From: SteirFund@aol.com
Delivered-To: info@refuseandresist.org
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 22:57:28 EDT
Next Court Date Scheduled for September 4 at 11am
Thank You for Your Support of Dr. Bruce Steir We Still Need Your Help!
Dr. Bruce Steir, his attorneys and the defense committee are preparing for the September 4th court date at the Riverside County Courthouse in Riverside, California at 4100 Main Street, Department 61. Doron Weinberg, lead defense attorney, has made a motion for the court to order the discovery of information from the Medical Board of California (MBC). This motion is intended to support a second motion to dismiss charges on the grounds of selective prosecution. Weinberg has issued a subpena to the MBC for this information. The Deputy Attorney General assigned to the MBC has filled a motion to quash this subpena and will be present on the fourth to argue for his motion. Though not the trial judge, Judge Patrick Magers will preside over court on the fourth. A trial date is expected to be set. Your attendance for this hearing is strongly encouraged.
The political nature of the charges against Dr. Steir are becoming more and more evident as the trial nears. In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article (7/28/98), gubernatorial candidates, Dan Lungren and Gray Davis, define their positions regarding abortion. The two candidates could not be further opposite on issues of abortion access, funding, parental consent, late-term abortion or family planning services. The Chronicle article details the numerous positions Lungren has taken against a woman's right to abortion and birth control. Yet, Lungren's spokesperson, Bob Brown, states that Lungren has stood up for women's rights, giving the example of "prosecuting a number of doctors accused of injuring women in botched abortions."
Anti-choice advocates are also showing themselves more publicly. In a recent Riverside Press Enterprise article (7/27/98), Warren Fain, coordinator of the Family Values Network, states "I can guarantee you, there will be a presence" at the next court hearing. Also, the Christian Gallery website displays blood dripping photographs of people associated with clinics providing abortion services. Dr. Steir is a prominent figure on this website.
Many organizations and physicians familiar with abortion procedures have reviewed the facts of the case and have concluded that these charges are baseless. After peer review and investigation, the California Medical Association found that "the conduct of Dr. Steir on December 13, 1996, as regarding Sharon Hamptlon cannot be characterized as criminally negligent behavior, manslaughter or any kind of criminal act." Letters of support have come from the California State National Organization for Women, National Abortion Federation, CARAL, the Feminist Majority Foundation and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. Individual physicians from throughout the United States and Canada have written letters against murder charges for Dr. Steir. Dr. William Harrison of Fayetteville Women's Clinic in Arkansas stated in a letter to Deputy District Attorney, Kennis A. Clark, "after reading the transcript with more than a skeptical eye, prepared to hang the physician whose incompetence seemed by all the accounts that I had read, to have recklessly endangered this young woman's life, I find that the real imcompetents in this case reside in your medical examiner and the State's Ob/Gyn expert." With regards to the so-called expert testimony given during the preliminary hearing, Dr. Harrison wrote, "physicians like Dr. Albright and Sheridan are certainly capable of confusing laymen of both the bar and the jury room, but any experienced Ob/Gyn worth his salt who reads this transcript, will immediately pierce the bluster and the inaccuracies, and in the case of Dr. Albright's, the down right intellectual dishonesty, in the testimony."
A state-wide committee of attorneys, doctors and pro-choice organizations is currently being formed to serve as an oversight committee for charges by the Medical Board of California and Riverside County District Attorney's office against doctors who perform second trimester abortions. Charges against Drs. Steir and Goei were determined to be a new anti-choice strategy to eliminate abortion past sixteen weeks by targeting the physicians who perform these services. Anti-choice activists are contacting women, and their families, who experience even the most minor complications from abortion procedures. They pressure the medical board to investigate these complications, and then use these complications to justify their demand for more restrictive legislation. Further, anti-choice advocates follow through their attacks by pressuring District Attorneys and members of the Attorney General's litigation team to press criminal charges against doctors who provide abortion services. The committee has identified additional aspects of this attack--Catholic hospital mergers, media pressure, legislation, clinic regulations, and malpractice suits.
This new strategy is a quiet one. And as long as the anti-choice movement can keep this attack quiet the more success they will have in ending abortion. We are seeing this attack tested on California, but surely it will not be long until they move into other states. The pro-choice community must stand united against these attacks. We must also stand behind the doctors who are fighting these attacks.
An informational meeting will be held on September 15 at 7:00 PM at the Rancho California Water District Building, 42135 Winchester Road, Temecula, Ca. Call Southwest Riverside County NOW for more details (909) 677-3330.
GET ACTIVE!
*Attend court in support of Dr. Bruce Steir on September 4 at 11am Riverside County Courthouse, Department 61 4100 Main Street, Riverside, Ca
*Write letters of support for Dr. Steir. Pro- choice voices must heard in order to save access to abortion. Take a stand; write a letter of support. Urge others to do the same.
*Include information about these attacks and the attack on Dr. Bruce Steir in your organization newsletters and mailings.
*Organize informational meetings to get the word out about the attack on Dr. Steir and later abortion. Speakers from the defense committee are available. Additional information, updates, case summaries, and preliminary hearing transcripts are available upon request.
*Write the Medical Board of California--for years, the Medical Board of California has received a barrage of letters from anti-choice activists and legislators. The Pro- choice community needs to speak up and let the Board know that it will not tolerate unfair treatment of abortion providers.
Address letters to:
Medical Board of California
Attn.: Ron Joseph, Executive Director
1420 Howe Avenue, Sacramento, Ca 95825.
*If you are a resident of Riverside County write:
Grover C. Trask, District Attorney
4075 Main Street
Riverside, Ca 92501
*All other inquiries and support should be addressed to :
Dr. Bruce Steir Defense Committee
c/o Feminist Women's Health Center
1469 Humboldt Road, Suite 200
Chico, Ca 95928
(530) 891-1917
Email: SteirFund@aol.com
Defense Committee Message Phone: (909) 778-3223
*Check out Dr. Steir's website:
http://www.steirsdefense.org
[posted September 2, 1998]
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