Attacks on Providers Continue on Many Fronts
The Reproductive Freedom Task Force of Refuse & Resist! is angered and saddened but not surprised by the latest attack on an abortion provider. Dedicated provider Dr. Gary Romalis was stabbed in the back Tuesday in the lobby of his medical building in Vancouver. He is in stable condition at this hour and is expected to fully recover. The attacker, described as a hooded white man in his twenties, fled the scene and is still at large. Abortion providers across the US and Canada have been alerted, and have been advised to take extra security precautions.
This is not the first attack on Dr. Romalis. In 1994 he was shot in the leg through his kitchen window as he ate breakfast. Seriously wounded, his quick thinking probably saved his life. Despite this attack, which was followed by 2 similar shootings in Canada, Dr. Romalis remained steadfast in his resolution to provide abortions.
The stabbing of Dr. Romalis is only the latest in a series of attacks on abortion providers this year. While direct assaults on providers such as Tuesday's stabbing or the Memorial Day arson of a Concord, New Hampshire clinic continue, more insidious attacks have begun to surface. Anti-choice activists have become astute at using the courts to target, vilify, and eliminate abortion providers. In the case of Dr. Bruce Steir, a variety of anti-choice forces, including the California Medical Board, were successful in sending an abortion provider to jail for the death of a patient from a complication (something that would never happen to another type of doctor). In the case of Dr. James Pendergraft, a federal grand jury has indicted an abortion provider, charging that he tried to extort money from a Florida county where he owns a clinic when he accused the county of not providing protection for him and his clinic.
We honor Dr. Romalis' dedication to women and his determination to provide abortions, despite attacks on his life. Our thoughts go out to him and his family at this difficult time. Abortion providers like Dr. Romalis are heroes who save women's lives.
However, we must do more than honor providers. We must build a movement where people step to the frontlines and stand side by side our providers and support and defend them any way we can. And when attacks such as these happen, emergency responses must take place in every major city. In Refuse & Resist! we say "It's all one attack!" We must act as if an attack on one provider is an attack on us all!
We cannot continue to allow abortion providers to be picked off by anti-choice assailants, legislators, and lawyers. Anti-choice forces want abortion providers eliminated and they don't really care how: whether by intimidating, injuring, or murdering providers, burning their clinics, putting them in jail, taking their medical license, bankrupting them, or merely wearing them down emotionally. Today, one abortion provider lies in a jail cell while another lies in a hospital bed. These attacks on providers must stop NOW!
[posted 7/13/00]
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