Dr. Barnett Slepian, a longtime abortion provider and women's rights supporter was gunned down in his home Friday evening, October 23, 1998, by an anti-abortion sniper with a high-powered rifle. Slepian was employed at the Buffalo GYN WomenServices Clinic. His murder marks a significant loss to abortion services in the Buffalo area. Among other things, he was a doctor who served poor women, a group who often lacks access to health care. In the same spirit as Dr. David Gunn, the first abortion doctor murdered, Dr. Slepian was bold in the face of harassment and many death threats, always refusing to back down. It is this spirit we need to support and take up.
Dr. Slepian is the 5th doctor to be targeted by a sniper in Canada and the U.S., in the last five years. This specific tactic has resulted in the injury of four abortion providers and now one murder. The possibility of another sniper attack was raised earlier in the week by the National Abortion Federation, which warned clinics and providers in Canada and the U.S. to take extra precautions at this time of year. Dr. Slepian is the 7th person to be murdered in the U.S. by so-called "pro-lifers". Within hours of his death, his name was crossed off on the "Nuremberg Files", an Anti-Choice web site that displays names and information about providers, comparing abortion providers to Nazis and portraying abortion as the "American Holocaust".
1998 opened with the bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL that killed a security guard and severely injured a nurse. Then James Byrd, a Black man in Jasper, Texas, was tied to the bumper of a truck by racists and dragged to his death. Next two Anti-Racist Action activists were murdered in Las Vegas, NV, by racists. Mathew Sheppard, a gay Wyoming student was tortured and murdered by two reactionary students who, on their way home, also beat up two Hispanic men. Now we have the murder of Dr. Slepian in his Buffalo, NY home. These attacks are products of a political climate that is moving further and further to the right.
There has been bold resistance: the national "Draw the Line" event in Birmingham, after the bombing; a demonstration against the Klan's rally in Jasper, Texas; the national rally/march in Las Vegas; thousands came out around the country in memory of Mathew Sheppard; the National Day of protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation, on October 22, which was marked in almost 60 cities across the country.
We need to continue to build a movement of resistance and raise it to another level that puts the perpetrators on the defensive and builds bridges between those who are under attack. People must step forward to stop these attacks. Refuse & Resist! is committed to building a movement of resistance against the whole reactionary agenda and the violence it promotes.
What you can do:
Send strong messages of support to Dr. Slepian's family and co-workers care of Buffalo Women Services: fax: 716-835-2654, mail: 2500 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14214
Call your local clinics and providers and see how you can help; send messages of support, volunteer to be a clinic escort, provide a pro-choice presence, etc.
Raise a voice of outrage! Hold or take part in protests and vigils. Demonstrate against the Anti-Choicers at their meeting places! Strong, unapologetic pro-choice voices need to be heard! call radio talk shows, write letters to the editor; call your local media.
Send financial support to the National Office to build for the whole effort and for the Reproductive Freedom Task Force volunteers who went to Buffalo. Come Join Us! Call the National Office of Refuse & Resist! for more information: 212.713.5657
Youth and Students:
Along with the above, hook up with the Youth Network of Refuse & Resist! Bring Buffalo to your campus let people know this is not how things will go down! We will not allow our reproductive freedoms and future be decided for us!
Help build a movement of resistance! Join Refuse & Resist! Start a local chapter of R&R!
We must rely on ourselves!
Refuse & Resist! National Office
305 Madison Avenue, Suite 1166,
NY, NY 10165
212-713-5657
[posted October 28, 1998]
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