5 year aniversery since anti-choice assassination of Dr Tiller

Five years ago, Dr. George Tiller was gunned down by an anti-choice activist as he was attending church services in Wichita. His name remains one of the most prominent symbols of the potentially deadly consequences of radical anti-abortion activism. But although Tiller’s murder shook the nation in 2009 — and led Attorney General Eric Holder to dispatch U.S. Marshals to protect abortion doctors across the country — his line of work hasn’t actually gotten much safer in the years since his assassination.

“Threats, intimidation, and violence continue to be aimed at abortion providers,” Vicki Sapota, the president of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), said in an interview with ThinkProgress. “In some ways, we’ve been fortunate that more people who meant to do abortion providers harm were caught before they were able to do so… It’s still a very real problem here in the United States in 2014.”

“There needs to be a zero tolerance policy for violence against abortion providers in this country. Regardless of how people think about a woman’s right to choose, violence is never warranted, and people can’t try to justify acts of violence and terrorism,” Saporta pointed out.

There are some concrete policy solutions to help nudge the country toward that goal. In response to clinic violence, some cities and states have begun enacting buffer zones around their reproductive health facilities to keep anti-choice protesters at bay. For instance, after a gunman went on a shooting rampage at two Boston-area abortion clinics in 1994, killing two people and injuring five others, Massachusetts approved a 35-foot buffer zone.

“Buffer zones ensure that women and their health care providers can enter clinics safely and without intrusion into their private decisions,” Dr. Nancy L. Stanwood, the board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement provided to ThinkProgress. “No one should be forced to endure harassment, violence, obstruction, or intimidation when they visit a medical facility.”

But Massachusetts’ law is the subject of a current Supreme Court challenge, and it’s possible that it will be struck down, putting similar measures in other states in potential jeopardy. Dozens of reproductive rights groups, including the National Abortion Federation and Physicians for Reproductive Health, have submitted an amicus brief urging the court to uphold the policy.

Ben_Reilly wrote:She's saying we talk more about OJ Simpson's run from the law than about this topic, and she's right.

Our Supreme Court sucks and they'll likely rule that buffer zones violate free speech, even though there are plenty of other restrictions on free speech made because they're deemed to be in the public's best interest ...