The holy war.(religious right antiabortion groups and violence against abortion clinics)(Statistical Data Included)

"Direct action simply recognizes what in fact is taking place, that innocent human lives are being destroyed, and that the only appropriate response is one that stops this killing." (Curtis Beseda, convicted of four counts of bombing and arson of abortion clinics, in "It's Not Terrorism to Stop the Slaughter," in USA Today, Nov. 23, 1984.)

Direct Action

By day, antiabortion demonstrators who describe themselves as "sidewalk counselors" scream epithets and wave posters of bloody fetuses in the faces of abortion clinic patients and staff; by night, inflamed zealots are using bombs, torches and sledgehammers to bring their holy war against abortion to the facilities where abortion is performed.

The new year had barely begun when a Washington, D.C., women's clinic that performs abortions was severely damaged by an explosive device. A man telephoned The Washington Times later in the day to claim credit for the bombing on behalf of the Army of God, East Coast Division, pledging that the bombings would continue--the next one in Ohio.

Early on Christmas morning, bombs exploded at three medical facilities providing abortions in Pensacola, Florida; one facility was destroyed, the others suffered extensive damage. One of the targets had been forced to relocate last summer after an earlier bomb demolished the clinic. Four suspects have been arrested and charged with the bombings, which closed out a year that had seen a large increase in violent acts directed at abortion facilities.

Among other major incidents during the year was one that occurred shortly before dawn on November 19, when a bomb exploded at the Metropolitan Medical and Women's Center in Wheaton, Maryland, setting off a two-alarm fire that destroyed the 11-year-old abortion clinic. Minutes later, another blast rocked a Planned Parenthood family planning clinic in nearby Rockville, causing an estimated $50,000 in damage. As of the end of 1984, no suspects had been arrested.

On August 20, Cypress-Fairbanks Family Planning, an abortion clinic in Houston, was destroyed by a bomb, and it remains closed. Over the next two and a half weeks, three other abortion facilities in and around Houston were seriously damaged by bombs and fires. No one has been arrested in connection with any of the incidents.