Abortion Supporter Assaults Pro-Lifer During Protest

AP Images/Joel Page

A
woman who claimed to be a supporter of abortion violently attacked
peaceful pro-life protesters yesterday outside Southwestern Women’s
Options, a late-term abortion clinic in Albuquerque, N.M.,
inflicting wounds that left one protester bloody.

The woman was angry and told the pro-lifers that she had once had an
abortion. She then began to viciously punch and kick Bud Shaver, a
former Operation Rescue intern, and a woman named Chris. She used keys
as a weapon, inflicting a deep gash on Shaver’s head that paramedics
said required stitches.

Shaver, who works with Project Defend Life, began videotaping after the
attack began, but images he captured show an angry and violent flurry of
punches and kicks as the pro-lifers threw up their arms in a defensive
posture.

After the attack, the woman walked into the abortion clinic but
left a few moments later, driving away before police could respond to
Shaver’s 911 call for help. Shaver told Operation Rescue that the woman
was a passerby that stopped, but she did not appear to be a patient of
the clinic.

Police and paramedics eventually responded but the perpetrator was not
apprehended, even though her description and license plate number were
reported to the officers as well as the 911 dispatcher.

“The lax way in which the police are handling acts of violence against
pro-lifer who are peacefully exercising their Constitutional Rights and
offering practical help to need women is shocking,” says Operation
Rescue President Troy Newman. “It sends the wrong message that violence
on the part of abortion supporters is acceptable. We pray that this
troubled woman is brought to justice and gets the help she needs with
her anger and grief issues.”

Previously, other attacks on pro-life activists included a man threatening them with a gun and another person who jumped the curb in an attempt to run over peaceful men and women.

Ironically, this attack occurred just days after Operation Rescue released a powerful 911 recording
made from another abortion clinic in Albuquerque, UNM Center for
Reproductive Health, where a woman could clearly be heard struggling for
life.

Operation Rescue has also obtained a series of 911 emergency recordings
made from Southwestern Women’s Options where the violent attack took
place that clearly indicate life-threatening abortion complications that
required emergency hospitalization. OR plans to release the first of
these recordings later this week.

Operation Rescue is asking the public to help protect peaceful pro-life
activists and their ability to continue saving lives by calling the
Albuquerque Chief of Police and demanding the arrest of the woman who
attacked Shaver and his associates.

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz
Voice: (505) 768-2200
E-Mail: [email protected]