Threats against Planned Parenthood
By Naomi Cohen
A recent message sent to supporters of Planned Parenthood
revealed that in just 10 days the women's health-care org a
nization had received at least 137 letters threatening its
staff with anthrax and assassination. The message reads in
part:
"In a despicable act of cowardice, anti-choice extremists
are flooding Planned Parenthood affiliate health centers and
offices with envelopes containing threatening letters and a
powdery substance. The letters--all similar in
appearance--typically have law enforcement return addresses and
many make the following claim: 'You have been exposed to
anthrax. We are going to kill you all. Army of God.' "
While the threats of anthrax contamination have proven empty
so far, a terrorist campaign of assassinations and bombings of
women's clinics began over a decade ago. This campaign has
taken the lives of a number of health-care workers and
professionals. It is aimed at denying women access to the
health-care services, including abortion, that they are
entitled to.
While anti-choice terrorists use internet websites to openly
advocate killing those who would safeguard women's right to
choose, the FBI and other "law enforcement" agencies have not
moved to hunt down or arrest these criminals. This has meant
that organizations like Planned Parenthood have had to divert
precious resources to security just to be able to continue to
function.
The fact that thousands of health-care workers and advocates
for women's right to choose have continued to run the clinics
and provide much-needed services in the face of these threats
makes them unsung heroes.
Reprinted from the Nov. 15, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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