Abortion and the "right-to-life": facts, fallacies, and fraud.

T he abortion issue has become volatile. Violence against abortion clinics to stop or interfere with abortions has been reported with some prominence in the press.''' This violence has included fire-bombing, throwing gasoline and other flammable liquids on clinic staff—one staff member was temporarily blinded—vandalism, including slashing of phone lines and upholstery and destruction of operating equipment, forcible entry into operating theaters which interrupted medical procedures and threatened the medical safety of patients—anti-abortionists chained themselves to the operating tables—bullets fired into clinics, and lesser forms of violence, including picket lines which harassed patients and prevented their entry into the abortion clinics. These forms of violence were condoned and supported by the judicial actions of Judge Lewis Griffith of the General District Court in Fairfax, Virginia, who found the anti-abortionists not guilty of trespassing and violence because they acted in the belief that they were saving lives (October 19,1977) and by Judge Mason Grove of the same court, who declared the Virginia statute legalizing first trimester abortions unconstitutional. Fortunately, judicial restraint was obtained from judge Albert Bryan, U.S. District Court, who issued a restraining order prohibiting the anti-abortionists from going near or entering the abortion clinics (February 15,1978). The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) has noted that twenty to thirty violent attempts to stop abortion clinic procedures have been reported throughout the country. (See figures 1 and 2.) In an update on violence against abortion clinics, NARAL (April 1978 newsletter) has reported that the restraining order in Fairfax, Virginia has resulted in no further incidents. Also, courts in Anchorage, Alaska; Silver Springs and Baltimore, Maryland; New London, Connecticut; and Omaha, Nebraska; have convicted trespassers for attempting to interfere with clinic operations. Opposition to abortion has also been reported as a factor in early reports on the phasing out of the birth-defect detection