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Ok, wrong paper! The Times instead:
Radical Christians to target abortion clinics
By Laura Peek and James Doran in New York
A MILITANT evangelical Christian group plans to target pregnant women and medical staff at abortion clinics as it steps up its campaign against what it calls a tidal wave of filth, The Times has learnt.
An MP will make a written statement to the House of Commons next week calling on the Home Secretary to investigate the activities of Christian Voice, which shot to prominence with its campaign against Jerry Springer — The Opera. Adopting the tactics of American fundamentalist Christians, the group pickets buildings and posts the home addresses and phone numbers of its targets on the internet.
Last week, a cancer charity turned down a £3,000 donation from the show after Christian Voice threatened to picket its clinics if it accepted “tainted” money from the show.
Abortions in Britain have reached a record level. In 2003, the total number of abortions was 181,600, compared with 175,900 in 2002, a rise of 3.2 per cent. The number of girls aged 14 and under having abortions is above 1,000 a year.
The group, led by Stephen Green, gained notoriety when it circulated the home addresses and telephone numbers of senior BBC figures when the musical was screened on BBC Two last month. Some people on the list received calls threatening them with bloodshed.
Mr Green, 53, told The Times last night that his next target is abortion clinics. “The taking of innocent blood brings judgment on our land and cries to Heaven for vengeance,” he said. “The presence of abortion centres in our towns is iniquitous. They should be shut down. It would not take much: just a few prayer vigils outside clinics.”
John Cryer, the Labour MP for Hornchurch, is composing a written statement to the House calling for Charles Clarke to investigate Christian Voice. “They will be targeting women who are already in a vulnerable state, nervous and afraid with all sorts of problems, and making their lives even worse,” he said.
During questions on Commons business last week, Mr Cryer described members of Christian Voice as fundamentalist thugs for “strong-arming” the small cancer charity Maggie’s Centres into refusing a donation from Jerry Springer.
Abortion clinics said last night that they feared a rise in US-style anti-abortion tactics and are being especially vigilant. Marie Stopes said that small groups of protesters already picket some of its clinics, blocking pregnant women as they attempt to enter and thrusting leaflets into their hands. “They stand outside with posters and rosary beads,” a spokesman said. “Members of staff sometimes have to escort the women into the clinics.”
In America clinics have been firebombed and since 1991 three doctors and four members of clinic staff have been murdered. Neal Horsley, the American anti-abortionist, who posted photographs of murdered abortion doctors on the web with a red line through their faces, told The Times that he has links with groups in Britain, but refused to name them.
Mr Horsley, a convicted marijuana dealer, former member of the US Air force and Presbyterian minister, believes that the Ten Commandments justify murder to prevent the death of unborn children. “I wouldn’t do it myself, but if I was on a jury in a trial of someone who had killed one of these doctors I would acquit him,” he said.
Photographs of women visiting abortion clinics have been posted on American websites, which label them as homicidal mothers who must be held up for the world to see.
Mainstream Christian groups distanced themselves from Christian Voice, which also lobbies against homosexuality and is preparing to launch a campaign against sex education in schools. Mr Green, the author of a virulently anti-gay book called The Sexual Dead End, said: “Homosexuality is a pathology, an emotional or psychological disorder. It is a very sad thing but it is something you can get over.
“It was a bad day when they let homosexuals in the Armed Forces. People there do not want to be objects of sexual attention from blokes they are sharing a trench or tent with.”
He added: “It was an even worse day when they let women on the front line. They should be in the home. The man should be the leader in the family and the woman should be the daughter or wife under the authority of her father and then her husband.”
Mr Green is married, has four grown-up children and lives on a smallholding in Carmarthen, South Wales. He claims that Hindus are wicked and Said: “We would like to reach out to Muslims and tell them they cannot find salvation in a dead Prophet.”
He converted to Christianity when he married his wife, Caroline, in 1981, and set up Christian Voice in 1994, but became a full-time activist 15 months ago. Mr Green told The Times that he is not sure why he feels so strongly: “Perhaps the Lord thinks I have got a certain gift. With all the hate mail I have been getting, I am obviously rattling Satan’s cage.”
Great, just great.
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