Operation Rescue of old was the movement that massively blocked abortion clinics, with the most famous one taking place in Wichita, Kansas, in 1991 led by Randall Terry, who has faded from the scene. It has been taken over in recent years by Troy Newman, a fearless and creative pro-life leader.
No longer do they block clinics. Among many other things, what they do is stake out abortion clinics with cameras and take video footage of that increasingly familiar sight of ambulances taking away yet another victim of a botched abortion.
Newman announced just today the tragic death of a young woman in the grisly abortion chamber of Leroy Carhart in Germantown, Maryland.
A 29-year old woman died yesterday as the result of fatal complications suffered during an abortion at 33 weeks that was done by LeRoy Carhart at Germantown Reproductive Health Center in Germantown, Maryland. Information about the incident comes from an extremely credible anonymous source.
Note that crafty mention of an anonymous source. Newman has found a donor willing to pay $25,000 to any whistle-blower who provides information that leads to a conviction. Such an offer not only encourages people to come forward but also sows worry and perhaps even panic among abortion workers wondering if there’s a rat in their midst. Often, it seems, there is.
The most recent Carhart massacre is already up on Drudge and could receive national coverage.
Check out the new Operation Rescue.
February 8th, 2013 | 5:24 pm
Sounds like a worthy endeavor indeed. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that national coverage, though. The last thing in the world the MSM wants is anything that might lend aid and comfort to the pro-life movement.
February 9th, 2013 | 2:27 am
Randall Terry was a perfect creation of the prochoice side. I must confess that I tip my hat to the prochoicers who cleverly snuck him in to the the prolife movement. He served their purposes perfectly. Seriously, though, with all due respect to Mr. Randall, he was the last person those of us on the prolife side want to see representing the prolife side.
Clearly Troy Newman looks like someone who can properly represent, and help protect, the unborn, as well as the born.
February 9th, 2013 | 3:29 pm
Since it’s estimated that hospitals in the United States are responsible for nearly 100,000 preventable deaths a year, it seems to me that to make a rational case against abortion as being unsafe for the mother, it has to be shown that complications up to and including deaths from abortion are significantly more numerous than they should be, and that they are measurably more dangerous than other medical procedures. Since late-term abortions are significantly more risky than early abortions, it should be no surprise that the patients of doctors who perform late-term abortions experience more complications than the patients of doctors who perform only early abortions.
This is not to defend Leroy Carhart or others who perform late-term abortions. I would support tighter restrictions on late-term abortions. It is to point out that publicizing this one death does not provide any evidence that abortion is hazardous to the mother to the degree that the law should intervene.
I think almost everyone intuitively feels a late-term abortion is somehow worse than an early abortion, but if a person is present from the moment of conception, it is difficult to give reasons to support that intuition.
February 9th, 2013 | 5:19 pm
David,
The point is not to prove that abortion is hazardous to the mother (although it certainly can be) but to put the abortion industry on the defensive and to shift public opinion. And abortion is _always_ hazardous to the aborted child. Also, it makes absolutely no sense to me that anyone would consider late-term abortion worse than early abortion. An innocent life is an innocent life whether it is embryonic, an infant, a toddler, a child, an adult, or elderly. Frankly, I see no reasons at all to support that “intuition” except perhaps that it is harder to rationalize the selfishness of killing a child for your own convenience if it looks more like a born child.
February 9th, 2013 | 6:40 pm
I think that David Nickol makes a good point concerning the importance of showing that the complications are more than they should be. But, unfortunately, we have a mainstream media that seems predisposed to showing the prochoice side, and the abortion “providers” in the best light possible. Hence the need for organizations, such as Operation Rescue, to investigate.(they must follow the law, and be civil in how they do these investigations) I also think that Mr. Nickol is correct that most people do feel that late term abortions are worse than early abortions. This is probably due to the late term fetus’s greater resemblance to newborns. (But the arguments that all human beings, from conception, deserve our protection are valid.) The mainstream media has also seemed very adept at spreading the notion, which is false, that abortion is only allowed in the first three months, and late term abortions are only done to save the life of the mother. if more americans were properly informed about what Roe vs. Wade allows, we could at least have the momentum to end late term abortions. Most people had no clue of the need for the Born Alive Protection Act, for example.
February 10th, 2013 | 9:43 am
a fearless and creative pro-life leader.
Hmmm
Newman announced just today the tragic death of a young woman in the grisly abortion chamber of Leroy Carhart in Germantown, Maryland.
So this may not sound very creative but it seems there is no shortage of lawyers who are happy to sue doctors. Take:
A. Grisly abortion chamber victim.
B. Lawyer
Put together to make big lawsuit for medical malpractice against ‘grisley abortion chamber’ and collect huge sums against the doctor and his malpractice company. While it may not stop abortions, it would spur some serious cleaning up of his act. What works very nicely about this strategy is you don’t need any special laws passed or fancy legal manuvers.
Otherwise this argument to me just sounds like exploiting the fact that in a country of millions of people, there will be medical horror stories. No doubt if I wanted too I could find plenty of stories of women buthered by medical malpractice giving when giving birth, babies and women lost to sloppy hospitals, doctors, and procedures.
February 10th, 2013 | 12:40 pm
Dramatics do not work. I know from first-hand experience helping with sidewalk counseling outside PP clinics talking to women and their boyfriends/whatever (if they even make the trip with them). I’ve seen them recoil in disgust and outrage when the pro-life “veterans” start pulling out their baby models and grisly photos, as it insults their intelligence.
Countering with reason, compassion, and above all connecting them to the help and resources that will enable them to make a better choice (the Catholic Church offers considerable assistance pre and post-birth through CCS, etc.) results in “saves.” In our area, we have a Church-supported shelter home for women who can’t go back to theirs in their condition– when they tell us they “can’t go home” we can answer “no problem, you can stay in ours” and it makes a big difference.
Anyone judging these efforts should first spend some time outside a clinic and see the difference between protesting and counseling.
It demonstrates why Operation Rescue in all its iterations will never come close to being a part of the solution as say 40 Days for Life. And why the pro-life group I work with is dedicated to education instead of confrontation, as ultimately victory depends on cultural and not political change.
February 10th, 2013 | 3:16 pm
Buzz,
The pro-life movement is broad and deep and vast. There is a place and a charism for all tastes, yours included. But, no single thing will end abortion. The error many people make is to think their way is the only way, their way is THE thing, the magic bullet that will end it all. The end will be brought about by the sum total of all pro-life efforts, even ones you do not approve of.
What’s more, as I say in the piece above, the Operation Rescue of today is not the Operation Rescue of yesterday…
February 10th, 2013 | 3:19 pm
I’m all for all legal strategies that can fight the prevailing notion of abortion as some sort of innocuous minor procedure that should be available “on demand”, no questions asked. This reminds me of the strategy used by the old, formerly respectable SPLC some decades back, in which it sued white supremacists on behalf of black victims of racist violence, getting financial awards that hurt the supremacists’ groups–forcing some of their leaders into bankruptcy. The danger, of course, is that Operation Rescue could enrich and transform itself into a bigoted operation like that of the current SPLC–basically a tool of the radical Left.
February 10th, 2013 | 5:28 pm
“…the Operation Rescue of today is not the Operation Rescue of yesterday…”
Austin, exactly. And that “Operation Rescue of today” is adding to their “shock and block” tactical portfolio as you note: “among many other things, what they do is stake out abortion clinics with cameras and take video footage of that increasingly familiar sight of ambulances taking away yet another victim of a botched abortion.”
This is no strategic shift but a tactical adaptation. And the ppoblem is, they are entering a tactical area that others do far more competently and effectively. In the past two years pro-life activist Lila Rose has arguably done far more good using digital media and other innovations to advance pro-life awareness than Operation Rescue and others like them have for well over two decades. So why all the rapture about OR now somehow “getting it?” If you like the results of these tactics, consider sending a check to the young lady who pioneered them and is doing a far better job at implementation.
As one in the trenches, I can tell you the problem is that, as you state, “the pro-life movement is broad and deep and vast.” Or at least the broad part. This is no ideological statement but a marketing analysis. Successful brands get traction and market share once they perfect a winning value proposition and actually learn to narrow their position instead of broadening it.
Some in the pro-life movement are figuring that out. Lila is one of them. For another example, just look at how unhinged the pro-abortion side became when more progressive pro-life groups started shifting from OR-style messaging and started hitting abortion as a racial issue: the pro-abort establishment in NYC went as far as to try and ban those billboards.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/25/black-anti-abortion-billboard-taken-nyc/
We had a lively debate…
February 10th, 2013 | 6:24 pm
I agree with Austin Ruses’s latest comments, above. There are many factions within the prolife movement, that provide essential ingredients for the transformation of our culture into one that protects and supports unborn human beings. There seem to me to be two issues that should be on the front burner of prolife priorities: 1) showing that the prolife movement IS prowomen as well as prounborn child. The false notion that the prolife side is “antiwomen”, has not been the fault of the prolife side, but we need to do a better job of showing that this “antiwomen” notion, propogated relatively successfully by some factions of the prochoice side, is unequivocally false. 2)is to properly educate the American public about what the Supreme Court decision (Roe vs. Wade) actually allows. Once they realize that it allows abortions throughout preganancy, not just the first three months, they will be our allies in changing the laws, and, ultimately, electing a president who will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will be disposed to overturing Roe vs. Wade, should the case arise on their doorstep.
February 10th, 2013 | 6:56 pm
As recently noted here on our blog, we cannot allow multiple-part comments. That is why some comments on this thread have not been posted, despite being civil, relevant, etc.
February 11th, 2013 | 3:34 pm
Carhart has a track record. He killed Christin Gilbert at Tiller’s clinic several years ago. She died of sepsis, after a multiple day abortion. She had symptoms of needing to go to the hospital, but she died in the clinic because Carhart didn’t know what he was doing. He is like many abortion doctors, they are so unraveled by their actions that they have lost the ability to practice good medicine. But he was a hero at the Sundance festival.
As for Nickol, et. al, maternal mortality has gone down in countries that restrict induced abortion. See http://mccl-go.org/pdf/mm_%20brochure%202011.pdf
A late term abortion is essentially a vaginal birth, except that the baby has been killed prior to induction of labor, and the list of complications that a mom can die from can easily be anticipated and corrected by a competent doctor with proper monitoring. This is why we need Operation Rescue, to expose the incompetence.
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