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Wednesday, Aug 26, 2009 1:01 AM UTC

Randall Terry kicked out of healthcare town hall

The antiabortion protester disrupted an event held by Rep. Jim Moran and Howard Dean

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Topics: Healthcare Reform, Town Hall Protests, War Room,

Randall Terry has made quite a name for himself over the years. He founded antiabortion group Operation Rescue, and though he’s now very publicly at odds with his old organization, he’s kept up his activism with his own peculiar brand of protest.

As Salon’s very own Mike Madden wrote here Monday, Terry has been protesting healthcare reform outside town halls recently, and he hasn’t exactly given up on political theater — among other things, he’s dressing as a doctor and stabbing a baby doll to demonstrate what he believes will happen if the bill passes.

Tuesday night, Terry brought his protests inside one town hall, this one held in Reston, Va., by Rep. Jim Moran and former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean.

The event started ugly and rowdy. It only got worse when, after a disruption, Moran said there were some people in attendance who don’t live in his district, had come there only to disrupt the meeting, and would have to leave, eventually singling out Terry. As shouts of “baby killer” rang out, Moran said Terry needed to leave, but then reconsidered, offering him the chance to ask the first question as long as he ended his protest and kept the question short enough that other people would still have their chance.

Terry didn’t take the offer — instead, he was led out by police as he loudly accused Dean of murdering babies.

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

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On March 21, 2010, the House voted to approve a healthcare bill intended to overhaul the system and guarantee Americans access to health insurance. The vote was 219 to 213. Problem solved? Hardly.

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