Website Threatening Abortion Providers is Challenged by Feds

The Justice Department has taken legal action to require a man who runs an anti-abortion website to take down and stop posting threats against clinic workers.

One posting targeted a former clinician for the Philadelphia Women’s Center and featured the provider’s name, photo and address, stating that “while it does not sound good to say go shoot her between the eyes, it sounds even worse to say let her alone,” according to the request.

“This type of intimidation and scare tactic, regardless of one’s beliefs or religious convictions, simply cannot be condoned,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said. “Using a public forum, such as the Internet, to incite and instruct people to kill is tantamount to a form of domestic terrorism.”

The postings constitute a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, Meehan said in a statement.

He wants the court to force John Dunkle, 72, of Reading, to remove the material from his Web page and prohibit him from publishing similar messages containing names, addresses or photographs of health clinic staff members.

Dunkle said that he did not write the message on the blog, but that he did post it. He said that, if asked, he would take it down and identify its author.

“If they tell me not to print it, I won’t print it,” he said. Dunkle said he was not sure whether he agreed with the statement.

First of all, I’d like to say that from this story, Meehan seems like quite the bad ass attorney. I’d like to thank him for the work that he’s doing. I also didn’t expect to be thanking the Justice Department anytime in the near future, but I have to give praise where praise is due. This kind of shit happens daily. Daily. And usually, it goes entirely ignored, and is written off as “free speech.” Free speech has nothing to do with physical threats. When you start threatening someone, your right to expression is overruled by their right to safety. Period. I’m not naive enough to think that the Justice Department will continue this trend, but we can only hope that it will send some kind of message and protect at least one worker.

It seems that the worker (who has already gotten more than enough unwanted publicity, so I will not print her name) might have had something to do with the case being filed. If anyone has any more information, I’d love to hear about it. From all I’ve been able to dig up, details are kind of sketchy. We do know that she testified at the hearing about the impact of these threats on her life (she stopped working at abortion clinics). If she did seek justice in this matter, she definitely deserves a cheer. And if she didn’t, she still deserves our support. It would have been nice if she had continued her job. But it’s awful easy to suggest heroics when your life isn’t actually in danger.

Speaking of heroics, what a fucking ass this Dunkle guy is. Not only, as shown above, does he not know if he agrees with the comments (gee, do I think that inciting murder is wrong or don’t I?), but he also seems to think that the guy who wrote them is on some kind of holy and righteous crusade.

“Oh yeah, if someone tells me to stop,” he said. “You are not talking to a hero.”

Dunkle, however, said he was not the author of the most heinous postings, which he says were put there by a man he refers to as MPC. “I call him MPC – My Philadelphia Correspondent,” Dunkle said. “I told him before all this started if the FBI comes and says who is writing this stuff, I’m not going to hide you.”

Dunkle said the man told him to go ahead and display it anyway.

A hero? No, they weren’t talking to a hero because there’s absolutely nothing heroic in threatening the lives of others. Defying the law would not be heroic because there is no merit in what this sicko is doing.

The fact that he fails to see that is probably what is most frightening of all.