On March 10, Dr. David Gunn was shot and killed outside an abortion clinic he operated in Pensacola, Fla., in an incident that marked a surge in violence against abortion clinics.
Michael Griffin calmly surrendered to police and said he had shot Gunn in the chest. Anti-abortion leaders decried the shooting, but one noted that with Gunn dead fewer babies would be aborted.
In August, Dr. George Tiller, an abortion clinic operator in Wichita, Kan., was wounded by another shooter. He survived.
Abortion rights advocates asked the U.S. Supreme Court in December to allow prosecutors to use the RICO law, ordinarily used to fight organized crime, to fight abortion clinic violence. The law is intended to prosecute conspiracies, and provides for triple the usual damages.
