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The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070
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THE NEW AMERICAN -- October 3, 1994
Copyright 1994 -- American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated
P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI  54913  414-749-3784

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ARTICLE: American Opinion
TITLE: "Criminalizing Pro-Life Activism"
AUTHOR: William Norman Grigg

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The bullets that took the lives of Florida abortionist John Bayard Britton
and clinic "escort" John Barrett on July 29th did nothing to save the lives
of unborn children. Within hours of the shooting, the Pensacola Ladies Center
for Abortion, the clinic at which Britton had plied his lethal trade, had
found a replacement for the murdered abortionist and the slaughter quickly
resumed. Britton's death provided the abortion culture with a new martyr and
handed the Clinton Administration a new rationale to restrict the liberties
of principled pro-life activists.

The 1993 shooting of abortionist David Gunn, which took place at the same
Pensacola clinic where Britton and Barrett later were killed, arguably
provided the momentum to ensure passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic
Entrances Act (FACE), a measure that makes a federal felony out of some
forms of peaceful pro-life protest. Paul Hill, who stands accused of shooting
Britton and Barrett, will be the first person to stand trial for violating
FACE, and it is a strong possibility that the July 29th shooting will inspire
legislation imposing even greater restrictions on pro-life activism.

Furthermore, there are disturbing indications that the tactics field-tested
by federal law enforcement agencies against the Branch Davidians in Waco may
soon be deployed against "extremists" in the pro-life movement. For years,
the abortion industry and its allies have urged the federal government to
crack down on what has been described as a "nationwide conspiracy" to commit
acts of violence and vandalism against abortion clinics. Since at least 1991,
federal law enforcement agents have acted upon the abortion lobby's premise,
pulling on various threads of the pro-life movement in the hope of snaring
"conspirators." By following leads provided by a former pro-life activist who
was "deprogrammed" by "cult expert" Rick Ross -- a man of dubious background
who served as a consultant to federal officials during the murderous Waco
siege -- the federal government apparently hopes to consummate the abortion
lobby's wishes.

Federalizing the Clinics

On July 30th, the FBI sent a confidential teletype message to all 56 of its
field offices regarding an alleged pro-life conspiracy "that endeavors to
achieve political or social change through activities that involve force or
violence." Acting on information that had been "volunteered" by pro-abortion
groups such as Planned Parenthood, the FBI teletype listed several abortion
opponents who had signed a document describing the murder of abortionists as
"justifiable homicide." Federal involvement was significantly expanded two
days later when the Justice Department deployed federal marshals to guard
abortion clinics at several locations around the country.

During an August 4th news conference, Assistant Attorney General John Schmidt
suggested that the deployment of federal marshals was necessary, in part
because of the reluctance of some local law enforcement officers to enforce
FACE. Schmidt also acknowledged that the Justice Department's investigation
of the alleged "national conspiracy" among abortion opponents antedated the
July 29th shooting: "... the investigation didn't begin last Friday. There
is no question that there is an intensified and more intensely coordinated
effort underway through the task force that's now been acknowledged publicly,
but I don't think that investigation in this area in any sense simply began
last Friday."

The department also created an "inter-agency task force" on clinic violence
for the purpose of discussing further measures, which, according to the August
2nd New York Times, may include "wiretapping and infiltrating [pro-life
groups] and planting informers within them" in a fashion similar to the FBI's
investigation of the Ku Klux Klan.

The shootings of Britton and Barrett were fortuitously timed to set a precedent
 under FACE: On August 12th, Hill became the first individual to be indicted
under the new law by a federal grand jury. According to the New York Times,
"the federal indictment charges Mr. Hill not with murder, but with interfering
with Dr. Britton's ... ability to provide 'reproductive health services' with
the shootings cited as the underlying act." The same formula could be used in
the future to prosecute peaceful pro-life activists who offer nonviolent
"interference." Additionally, Hill's trial -- which will probably receive
saturation coverage -- may have decisive influence on the public's perception
of FACE and cultivate public acceptance of even more draconian federal imposi-
tions upon the liberties of peaceful abortion opponents.

Anchor Stone Phillips opened the July 29th NBC Nightly News by declaring, "It
was all too familiar: An anti-abortion activist laying in wait outside a
clinic, then opening fire, killing in the name of life. Only this time the
gunman wasn't a foot soldier in the battle over abortion -- he was a leader,
well-known in the battle over abortion" (emphasis added). Who had designated
Hill, an excommunicated former Presbyterian pastor, a "pro-life leader"?

Biographical profiles published subsequent to the July 29th shootings depict
Hill as a man of transitory enthusiasms; he was capable of passionately
embracing a cause, only to abandon it abruptly a short time later. As a
teenager, Hill was deeply involved in the drug culture. In April 1971, Hill's
father signed an arrest warrant charging the 17-year-old with assault.
According to the Coral Gables police department arrest report, Hill's parents
hoped that police intervention would help their rebellious son overcome his
drug problem, which included use of both marijuana and LSD.

Dubious Pro-Lifer

Hill became a born-again Christian in 1973 and was ordained a Presbyterian
minister in 1984, after which he worked as a pastor in South Carolina until
1989. Associates in the ministry reportedly found Hill to be confrontational
and unalterably wedded to unorthodox theological views. It is not clear when
Hill became involved in anti-abortion activism, or how he came to believe
that killing an abortionist is an act of "justifiable homicide." Hill's odd
rise to prominence is described in "The Abortionist," a remarkable essay
published in the February Gentlemen's Quarterly which profiles both Hill and
Britton and, with uncanny foresight, predicts that Britton and Hill would
eventually collide in violent conflict. According to GQ writer Tom Junod,
Hill "showed up at the Ladies Center with the timing of a prophet, six weeks
before Gunn's murder; no one knew him, no one had heard of him, but two days
after Gunn died, Hill called The Phil Donahue Show and told a producer what
he had to say."

During the trial of Michael Griffin (who was convicted of murdering abortionist
 David Gunn), Hill appointed himself director of a Pensacola-based organization
 called "Defensive Action." Hill's group composed a manifesto declaring "the
justice of taking all godly action necessary to defend innocent human life
including the use of force.... We assert that if Michael Griffin did in fact
kill David Gunn, his use of lethal force was justifiable provided it was
carried out for the purpose of defending the lives of unborn children. There-
fore, he ought to be acquitted of the charges against him." This document,
which was signed by a handful of abortion opponents across the country,
provided grist for numerous "news" stories and made Hill a media star.

In May 1993, shortly after Hill and his message of "justifiable homicide"
became a media phenomenon, his Presbyterian congregation excommunicated him.
However, Hill retained his constituency within the Establishment media,
garnering coverage on ABC's Nightline, CNN's Sonya Live, and other national
talk shows. Hill's sudden ascendancy puzzled mainstream pro-life activists,
among them Helen Avare, a spokeswoman for the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, who debated Hill in December 1993 on ABC's Nightline program. "All
of a sudden, the media made him a celebrity," Avare recalls. "After the broad-
cast, all the pro-lifers we work with day to day were saying, 'Who was that
guy? Where did he come from?'"

Nor were the media inclined to grant similar exposure to legitimate pro-life
spokesmen. Michele Arocha Allen of the National Right to Life Committee
(NRLC), the nation's largest pro-life action group, points out that "since
March 1993, Mr. Hill has appeared on the NBC Nightly News, Nightline, and
Donahue, and has been quoted by USA Today and the New York Times, just to
name a few." Allen notes, "During the week of the shooting, NRLC encountered
many instances where, instead of urging viewers to follow the peaceful, legal
activities of groups like NRLC, reporters were intent on fueling the flames."
Allen relates that a producer for a talk show aired on the Fox television
network summarily canceled an appearance by a mainstream pro-life represen-
tative in favor of a more confrontational activist; this was done, the
producer candidly admitted, in order to create more "conflict" on the
program.

The constant media exposure nourished Paul Hill's radicalism: Following
Griffin's conviction, Hill was quoted in USA Today suggesting the possible
organization of a "pro-life" group modeled on the terrorist Irish Republican
Army. According to an August 1st Washington Post dispatch from Pensacola,
"Hill began a crusade to advocate the killing of abortion doctors ... so
suddenly that local leaders in the antiabortion movement here wondered if
the federal government had put him up to it to bring shame to their cause."

In response to the "Defensive Action" manifesto, nearly every pro-life group,
especially those involved in clinic outreach and sidewalk counseling, issued
statements disavowing violence. Nevertheless, some law enforcement agencies
interpreted Hill's "justifiable homicide" theory as an authoritative statement
of the pro-life position. Fred Hobbs, a special agent with the Florida depart-
ment of law enforcement who has been assigned to monitor "anti-abortion vio-
lence," told Time magazine, "We feel that sometimes these pledges [of nonvio-
lence] are a means to avoid prosecution under RICO [federal racketeering] sta-
tutes." This suggests that, in Hobb's mind at least, pro-life activists with
no record of violence were laboring under a presumption of violent or criminal
intent.

Mystery Man

Pensacola pro-life activist Vicki Conroy is among those who have been unjustly
tainted by Hill's actions. Conroy told The New American, "The first time any-
body in the pro-life movement here heard of Hill was about three or four days
after the Gunn shooting, when he appeared on Phil Donahue. That's when the
mystery started. We had calls asking who he was and where he came from. There
was nobody here who knew him."

On May 7, 1993, a few days after Hill's raucous national debut on Donahue, the
mysterious "pro-life activist" crashed a prayer vigil that had been organized
by Conroy and her associates. "He was the last to arrive, he was uninvited,
and he prayed the loudest and the longest of anyone there," Conroy recalls.
"He tried to leave in a hurry when we were done, but we stopped him and tried
to find out where he had come from and what he had been doing."

Conroy recalls that Hill's answers were less than satisfying: "His name tag
said he was from West Palm Beach, and he told us that he had been involved
in protests against an abortion clinic there. So I called some contacts there,
and nobody there had heard of him. He also told us that he had been involved
in the pro-life movement while he lived in South Carolina, but nobody there
knew him, either."

Despite the fact that Hill and his family appeared to exist without a visible
means of support, Hill had sufficient means to attend the trial of Rochelle
Shannon in Wichita, Kansas. (Shannon shot and wounded an abortionist outside
a Wichita clinic in 1993.) When he moved to the Pensacola area in late 1992,
Hill purchased an auto detailing business, which he operated out of the back
of his truck. The Washington Post reports that Hill's activism discouraged
auto dealers from hiring him. Presumably, this would have created an appetite
for whatever work could be found, but Conroy recalls that Hill wasn't receptive
to business offers. "We had an individual call Hill and ask him to work on his
car," Conroy reports. "He [Hill] just offered an excuse and turned down the
job."

Hill was somehow able to pay $76,500 in cash for a Pensacola home in October
1993. The August 7th Washington Post reported that Hill, who had a wife and
three children to support, never made more than $30,000 a year as a pastor.
According to the Post report, "No one is sure how the Hills managed to afford
their house, the auto paint franchise and Paul's protest activities, which
included some travel." Mrs. Hill was a practicing CPA; however, for the past
several years she had set her job aside to supervise the home schooling of
the Hill children.

When Hill appeared on the scene at the time of the first Pensacola shooting,
he was a fully-realized caricature of a "right-wing fundamentalist." Says
Conroy, "If you wanted to discredit biblical Christianity and the pro-life
movement, there is no better way than to make Hill a representative of those
groups. Here he was described as a pro-lifer, a Biblical fundamentalist, and
a home schooler." Hill's relationship with the Pensacola pro-life movement
was anything but productive. According to Conroy, "He'd go before the press
and urge violence against abortionists, and I'd be left to repair the damage."
But Hill's ambitions were not limited to Pensacola. Conroy recalls, "On many
occasions Hill told me that his goal was to become the national spokesman for
the pro-life movement."

A Nut or a Plant?

Conroy has occasionally been jailed on minor misdemeanor charges stemming
from clinic protests, but Hill's record was unblemished until the July 29th
shooting. Conroy recalls that "Hill told me more than once that he wouldn't
allow himself to be arrested for something as insignificant as blocking a
clinic entrance." This odd combination of aloofness and stridency provoked
Conroy's suspicion: "For more than a year he was running in front of cameras
and microphones, urging people to commit acts of violence, and nobody rose to
the bait. Finally Hill himself pulls the trigger. If somebody had planned all
of this, somebody had to shoot another doctor sometime, and Hill was the only
one willing to do it."

The suddenness of Hill's arrival, the ease of his access to the media, the
opacity of his background, and the "central casting" quality of his "radical
fundamentalist" behavior have led Conroy to suspect that Hill was more than
just an aberrant fanatic: "I've had thoughts that he was a 'plant' working
for the U.S. Department of Justice. We know the character of the people in
this Administration, and they showed what they're capable of in Waco.... It's
far easier for me to believe that it's a Justice Department conspiracy than
that he was just a nut. People are willing to entertain the notion that
there's a 'pro-life conspiracy' out here, but in the light of Waco it's far
easier for me to believe that the Justice Department is involved in all of
this."

Whether or not the Pensacola pro-life community was the target of a conspiracy,
 the area's right to life movement had done some damage to the abortion indus-
try's interests. Vicki Conroy and her husband Mike are the founders of "Legal
Action for Women," a group which files lawsuits on behalf of women who have
suffered at the hands of abortionists. "Since 1985, we have filed lawsuits on
behalf of more than 250 women," Mrs. Conroy told The New American. "As a result
 of two of our lawsuits, six clinics have been closed and several abortionists
have been suspended."

Battling the Butchers

The efforts of the Conroys' group helped bring about the suspension of abor-
tionist Thomas Tucker, who had performed some 70,000 abortions as a "circuit
rider" in Mississippi and Alabama, earning an estimated $200,000 a year and
driving to his appointments in a chauffeured Cadillac. Tucker, who has been
praised as a champion of "women's rights" by pro-abortion groups, was impli-
cated in the abortion-related deaths of Alabama natives Michele Jordan and
Angela Hall. Former employees have testified that Tucker ordered the falsifi-
cation and destruction of records in order to conceal his background and prac-
tices. (See The New American, May 30, 1994, page 38.) A maternal death resul-
ting from an abortion performed in a Pensacola clinic was under scrutiny from
Conroy's group at the time the abortionist was shot.

On June 26th, 31-year-old Pamela Colson died at Pensacola's Bay Medical Center
after undergoing an abortion. Colson, whose pregnancy was nearing the second
trimester, displayed no symptoms when she left the clinic in the company of
friends at about 4 p.m. on June 25th. However, she soon began to complain of
stomach pains and passed out at a Panama City motel. An ambulance took Colson
to the Medical Center, where she underwent an unsuccessful emergency hyster-
ectomy; she was pronounced dead at 1:09 a.m. Dr. Steve Havard, an associate
medical examiner in Pensacola, diagnosed the cause of death to be blood loss
resulting from a perforated uterus. According to Havard, such perforation is
a "recognized complication" of abortion.

Sandy Sheldon, the clinic's co-administrator, told reporters, "We're all just
devastated" by Colson's death, but sought nonetheless to minimize the incident:
 "It's just very, very rare.... It's a tragedy and we are beside ourselves with
 sorrow, but it happens." Sheldon insisted that Colson's abortion "went just
like any other surgery we do." In the immediate aftermath of the death, Sheldon
 refused to reveal the name of the abortionist who had performed Colson's
"procedure," stating that he had requested that his name not be disclosed to
the public.

Although the clinic's staff greeted Colson's death with relative equanimity,
the Conroys and other local pro-life activists were horrified. An outraged
Vicki Conroy told local reporters: "This woman died and no one is saying a
word. What kind of message are we sending, that dead women don't matter, only
dead abortionists?" Partly in response to pressure from pro-life activists,
the clinic dismissed William Phillip Keene, the doctor who had performed the
botched abortion, shortly after Colson's death.

Although an investigation was promised, by June 30th the matter of Colson's
death was closed by local authorities. Ed Towney, a spokesman for the Florida
Agency for Health Care Administration, told local reporters: "We'll go in
there [the clinic] and make sure the facility is in compliance with the laws --
 check their paperwork and things like that." Sergeant Jerry Potts, a spokesman
 for the local police, stated that because the abortion which killed Colson
"was performed by a licensed doctor at a licensed facility ... we don't see
any reason to continue a criminal investigation. It is a civil matter." The
June 30th St. Petersburg Times reported that police would continue to patrol
the neighborhood in which Keene lived in order to deter protests. Apparently,
in certain jurisdictions pro-life protest is a more serious matter than lethal
medical negligence.*

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*NOTE: According to at least one report, some law enforcement officers in
Pensacola "moonlight" as guards at local abortion clinics.

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John Britton, the abortionist who was gunned down by Paul Hill, neatly
embodied the corruption and arrogance that characterize the abortion
industry. The John Britton who was profiled in the February issue of
Gentlemen's Quarterly is anything but the meek idealist who was described
in post-shooting eulogies. A photograph published by GQ displayed the
abortionist defiantly wielding a gun; the magazine declared, "As far as
Britton is concerned, he's just doing what he's trained to do, and if the
pro-lifers come to get him, he's prepared to shoot first." According to GQ
essayist Tom Junod, Britton considered himself to be a "therapeutic nihilist"
graced with special insight regarding the value of others' lives: "It is this
-- his willingness to answer questions of life and death -- that permits Dr.
John Bayard Britton to believe that one day, should his enemies come to kill
him, he will find the courage to kill them first."

Although press accounts of the July 29th shooting have focused on the cowardly
ambush in which Britton and "escort" Barrett were killed, the victims of that
attack had contemplated shooting pro-life protesters. Junod recalls that
Britton had spoken of shooting protesters through knotholes in the fence
surrounding the clinic -- "target practice," in his words. Post-shooting
profiles of Barrett have depicted him as a refugee from a Norman Rockwell
painting -- a civic-minded American who didn't believe in abortion but placed
his life in danger to protect "freedom of choice." However, eulogies in the
homosexual publications The Advocate and The Washington Blade described
Barrett's commitment to pro-homosexuality causes. Barrett apparently
subscribed to the entire gospel of political correctness and was a full-time
soldier in the culture war. Like Britton, Barrett was armed and willing to
shoot. Junod quotes Barrett as saying, "I like to keep an eye on those p*****
heads.... I do not miss. These hands are small but I know where to put them.
I have survived this long because I shoot first." While serving in Korea,
Barrett was rebuked by his superiors for his "hyperaggressiveness."

A Dismal Record

Even by the emancipated standards of competence that govern the abortion
industry, John Britton was a singularly unlikely champion of "women's health."
On April 11, 1978, he was expelled from his practice at the Fernandina Beach
general hospital because of emotional and mental instability. In 1981, Britton
was censured by the Florida state medical board for prescribing 1,900 percodan
and percocet tablets to a drug addict. The board also found that Britton was
"unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety." On the advice
of his attorney, Britton agreed to two years' probation. Britton faced similar
sanctions on other occasions.

Despite his background, Britton was readily accepted by the abortion industry.
Junod notes, "The clinics would welcome a pariah, so long as he could deliver
a safe abortion." But there was ample doubt regarding Britton's competence to
deliver a "safe" abortion. In the 1960s, Britton facilitated "back-alley"
abortions. The Roe vs. Wade decision was Britton's professional salvation.
Writes Junod: "As soon as the Supreme Court wrote Roe vs. Wade into law,
[Britton] applied some heat to the shaft of a ballpoint pen, fashioned it into
a cannula (the stiff tube that's inserted through the cervix during an
abortion), attached the cannula to a hose and the hose to a small vacuum and
went into business." At least one of Britton's "patients" died from abortion-
related complications.

During the Pensacola visit recorded in Junod's profile -- apparently a typical
business day for an abortion "circuit rider" -- Britton performed 32 abortions,
 turning a personal profit of $50 for each. As depicted by Junod, Britton's
bedside manner was abrupt at best and mildly sadistic at worst, leaving his
customers -- which included confused teenage girls -- unsettled and frightened.
 Among the other clinic personnel described in the article is a lab technician
who refers to herself as a "recovering Catholic." It was this technician's job
to piece together the fetal remains of Britton's victims. Junod's article
quotes this technician's variation on the "Nuremberg defense" (i.e., "I was
just following orders"): "I don't approve, but it doesn't matter if I don't
approve.... I'm doing my job. I'm doing what I'm trained to do, and so is Doc
[Britton]."

Britton's worldview, as described by Junod, bears more than a passing resem-
blance to the Nazi medical ethic. Britton told Junod that he would occasionally
try to persuade a woman not to abort her child if "the baby has any chance at
genetic qualities." He compared his work as an abortionist to the mercy-killing
of wounded barnyard animals or the "sacrifice" of laboratory animals. Britton
described his ethics as "not Christian but medical" and insisted that he should
be free to follow his murderous muse: "I'm not taking life out of anger or
cruelty; I'm taking that life for a purpose. I feel like the American Indian
did -- I'm saying a prayer to that animal: Give me your life so that I can
accomplish this purpose, 'speed thy spirit on to other places' so that the
life that is lost will one day be replaced.'"

Britton's death has won him a place in the pro-abortion pantheon. According to
a report in the August 20th issue of the communist People's Weekly World news-
paper, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has established a "Dr.
Britton Fund for Women's Health," which will promote pro-abortion legislation.
More significantly, Britton's death has led to growing cooperation between
Planned Parenthood and Janet Reno's Justice Department in an effort to
marginalize -- and perhaps eventually to criminalize -- pro-life activism.

Planned Parenthood held a news conference on August 17th to release what the
group claimed was evidence of a "radical anti-abortion alliance." The group's
primary exhibit was a videotape made during a May meeting of the U.S. Taxpayers
 Party in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Speakers at that meeting included Operation
Rescue founder Randall Terry and Milwaukee pastor Matthew Trewhella, founder
of the pro-life group Missionaries to the Pre-Born.

As summarized by Janny Scott of the New York Times, Planned Parenthood insisted
 that there is "a growing alliance between opponents of abortion and extreme
right-wing groups. The evidence ... included a videotape from a meeting in
which one speaker urged parents to arm their children and another said,
'Abortionists should be put to death.'"

The second and most shocking quote was uttered by Jeffrey Baker, a religious
broadcaster from Florida. Baker told The New American, "What I said was that
abortion is murder, and that it should be criminalized as a capital offense.
I have never called for the murder of abortionists. I think that they should
be punished, and that due process should prevail, but I don't think they should
be put to death by the likes of Paul Hill. If we do it that way, it's an
anarchist solution, and anarchy breeds tyranny."

It was the speech of Reverend Trewhella that was depicted by the media as a
call for "right-wingers" to arm their children. That speech was essentially
a summary of arguments that many -- perhaps most -- Americans would find
quite reasonable. Among Trewhella's putatively shocking opinions were the
following: "The defining sign of tyranny is the disarming of the citizenry
by our government.... Our government wants to disarm us. That should be a
clear wake-up call to us that they want to be totalitarian gods over us. They
want to rule every aspect of our lives and so we should never give up our
arms." It was in this context that Trewhella recommended that Americans teach
their children how to use firearms responsibly.

Opportunistic Smear

Alfred Ross, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood's national organization,
insisted: "What we have shown is that individuals who are actively involved
in the anti-abortion movement are now distributing manuals on how to set up
paramilitary militias, recommending weapons, recommending that churches get
involved in paramilitary weapons training. What we are saying is there is
clearly an increased danger stemming from this." Nevertheless, Ross backed
away from specific accusations: "... we're not saying we have proof that any
particular militia has been involved in an assault."

But Planned Parenthood officials maintained that no specific expression of an
intent to commit violence was necessary to implicate pro-life "conspirators."
Richard Withers, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, declared
(with more vehemence than grammatical clarity): "The combination of these
groups' interest in guns and advocating against other people's rights has
created a volatile situation." Under the definitions used by Planned Parent-
hood, a combination of pro-life and pro-gun opinions constitutes prima facie
evidence of membership in the "radical anti-abortion alliance."

Both Trewhella and Baker quickly dismissed the Planned Parenthood press con-
ference as an opportunistic smear. "It's just part of a direct-mail fundraising
 effort," Baker told The New American. "Their revenues were way down this year
and they needed something to fire up the troops." But it should be remembered
that the Justice Department investigation launched in the aftermath of the July
 29th shooting made extensive use of information "volunteered" by Planned
Parenthood. Justice Department spokesman John Russell confirmed to The New
American that Attorney General Reno had received and seen a copy of the U.S.
Taxpayers Party videotape from Planned Parenthood. Furthermore -- and more
ominously -- the smear of the U.S. Taxpayers Party revealed that the Justice
Department investigation of the pro-life "fringe" is making use of a key player
 in the federal government's persecution of the Branch Davidians.

The August 29th issue of Newsweek reported that Reverend Trewhella (who was at
the time serving a month-long county jail sentence on charges arising from a
protest) "is one of a half-dozen anti-abortion activists now under investiga-
tion as possible conspirators in a campaign of violence against abortion
clinics." The magazine also charged that "Trewhella himself was a mentor for
potentially violent anti-abortion extremists." The story referred to "John,"
a pseudonymous abortion opponent, who had belonged to Trewhella's group in the
early 1990s. "John" had lived in Trewhella's home and participated in local
protests.*

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

*NOTE: Before his conversion to Christianity, Trewhella was a gang member, a
life-style he now vigorously condemns. His protest methods are not endorsed
by all pro-life activists. Furthermore, Trewhella's name appears on the
"Defensive Action" manifesto supporting the use of "lethal force" against
abortionists. Trewhella wrote to Paul Hill following Hill's December 1993
Nightline appearance and requested that his name be stricken from the mani-
festo, insisting "I have no desire to be in any advocacy role whatsoever when
it comes to those types of acts [i.e., killing abortionists]."

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



Trewhella told The New American that "John" had evinced signs of emotional
instability and eccentricity, and that he had suddenly disappeared in late
1990 or early 1991 -- about the time when, according to Newsweek, "John's
family hired cult 'deprogrammer' Rick Ross, whose clients included followers
of Branch Davidian leader David Koresh." Trewhella believes that the depro-
gramming arose from a religious dispute between "John" -- at that time a
recently converted evangelical -- and his Roman Catholic parents.

Shortly before John's disappearance, Trewhella recalls, "He was trying to
write a fairly weighty work examining the philosophy of pro-life protest."
Based on a description of the writings given by "John's" parents, Newsweek
declared that they were "journal notes on apparent plans for a guerilla
campaign of clinic bombings and assassinations of doctors."

In a telephone interview with The New American, Ross recalled, "I considered
it ["John's" treatment] to be a successful deprogramming. He spent some rehab
time in what you might call a retreat for ex-cult members under the care of a
PhD psychologist." Ross said that it was more difficult to deprogram "John"
than it had been to "treat" the Branch Davidians: "In the case of the Waco
Davidians, it was done on a voluntary basis, meaning they were free to come
and go as they pleased. However, in "John's" case, the family felt it was
necessary to hire professional security to keep him confined in the home."
Once Ross' labors with "John" had ended, the young man was ready to talk to
the feds. Ross told The New American that "I've been interviewed by the FBI
regarding this matter. The ATF has interviewed John subsequent to the depro-
gramming."

However one may perceive the views imputed to "John," what Ross is describing
is the premeditated kidnapping of an adult, combined with the use of psycho-
logical duress -- actions that are criminal offenses even when committed by
the politically correct. It is important to remember that "John" -- who is a
major source for press accounts of the "radical anti-abortion alliance," a
federal informant, and who may eventually be a witness in criminal prosecutions
-- broke with Trewhella's group as a result of Ross' ministrations. Thus Ross'
background and character are of great relevance to the soundness of "John's"
account.

Ross, who is deemed an authority on "Bible-based cults," earns several hundred
dollars a day to abduct people and "cure" them of their religious beliefs.
Predictably, this line of work has often led Ross to court -- which, as we
will shortly see, is a venue with which he was familiar even before he became
a "cult authority." Ross told The New American that he became a "deprogrammer"
in 1982 and claims to have conducted "hundreds of cases over the last 12 years."

From Ross' publicly expressed perspective, any "fundamentalist" religious body
may be considered a cult. During a 1992 segment of Donahue, Ross squared off
against three "fundamentalist" families -- a Mormon family from Utah, an
Hasidic Jewish family from New York, and an evangelical family from South
Carolina. He denounced all three families as "narrow," "insular," "cultic,"
and "fanatic." (Interestingly, Ross, a liberal Jew, reserved his harshest
treatment for the Orthodox Jewish family.) The influence of Ross' prejudices
arguably helped exacerbate the Waco disaster.

Playing the Waco Card

By his own admission, Ross was a consultant to the FBI during the Waco siege.
Aside from "deprogramming" two former members of the Branch Davidian congre-
gation, Ross' chief contribution to the federal atrocity was to help poison
the public's mind against the Branch Davidians: Many of the most envenomed
sound bites demonizing David Koresh and his disciples during the siege came
from Ross. He referred to Koresh as a "predatory, manipulative animal" and
insisted that Koresh's followers were violent automatons incapable of reason.
Following the April 19, 1993 holocaust at the Branch Davidian compound, Ross
lost no time in blaming Koresh for the tragedy: "[He] saw prison as the
inevitable outcome and would not submit to authorities. And he murdered the
children."

Ross insisted that the lesson of the Waco disaster was that "religious extre-
mism can be deadly." This theme was echoed by President Clinton, who declared:
"I hope very much that others who will be tempted to join cults and become
involved with people like Koresh will be deterred by the horrible scenes they
have seen.... There is, unfortunately, a rise in this sort of fanaticism all
over the world. And we may have to confront it again." The Clinton Administra-
tion has apparently decided that the pro-life "fringe" will be the next group
of "fanatics" to confront -- and once again Rick Ross is deploying all of his
skills of manipulation and demagoguery.

Ross told The New American, "I think that the problem with the anti-abortion
movement, as viewed through this case, is that it's a powerful movement domin-
ated by controlling, dictatorial leaders.... The anti-abortion leaders push
their followers over the edge by using inflammatory rhetoric." Asked if he
regarded the pro-life movement to be "cultish," Ross replied: "I think the
real question about the anti-abortion movement is this: Are these people
making decisions as individuals who have the capacity for critical thought,
or are their actions dictated and robot-like responses to the rhetoric of
their leaders?"

Others might suggest that another "real question" is this: What are Ross'
qualifications to serve as a consultant to federal law enforcement agencies?
Ross told The New American that, despite his 12-year career as a "cult expert,"
 he is neither a psychologist nor does he have a formal background in psycho-
logy. Ross was somewhat vague about his professional background prior to
becoming a "deprogrammer" -- and with good reason. According to documents
obtained from the Maricopa County Court in Arizona, in 1974 Ross was convicted
of jewel theft, a crime for which he was sentenced to a brief jail term and
probation. A year later, Ross found himself in court once again, facing
multiple criminal charges. A psychological profile of Ross performed at the
time found that he was emotionally unstable and displayed signs of sociopathic
tendencies. (See the sidebar on the previous page.)

It should be remembered that in every police state, agents of the government
consistently collude with criminals against law-abiding subjects. Those who
hastily dismiss the suspicions of Conroy and other pro-life activists that
Paul Hill was a federal "plant" may wish to reconsider that dismissal in light
of the federal government's willingness to make repeated use of Rick Ross'
"talents."

The Justice Department's investigation of an alleged anti-abortion "conspiracy"
comes on the heels of the Establishment's hate campaign against the "religious
right," and many prominent representatives of the institutional left have
asserted that the "religious right" bears collective guilt for the Pensacola
shooting. Congresswoman Lynn Schenk (D-CA) declared that the act displayed
"the horrible face of the radical right." Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY)
attempted to implicate all opponents of abortion and socialized medicine in
Paul Hill's act: "Make no mistake: Anti-choice extremists are waging a nation-
wide war on the right to choose [abortion]. In Pensacola they use a gun. Here
in Washington they use health care reform...." Representative Pat Schroeder
(D-CO) suggested that those who oppose abortion coverage were abetting "those
people who think they have the right to take the law into their own hands and
shoot those who are out there trying to guarantee this constitutional right
for women." These demented accusations were eventually adopted by Bill Clinton,
who characterized opponents of socialized medicine as "violent extremists."

The pro-life movement is a casualty of the shots fired on July 29th. Whether
or not it is ever demonstrated that Paul Hill was an agent provocateur, the
fact remains that his actions will redound to the benefit of those who seek
to criminalize pro-life activism. While some understandably frustrated pro-
life activists may grudgingly approve of Hill's actions, the true hope for
eventual victory resides in the restoration of America's moral law, not the
negation of law through terrorism. As Joseph Sobran -- a commentator of
impeccable pro-life credentials -- points out, "When you commit violence, you
start something the Devil may finish."

END OF ARTICLE

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THE NEW AMERICAN -- October 3, 1994
Copyright 1994 -- American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated
P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI  54913

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obtained from the above address.

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