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The history of Operation Rescue involves the split of an American anti-abortion group into the two separate organizations Operation Rescue and Operation Save America.
Operation Rescue was founded by Randall Terry in 1986. [1] The slogan of Operation Rescue was "If you believe abortion is murder, act like it's murder." [2] Randall Terry stepped down as director of Operation Rescue in early 1990, appointing Keith Tucci as his successor to lead the national organization, then called Operation Rescue National (ORN).[ citation needed ]
Operation Rescue's initial tactics involved obstructionist sit-in demonstrations to block the doors at abortion clinics in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and select boroughs of Metropolitan New York, co-opted from decades-earlier civil rights demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Operation Rescue generated some press mimicking these tactics [3] during the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, where over 1,200 OR members and supporters were arrested in July and August, capturing national attention. Independent OR-style organizations cropped up around the country during these early years, the most successful being the California organization, Operation Rescue West (ORW), founded by OR's National Tactical Director, Jeff White. In 1988 it held 182 blockades resulting in 11,732 arrests. In 1989 12,358 people were arrested at 201 blockades. By 1990 Operation Rescue owed $400,000 in fines. At its peak OR members had a staff of 23 and received a million dollars in annual donations. [4] : 86–88 [ better source needed ]
The National Organization for Women and abortion clinics filed lawsuits against OR beginning in 1988. The suits alleged violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), adding Randall Terry and Operation Rescue into the NOW v. Scheidler cases which were rejected twice over a 20-year period by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of Scheidler.[ citation needed ]
By 1990 Operation Rescue was down to a core of “professional rescuers” living off of free food and lodging provided by other anti-abortion activists. After President Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act into law in 1994, blockading clinics became prohibitively expensive, and civil suits could be filed against harassers. [4] : 88 [ better source needed ]
ORN's activities gained attention again in 1991 during the Summer of Mercy in Wichita, Kansas, led by Keith Tucci. Thousands of anti-abortion protestors flocked to Wichita and were arrested at sit-in protests and blockades of clinic entrances and adjacent streets. The protests were held at three different clinic locations in Wichita but focused on George Tiller's abortion clinic. Over 1,600 arrests took place during the first three weeks, with thousands of locals gathering and dozens of clergy becoming involved. [1] The event lasted six weeks, with over 2,600 arrests by the Wichita Police Department, [5] and culminated in a rally that filled Cessna Stadium, featuring televangelist / politician Pat Robertson.[ citation needed ]
While the protest lasted the summer, the impact on Wichita and Kansas politics continues. [6]
Despite the large numbers of arrests, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry was quoted as saying "The Wichita Police handled the Operation Rescue event better than almost any police department in history." As a result, Wichita Police Chief Rick Stone received the United States Department of Justice Marshal's Service "Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award" for his "outstanding professionalism and law enforcement leadership". [7]
ORN made an attempt at a similar success in 1992 when Buffalo mayor Jimmy Griffin invited ORN for the so-called "Spring of Life." The event became ORN's biggest public relations coup, when thousands of out-of-area protestors on both sides of the argument descended on Buffalo and Amherst. The crisis and financial hardship that the city endured because of the incidents was believed to have brought down the Griffin administration later that year.[ citation needed ]
Keith Tucci departed as director of Operation Rescue National in late 1993 turning the organization over to Rev. Flip Benham in Dallas, Texas and the work of Operation Rescue International over to Pat McEwen based in Melbourne, Florida. Benham soon began using the name Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, while McEwen changed the name of her organization to Life Coalition International. Both LCI and OSA remain active.[ citation needed ]
In 1999, Operation Rescue West changed hands when Jeff White stepped down from his position as its director and transferred his leadership of it to Troy Newman. Newman moved ORW from California to Kansas, and dropped the word West from the group's name, simply renaming the organization Operation Rescue. After a dispute over the use of the name Operation Rescue broke out between Flip Benham and Troy Newman, and after Benham was named in a lawsuit, Flip Benham changed the name of his North Carolina group Operation Rescue National to Operation Save America. The former Operation Rescue West retained the name of Operation Rescue. The Kansas group is also referred to as Operation Rescue Kansas (ORK).[ citation needed ]
In 2006, after the Internal Revenue Service completed an investigation of the nonprofit for electioneering which it launched in 2004, Operation Rescue West's tax exemption status was revoked. The group reopened under the name Operation Rescue. [8] [9]
Randall Allen Terry is an American activist and political candidate. Terry founded the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue, which he later abandoned. Beginning in 1987, the group became particularly prominent for blockading the entrances to abortion clinics; Terry led the group until 1991. He has been arrested more than 40 times, including for violating a no-trespass order from the University of Notre Dame in order to protest against a visit by President Barack Obama.
Operation Save America is a fundamentalist Christian conservative organization based in Concord, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, that opposes human induced abortion and its legality, Islam, and homosexuality. In 1994, Flip Benham became the director of the organization, then called Operation Rescue National. Benham replaced Keith Tucci, who had replaced Randall Terry. Terry, Tucci and Benham have all been convicted of crimes related to their protest activities. Rusty Thomas became the national director after Flip Benham stepped down.
Barnett Abba Slepian was an American physician and abortion provider who was murdered in his home by James Charles Kopp, a militant member of the US anti-abortion movement.
Kansas's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Kansas. Based in the south central part of the state, the district encompasses the city of Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, three universities, Arkansas City, and the state of Kansas's only national airport.
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, including arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, 547 U.S. 9 (2006), was a lengthy and high-profile U.S. legal case interpreting and applying the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO): a law originally drafted to combat the mafia and organized crime, the Hobbs Act: an anti-extortion law prohibiting interference with commerce by violence or threat of violence, and the Travel Act: a law prohibiting interstate travel in support of racketeering.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is a United States law that was signed by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, which prohibits the following three things: (1) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is obtaining an abortion, (2) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, (3) the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship.
Troy Edward Newman-Mariotti, known as Troy Newman, is an American anti-abortion activist. He is the president of Operation Rescue, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, and sits on the board of the Center for Medical Progress.
Philip "Flip" Benham is an Evangelical Christian minister and the national leader of Concord, North Carolina-based Operation Save America, an anti-abortion group that evolved from Operation Rescue.
Operation Rescue, the operating name of Youth Ministries Inc., is an anti-abortion organization in the United States. The organization originated in California and is now based in Kansas.
Operation Rescue New Zealand was a short-lived New Zealand anti-abortion civil disobedience group (1988–1993), partly formed from Wellington and Christchurch "Pro-Life Action Groups", but initiated by a group of four young men who first sought to "rescue" unborn children prayerfully and not violently. The group were at first of similar overseas operations being done. The first New Zealand "rescue attempt" occurred outside Parkview Clinic in Wellington in October 1988 by four men: Columban and Fintan Devine, Brendan and John Greally. Operation Rescue NZ later assumed much of its philosophy from Joseph Scheidler's Pro-Life Action League, more so from Joan Andrews-Bell's "Operation Rescue". It was formally established in different regions by well known abortion opponents Mary O'Neill (South), John Greally (Central) and Phil O'Connor (North), but only after a series of "rescues" involving the four mentioned above. The publicity stirred a few others outside the organisation to conduct private rescues, most notably, Aucklander Ross Bolton. Inspired by the actions of the first few "rescuers", joined in "rescuing" repeatedly and regularly, travelling throughout New Zealand to "warn politicians", engage with media, and challenge abortion opponents to sort out their response to what he was doing.
George Richard Tiller was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide at the time which provided late termination of pregnancy.
Donald Spitz is an anti-abortion Christian terrorist in the United States. He lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he runs the websites of and is a spokesperson for Army of God, an anti-abortion Christian terrorist organization that has been identified as an active underground terrorist organization by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security's joint Terrorism Knowledge Base.
Operation Rescue may refer to:
On May 31, 2009, George Tiller, a physician from Wichita, Kansas, who was nationally known for being one of the few doctors in the United States to perform late terminations of pregnancy, was murdered by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion extremist. Tiller was killed during a Sunday morning service at his church, Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was serving as an usher. Tiller had previously survived an assassination attempt in 1993 when Shelley Shannon shot him in the arms.
Cheryl Deann Sullenger is an American anti-abortion activist and felon. Sullenger is the senior vice president for Kansas-based Operation Rescue, an organization that works to oppose abortion and to document legal violations by abortion providers. In 1987 she was convicted and imprisoned for two years for participating in a felony attempt to bomb an abortion clinic. She has previously made false claims against individuals that have endangered their careers and lives.
The Pro-Life Action League is an American anti-abortion organization founded by Joseph M. Scheidler in Chicago in 1980. The organization's sole mission is to end abortion. Joe Scheidler was the national director, his son, Eric Scheidler, is the executive director, and his wife, Ann Scheidler, is the vice-president of the organization.
Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, 537 U.S. 393 (2003), is a United States Supreme Court case involving whether abortion providers could receive damages from protesters under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. National Organization for Women (NOW) obtained class status for women seeking the use of women's health clinics and began its court battle against Joseph Scheidler and PLAN et al. in 1986. In this particular case, the court's opinion was that extortion did not apply to the defendants' actions because they did not obtain any property from the respondents.
While some protests of the anti-abortion movement use violent methods, most protesters use a range of physically non-violent tactics, which may nonetheless include emotionally violent acts, such as intimidation or harassment.
David Benham and Jason Benham are American identical twin brothers who are authors, speakers, real estate entrepreneurs, former Minor League Baseball players, and filmmakers known for their conservative Christian views.