A radical antiabortionist backs down

Feeling the heat not just from the courts but from mainstream pro-lifers, Nuremberg Files Web site creator Neal Horsley takes down the crossed-off names of doctors killed by antiabortion zealots.

By Frederick Clarkson

Jun 21, 2002 | Neal Horsley, creator of the virulently antiabortion Nuremberg Files Web site, has taken down the most inflammatory postings from his site: the crossed-out names of doctors and clinic workers who have been killed by antiabortion militants. Horsley blames the courts, which had recently ruled against him and his Web site on two related matters. But equal pressure may have come from his fellow pro-lifers, who increasingly see Horsley's extreme tactics as a major liability.

A month ago, Horsley and his Web site were dealt a major blow in federal court. In a 6-5 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that members of the American Coalition of Life Activists had illegally threatened abortion doctors by publishing Old West "Wanted"-style posters identifying a dozen doctors and including detailed information about them, including their home addresses, on Horsley's "Nuremberg Files" Web site. Two previous murders of abortion doctors had been preceded by similar posters. Four of the doctors sued. Horsley later began crossing through the names of doctors murdered by antiabortionists and graying out those who were wounded.

The ruling in the landmark case, Planned Parenthood vs. American Coalition of Life Activists, upheld the 1999 verdict of a federal jury in Portland, Ore., that ACLA's "Deadly Dozen" campaign, including a version posted on the Nuremberg Files, constituted a "true threat" of violence. Writing for the court majority, Judge Pamela Rymer held that "there is substantial evidence" that the posters were prepared and disseminated to intimidate physicians from providing reproductive health services. "Holding [coalition members] accountable for this conduct does not impinge on legitimate protest or advocacy," she concluded. The court ruled that the fact the "Wanted" posters included such data as the doctors' home addresses, their social security numbers, and the names of their children and where they went to school, and were made by activists who considered the murder of abortion providers "justifiable homicide," constituted a true threat. (In fact, the doctors were so concerned that they had taken to wearing bulletproof vests and instructing thier children on what do if they thought they heard shots.)

In the hours following the assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian in his home in 1998, Horsley "struck through" the doctor's name. An international media firestorm followed, and Horsley's site became widely regarded as a "hit list."

Four days after the Slepian murder, Geraldo Rivera confronted Horsley on his CNBC "Upfront Tonight" show. Rivera charged, "In listing these people's names and their addresses and their Social Security numbers, what you [Horsley] are doing, in my opinion, is aiding and abetting a homicide." Horsley filed a libel and slander suit against Rivera. But on May 28, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta concluded that "a reasonable viewer would have understood Rivera's comments merely as expressing his belief that Horsley shared in the moral culpability for Dr. Slepian's death, not as a literal assertion that Horsley had, by his actions, committed a felony."

James Kopp, who has been charged in the murder of Slepian, was recently extradited to the United States from France to stand trial.

Violence has been a defining dimension of the antiabortion movement for a quarter of a century. But it was once the province of underground zealots; today the practitioners and proponents of antiabortion violence have gone public. The now defunct American Coalition of Life Activists morphed into the aboveground political apparatus of the violent Army of God -- with Horsley as its most prominent front man. Indeed, the Army of God Web site celebrates Horsley as "A Hero of the Faith." But the media -- and lately, even mainstream antiabortion groups -- take a dimmer view of him.

The same day that the 9th Circuit court announced its decision, the Wall Street Journal ran a major article on another section of Horsley's Web site called the Live Web Cam Project. As reported in Salon last year, this site features thousands of photographs and some videos of patients, clinic workers and clinic defenders, in an effort to intimidate women from seeking and receiving legal abortions.

Horsley's site has periodically provided grist for the mill of talking heads on national TV shows from "Crossfire" to "The O'Reilly Factor." In addition, tghe Journal article led to numerous local stories in both print and broadcast media, which put more mainstream antiabortion groups on the spot to take a clear position on the Web Cam site. On May 29, KOIN TV in Portland reported that "members of Oregon Right to Life say [the Web Cam Project] adds more hurt to a difficult and sensitive situation, hampering the message they want to send." On the same day, WLWT News in Cincinnati reported that Ohio Right to Life president J. Patrick Conroy said "Not only do I object to it on the basis of the intimidation factor, but I think in this case the backlash will exceed the intended, anticipated benefits."

But the most significant clash between Horsley and more mainstream antiabortion figures was the encounter between him and far-right orator, perennial presidential candidate and talk-show host Alan Keyes.

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