Last night Rachel Maddow reported on the contacts Scott Roeder has had with other anti-choice extremists while in prison awaiting trial and then spoke with Amy Hagstrom Miller, President and CEO of Whole Women's Health, about the nature of anti-choice violence.
In the segment Miller expressed concern that the militant anti-choice movement is boldly operating in the open by communicating freely with Roeder in jail, defying the idea that he acted alone in the muder of Dr. Tiller.
In a related story, Jodi recently reported on the lifting of federal protection from Dr. Carhart's clinic in Boulder:
Despite mounting threats to the clinic--and potentially to the life--of Nebraska Dr. Leroy Carhart, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has removed the federal marshals earlier charged with protecting him.
Dr. Carhart lost his federal marshal protection two weeks ago, much to the alarm of pro-choice leaders, leaving him vulnerable at a time when anti-choice violence has been escalating across the country, and when Carhart himself has been openly targeted by groups such as Operation Rescue, which is calling for protests at his clinic later this month. In addition, members of the Army of God, an organization that promotes the use of violence against providers of abortion care, and glorifies those who commit acts of murder, are also targetting Dr. Carhart.
Women's rights and health groups are now working strenuously to ensure that the DOJ restores protection by federal marshals for Dr. Carhart and to urge the DOJ and the FBI to investigate Tiller's murder and other strategies used by these groups as part of a pattern of domestic terrorism.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Star reports today that visitors to Scott Roeder in prison reads like a whos who of anti-choice militants and extremists.
Kansas NOW and other womens groups are mobilizing to conduct counter-protests at Dr. Carharts clinic at the end of August, and are calling on advocates to call the Attorney General and urge the restoration of federal marshal protection for Dr. Carhart.
