Anti-abortionists and white supremacists make common cause.

• Author: Ross, Loretta J.
• Position: Cover Story

The third shooting of an abortion doctor in less than eighteen months embarrassed many in the anti-abortion movement. The murders of Dr. John Britton and his volunteer clinic escort at the Ladies Center in Pensacola, Florida, in July dramatically exposed an underground network of fanatics perversely dedicated to practicing violence in the name of the "sanctity of human life." This violence is fueled, in part, by links between the anti-abortion movement and white-supremacist ideology.

Bigots and terrorists have long hung around the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, but connections that have recently come to light among the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi skinheads, and anti-abortionists now threaten to discredit anti-abortion groups. These connections are more than a fluke. Religious zealotry, nostalgia for a more culturally "pure" America, and a frightening rhetoric that encourages violence in the name of deeply held ideals fuels white supremacists and many anti-abortionists alike. It is not surprising, then, that the membership and leadership of these groups tend to overlap.

Even as some leaders of the anti-abortion movement hurried to distance themselves from the recent vicious attacks on doctors and clinics, the Florida-based Templar Knights of the Ku Klux Klan sponsored a rally on August 21 in support of Paul Hill, the man accused of shooting Dr. Britton and his escort, James Barrett.

White supremacist leaders have seized on abortion as a new rallying point for the White Revolution. Tim Bishop, a representative of the Aryan Nations, bragged about joining the anti-abortion movement in an interview for Reform Judaism magazine: "Lots of our people join in.... It's part of our Holy War for the pure Aryan race."

The American Front, a Portland-based skinhead group that has swollen the ranks of Operation Rescue protesters at Oregon clinics, printed the following declaration: "The 'Great Democracy' enforces your right to Blow Dope, Turn Queer, Marry a Nigger, Kill the Unborn, and do anything else to destroy America. ... We Prefer Revolution to SMASH IT! and replace it with a healthy WHITE MAN'S ORDER!"

In March, John Burt, regional director of the anti-abortion group Rescue America, told a New York Times reporter, "Fundamentalist Christians and those people [the Ku Klux Klan] are pretty close, scary close, fighting for God and country. Some day we may all be in the trenches together in the fight against the slaughter of unborn children."

Burt...