago in Wichita, Kansas, where work done by anti-abortion rights groups culminated in the shooting of abortion-provider George Tiller. Tiller was shot in both arms by an anti-abortion rights activist in 1993, and was eventually murdered by a different activist in 2009, also in Wichita. #

Two years after the death of Tiller, Operation Rescue is planning an event targeting yet another abortion-provider – LeRoy Carhart. #

According to the press release, the event will be held from July 31 through August 2 and will include “round-the-clock prayer and worship, inspiring evening rallies with national political and Christian leaders, and cutting edge public events.” #

“It promises to be an historic season of prayerful and prophetic witness in Maryland,” states the press release. #

Groups participating in the event include the Christian Defense Coalition, the Maryland Coalition for Life, and several local churches. #

According to an interview with Time Magazine immediately following Tiller’s murder, Christian Defense Coalition Director Rev. Patrick Mahoney said that, “politically, [Tiller’s murder] could not have happened at a worse time.” He told Time, “please, don’t use this tragic situation to broad-brush the pro-life community as extremists.” #

“It is our hope and prayer that as scores come to ‘establish justice in the gates’ we will see an end to the violence of abortion and especially the practice of late-term abortion provider LeRoy Carhart,” said Mahoney, in Operation Rescue’s press release. #

Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said the anti-abortion rights movement needs “radical obedience.” #

“Twenty years ago, ‘The Summer of Mercy’ changed America forever,” said Newman. “It is our hope and prayer that ‘The Summer of Mercy 2.0? will bring even greater change and transformation to our nation. We urge all pro-lifer supporters to join us in Maryland to touch hearts, save lives and make history.” #

Life News has a pretty thorough run-down of what Carhart has already been put through by the anti-abortion rights community for providing a legal service to women. #

Since Tiller’s murder, the Obama administration has cracked down on anti-abortion rights activists that have violated the law. #

When the two pieces of legislation are combined they create a situation where a fertilized egg would be considered a person, and allow for the public execution of those who would threaten such a person.

If passed into law, the two bills — House File 7 and House File 153 — would offer an unprecedented defense opportunity to individuals who stand accused of killing such providers, according to a former prosecutor and law professor at the University of Kansas, and are something that might have very well led to a different outcome in the Kansas trail of the man who shot Dr. George Tiller in a church foyer.

Melanie D. Wilson, associate professor of law at the University of Kansas, closely followed the trial of Scott Roeder, the man convicted of murdering Tiller. Roeder, at the urging of Iowa anti-abortion activist and former GOP legislative candidate Dave Leach, attempted to use the necessity defense, which says it is permissible to commit a crime if it stops a greater harm. The judge in the case refused to allow Roeder to use that defense.

“When [Roeder] presented the necessity defense, he failed because the legislature had basically already decided the abortion issue,” Wilson said. “So, as long as Tiller was performing legal abortion, [Roeder], as a defendant, didn’t get to re-decide the case [of abortion's legal status]. Just as a matter of law, the judge wouldn’t allow that argument.”

Currently, abortion is also settled law in Iowa. But House File 153, sponsored by 28 Republicans, challenges it. Under that bill, the state would be mandated to recognize and protect “life” from the moment of conception until “natural death” with the full force of the law and state and federal constitutions. Essentially, the bill declares that from the moment a male sperm and a female ovum join to create a fertilized egg that a person exists.

House File 7, which has been sponsored by 29 GOP House members, seeks to expand state law regarding use of reasonable force, including deadly force. Current state laws provide that citizens are not required to retreat from their dwelling or place of business if they or a third party are threatened. The proposal would significantly expand this to state that citizens are not required to retreat from “any place at which the person has a right to be present,” and that in such instances, the citizen has the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect himself or a third party from serious injury or death or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

Also included in the proposal is a new section to the Iowa Code that would provide automatic criminal and civil immunity to a person who uses deadly force, unless a police investigation proves that the person was not acting “reasonably.” Also key to the immunity clause is the fact that law enforcement would likely be barred from arresting a person at the scene of an incident “unless the law enforcement agency determines there is probable cause that the force was unlawful under this chapter.” If law enforcement does make an arrest, and if that person is later found to have used reasonable force by a court of law, taxpayers could be on the hook for the reimbursement of the person’s attorney fees, court costs, compensation from loss of income and other expenses.

“This is a much stronger argument for a defendant,” Wilson said. “The hurdle that would need to be overcome is the standard of ‘reasonableness,’ but the larger question is who gets to decide that. Is that question that comes before a jury or does a fact-finder get to decide it? In the necessity defense with Roeder, he didn’t get to argue in front of a jury. As a matter of law, he failed. But if this is a jury, and there is a law that says a fetus is a person, then a jury could decide that a reasonable person in like circumstances could be justified in defending that fetus.”

Another aspect of the Roeder case had to do with “imminent threat,” and that is something not addressed in the bill before the Iowa legislature.

“Does this provide someone who is a person with an anti-abortion stance at least an opportunity that is more likely to get to a jury? I think the answer is yes,” Wilson said. “What we are looking at in Iowa is quite different [than the situation in Kansas], because there doesn’t appear to be an imminent requirement, which means that it will all turn on reasonableness. The legislature hasn’t dealt with how lawful abortions fit into this.”

Todd Miler, a criminal defense attorney in Des Moines, agrees that these two bills, when combined, create a situation that could lead to someone claiming the killing of an abortion provider or a family planning worker was reasonable use of deadly force.

“My first thought when I looked at House File 153 was that it was a first step — something that had been put out there as a first step toward a larger political goal. But, when you place it next to House File 7 the potential ramifications are startling,” Miler said.

“[House File 7] explicitly provides that people have a right to defend themselves or others at any place they are legally allowed to be. That would definitely include sidewalks or streets outside of clinics. They could attempt to kill a physician or a clinic worker, and if they did so while believing they were protecting another person, which would be defined under House File 153 as a fetus, then, under this law, they would have the right to do that.”

House Majority Whip Erik Helland (R-Grimes) is one of 19 Republicans and two members of leadership who has sponsored both pieces of legislation. When asked by The Iowa Independent if he was aware of or considered the practical ramifications of both bills, Helland avoided the question.

“The reality is I support both,” Helland said. “If we get a chance to pass both out of the House, I will vote for both.

“The reason I want both out of the House is because HF 153 will never get a vote in the Senate. There will be no vote to hold them on record. We can get the House D’s and R’s on record with 153, but HF 5 is the only one that might get a vote in the Senate, and if we have an opportunity to take a step forward and protect more life then we have to do it.”

When asked to clarify if his stated position meant that he understood the practical ramifications of the bills and that he supported such an outcome, Helland offered no further response.

Other Iowa House members who have signed on as sponsors to both bills are Dwayne Alons, Mark Brandenburg, Royd Chambers, Betty De Boef, Cecil Dolecheck, Jack Drake, Joel Fry, Chris Hagenow, Bob Hager, Daniel Huseman, Jared Klein, Dan Rasmussen, Walt Rogers, Jason Schultz, Chuck Soderberg, Annette Sweeney, Ralph Watts and Assistant Majority Leader Matt Windschitl. The Iowa Independent also reached out to Windschitl as a member of the leadership team for comment. None was provided.

Taken at face value, the bills provide Iowans an opportunity to protect themselves from harm or death at any time and at basically any place — unless the Iowan is woman facing a pregnancy that could endanger or health or life.  That aspect, according to former U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle, who practices law in Waterloo, shows the hypocrisy of those who have signed on as sponsors of both bills.

“It also shows that when you try to take the law where the legislature is taking it, you can really get into what I call a bog of inconsistencies,” Nagle said. “On one hand, you are allowed to shoot someone if you feel threatened, but, on the other hand, if you are going to die from a medical condition — pregnancy — you aren’t allowed to defend yourself against that eventuality.

“It really feeds into that old adage that Republicans value children from the moment of conception until birth.”

When laws like this are passed, he said, what happened in “Kansas will become the norm.”

My favorite response to that comes from VetVoice’s Richard Allen Smith:

A dumb f—— idea, not the least of reasons being that Major Hasan’s records indicated he had no religious preference”, so he wouldn’t have been screened anyway.

But this is the way it goes. We were told by Fox News that to blame right-wingers for the actions of George Tiller’s murderer or the anti-Semite who shot up the Holocaust Museum was out of line. But Muslim soldiers — people who guard the freedoms that Fox bleats about with jingoistic sanctimony — are to be slandered by association. This is a disgrace to the memories of Spc. Kareem R. Khan, Capt. Humayun Saqib Khan, and so many others who have given their lives for this country.

Update: Via Glenn Greenwald’s Twitter, conservative writer David Frum provides an elegant and moving illustration of this point.

In the past few months, we’ve seen a number of shootings performed by white men with right-wing fringe beliefs–but while an attempt to assign the responsibility for the murder of George Tiller, or the killing of police in Pittsburgh, or the assault on the Holocaust Museum to white men as a whole would rightfully be seen as idiotic, there are those who sit poised and prepared assign the alleged actions of one man to an entire people. This is, quite frankly, the best reaction groups like Al Qaeda could hope for–the strength of their narrative of a war between Islam and the West ultimately rests on our own actions. We should not indulge them or those that share a similar worldview.

I wrote a very long piece about Serwer’s last point way back in 2005.

Again, this is a teachable moment. Already I’m seeing conservative writers on Twitter start to set themselves up as the real victims of PC hysteria for daring to oh-so-bravely point out that Hasan is a Muslim Muslim Muslim. Let’s not let anyone get away with euphemism or prejudice. Those in the media who insist on pointing out that Hasan is a Muslim should have to account for why, exactly, they find that characteristic so significant. Chances are they can’t and won’t — because few people want to face up to their own bigotry, and fewer still will want to do so in public.

Here’s how the pregnant reader learned that her fetus had a likely fatal brain deformity, just one day after the time limit beyond which most doctors will no longer perform an abortion:

Our appointment began jovially. The perinatologist and nurse joked about names, and at one point, the doctor called the baby a “little rascal.” As the ultrasound continued, the room grew quiet. The perinatologist scanned the baby’s head again and again. He finally announced, in a solemn voice, “I’m seeing some things in the baby’s brain that concern me.” Time stopped, and everything in the universe shifted. Holding my partner’s hand, I struggled to listen despite the thick blanket of grief that settled over the room.

The doctor continued, “The baby has holoprosencephaly. It’s a brain malformation in which the forebrain fails to divide. Most of these babies die before term. Those that are born have severe disabilities.” He finally took a deep sigh and started to deliver the especially delicate part: “I don’t know what your beliefs are but some people would terminate a pregnancy of this nature. Since you are 22 weeks along, you would have to go to Wichita for the procedure.” Everyone in the room knew this was shorthand for, “You would have to see George Tiller, the infamous late-term abortion doctor. No one else will help you at this point.” Numb, I asked to know the baby’s gender. He placed the ultrasound wand back on my stomach and read the grainy image: “It’s a girl.” We walked out of the clinic with blank stares and wept in the car.

Read the rest of the excerpt here.

Signs from a June 1 George Tiller vigil in Washington, D.C. (Flickr: pdeonarain)

The fatal shooting allegedly by a known white supremacist at the Holocaust Memorial Museum Wednesday in Washington is the second murder apparently motivated by a hateful ideology that’s come to national attention in the last two weeks. James W. von Brunn, the 88-year-old suspect and convicted felon, was well-known for sending mass e-mail messages such as “It’s time to kill all the Jews” and promoting elaborate conspiracy theories on his Website. Similarly, Scott Roeder, the 51-year-old accused of murdering abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in his Wichita, Kans. church, had a long history of ties to a violent right-wing extremist group, had previously threatened another abortion provider, and had just that week vandalized Tiller’s clinic.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

Just as federal law specifically penalizes hate crimes, the law also makes it a federal crime to threaten or commit violence against abortion providers, or to vandalize their clinics. Yet as TWI revealed last week, the criminal law was not being enforced. The day after Dr. George Tiller was murdered, TWI obtained data revealing that under the Bush administration, criminal enforcement of the federal law designed to protect abortion providers and clinics had declined by more than 75 percent over the last eight years.

But there’s also a civil component to that federal law, known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act. That part of the law allows the attorney general to seek an injunction and compensatory damages for anyone who’s been harmed by any activity that violates the law. And it turns out that the Department of Justice over the last eight years didn’t use that part of the law to protect abortion providers, either.

Under the FACE Act, in addition to criminal charges, the Justice Department can obtain damages and an injunction against anyone who “by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with” anyone who provides or receives reproductive health services. It also allows the government to prosecute and sue anyone who “intentionally damages or destroys the property” of an abortion clinic, because they are frequently vandalized as part of protesters’ intimidation tactics. The clinic where Dr. Tiller worked, for example, was repeatedly vandalized, including just days before his murder.

Yet despite these broad powers that Congress granted the attorney general in 1994 to prevent and combat violence against abortion clinics and providers, the Bush administration almost never used them. From 2000 until 2008, during the eight years of the Bush administration, the Justice Department filed only one civil case under the FACE Act. From 1994 until 1999, in contrast, in just five years of the Clinton administration, the Department filed 17 civil cases under the FACE Act — in addition to its much heavier load of criminal cases that we’ve reported before.

It’s possible, of course, that the law was so effective in its early years that it deterred all future violations. “I do think that the statute was very effective,” and “for the most part there were fewer complaints coming to us,” said Cathleen Mahoney, vice president and general counsel of the National Abortion Federation and director of the Justice Department’s Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers until 2006.

But crime statistics provided by the National Abortion Federation show that violence did not stop when the Bush administration came into office. The group reports 3,291 acts of violence against abortion providers in the United States and Canada between 2000 and 2008 – and that’s only the number of incidents they know about. (The total number of incidents in the U.S. alone was not available.) The group warns on its Website that “actual incidents are likely much higher.” That number does not include threats, vandalism and harassment, which are also violations of the FACE Act.

The NAF — the organization that most closely tracks such data in the United States — also reports that between 2000 and 2008 there were at least 17 cases of “extreme” violence against abortion providers in the United States, such as arson, stabbing and bomb attacks. At least 607 letters threatening Anthrax contamination (they did not actually contain anthrax) were sent to abortion providers between 2000 and 2002 alone. During the entire eight years of the Bush administration, the federal government prosecuted only 11 individuals for any acts of violence against abortion clinics or providers.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, although opposed by many abortion-rights advocates for his vehement opposition to keeping abortion legal, did prosecute the infamous anti-abortion activist and convicted felon Clayton Lee Waagner for the anthrax threats, which attracted significant public attention because they were sent just after lawmakers and news organizations received letters containing anthrax spores, prompting nationwide fears of deadly biological terror attacks.

Waagner was an easy target: a fugitive who’d escaped from jail in February 2001 while awaiting sentencing on federal weapons charges, he was already on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List, the U.S. Marshals Service Fifteen Most Wanted List, and the Ten Most Wanted List of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He was arrested in November 2001 and promptly claimed responsibility for over 550 anthrax threat letters sent to abortion providers in October and November. The letters were signed by the Army of God, an extremist anti-abortion organization that openly advocates violence against specific physicians who provide abortions. Waagner’s supporters in the Army of God, however, were not prosecuted or even sued for civil damages or injunctions under the FACE Act, although the group was responsible for distributing a manual that supplies detailed instructions for attacking abortion clinics, manufacturing bombs and cutting off the hands of abortion doctors, according to SourceWatch. The FBI has characterized the prosecution of Waagner as a “counterterrorism case,” suggesting that the “Army of God” is considered a domestic terrorist organization by federal law enforcement.

Yet despite the prosecution of Waagner in 2001, the Army of God today continues to do much the same thing. The group and its members continue to support and advocate the murder of abortion providers. Its Website, for example, on Wednesday celebrated the Tiller murder in this banner headline: “The lives of innocent babies scheduled to be murdered by George Tiller are spared by the action of American hero Scott Roeder. George Tiller the Babykiller reaped what he sowed and is now in eternal hell.” It commends previous convicted murderers of abortion doctors as “heroes,” and continues to host the “Nuremberg Files,” a notorious list of the names of abortion providers and recipients, with a line through those that have been killed and  names grayed of those who have been murdered. (The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 found that these constituted threats to the doctors.) As Rachel Maddow recently described the Army of God’s current Website on MSNBC: “You can actually scroll through pages and pages of mug shots and descriptions of bombings and shootings and murders and attempted murders — all praising the perpetrators, and even suggesting ways to get away with the same types of crimes that these people committed but you could do it without getting caught.”

Although such conduct has in the past led to violence, the threats are often not prosecuted by local police. According to Dr. Susan Robinson, who used to perform abortions at the same Wichita clinic as Dr. Tiller did before it was closed: “they allow the anti-abortion protesters to set up dozens of crosses and leave them all day. Dr. Tiller went to the city attorney over the crosses, and complained that people block the clinic driveway,” she told journalist Amy Goodman. “He told me that the city attorney said, ‘I would rather be sued by George Tiller than the anti-abortion folks.’ ”

The federal law was enacted in part to fill in the gaps when local authorities refused or lacked the resources to bring charges. “Often local police won’t enforce the local laws against trespassing,” explained Mahoney, the former federal prosecutor. “It’s politically charged and local police want to stay out of it.” During her tenure at the Department of Justice, Mahoney said it was the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department that was charged with enforcing the FACE Act. That’s the same division that Inspector General reports and Congressional hearings eventually revealed repeatedly made hiring and enforcement decisions based on conservative political ideology rather than merit.

In the one situation in the last eight years that the Bush Justice Department decided did merit a lawsuit, in 2007, the charges were so serious that it’s not clear why the administration filed a civil suit rather than criminal charges. The federal government sought only an injunction – essentially, a court order telling the defendant to stop.

But this was no mere schoolyard-style harassment. According to the legal complaint filed by the Justice Department, John Dunkle, another member of the “Army of God”, had been publishing a monthly Web newsletter “encouraging readers of his publications to use deadly force against specifically identified reproductive health clinic physicians and staff, providing instruction on how to employ deadly force tactics; provoking physical and verbal confrontations with reproductive health clinic physicians, staff and patients at various clinics” and “publishing internet postings containing photographs and the home addresses of reproductive health clinic physicians and staff,” among other things.

The government also claimed that he “threatened a specific female clinic physician until she ceased providing reproductive health services in fear of the Defendants’ threats to her life.”

Those threats included “explicitly encourag[ing] his readers to kill the targeted individual by shooting her in the head”; publishing her name, photo and home address on his Web page and blog; and publishing instructions “regarding the specific means to kill the targeted individual, as well as how to escape detection upon the commission of her murder.” Such postings dated back more than two years, identifying the same person.

There is no question that such threats are criminal under the federal law, say legal experts. “Physical obstruction is not protected, violence is not protected and true threats are not protected,” said Louise Melling, Director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, which has submitted several amicus briefs to courts defending the constitutionality of the federal law. A “true threat” has been defined by the courts has a threat that would reasonably be interpreted by the person hearing it as a serious threat to their safety.

Yet in the case of John Dunkle, whose threats caused a reproductive health provider to quit her profession, the government did not seek criminal penalties or even any monetary damages to compensate the victims and deter future crimes; it simply asked the court to tell him to stop.

Department of Justice spokesman Alejandro Miyar said that department officials decide whether or not to prosecute or seek damages in cases “on a case-by-case basis, and a number of factors are taken into account, including — among others — whether there is an identifiable subject and whether the matter is being pursued by local officials.” He was not aware of whether Dunkle had been prosecuted for related acts under state law, and there was no indication in the documents filed in the federal case that he had been.

Threats against abortion providers appears to have had a serious impact on the availability of the procedure, and particularly on the ability of women to obtain legal later-term abortions, even when the pregnancy threatens the woman’s life. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on sexual and reproductive health research, only two percent of all abortion providers in the United States currently provide such procedures, which are most heavily targeted by extremist anti-abortion groups. Women most commonly seek such abortions due to abnormalities of the fetus and threats to a woman’s health or life, and in many states they’re only legal if the woman’s health or life is in danger. Dr. Tiller and his clinic were therefore frequent targets of both violent threats and actions, up until the day before his death.

The FACE Act was adopted to prevent and prosecute this sort of violence, in part because Congress concluded that existing state laws and local law enforcement were unable to do the job on their own.

When President Clinton signed the FACE Act in 1994, he said: “We simply cannot – we must not – continue to allow the attacks, the incidents of arson, the campaigns of intimidation upon law-abiding citizens that (have) given rise to this law,” citing the murder of Dr. David Gunn in Florida in 1993, and the shooting of Dr. Tiller in both arms outside his clinic in Wichita that same year.

“No person seeking medical care, no physician providing that care should have to endure harassments or threats or obstruction or intimidation or even murder from vigilantes who take the law into their own hands because they think they know what the law ought to be.”

The statistics on enforcement of the FACE Act by the Justice Department suggest that during the Bush administration, protecting those physicians was no longer a high priority.