Author barred from trial challenging abortion regulation
ACLU witness critical of some abortion foes
A nationally known author on violence at abortion clinics has been barred from testifying in federal court because of his opinion that Ohio's attempts to regulate abortion play into the hands of Christians bent on establishing a theocracy.
In his opinion filed in federal court in Cincinnati, Dallas Blanchard wrote that people he characterized as religious zealots have an ultimate agenda to "institute Old Testament sanctions for homosexuality, adultery, abortion and juvenile delinquency: stoning of violators."
Abortion foes dream of turning America into a "Christian" nation with no public schools, no welfare agencies, nor any "other governmental programs beyond law enforcement and the military," Blanchard wrote.
And he tied the most vocal and strident opponents of abortion to a movement of religious extremists and terrorists.
For those sweeping assertions, Blanchard, an author, sociology professor and Methodist minister from Pensacola, Fla., got the boot.
U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith took the unusual step of barring him from an upcoming trial after disparaging his hypothesis about an Old Testament theocracy as impossible to prove. In her recent ruling, she wrote Blanchard off as a researcher whose work has not been reviewed by his academic peers.
The American Civil Liberties Union had planned to pay Blanchard $300 an hour to express dire views about a never-enforced 1998 Ohio law.
The law requires a woman to meet with a physician 24 hours in advance of an abortion. The law also says teenage girls must get permission from a parent or juvenile court judge before having an abortion.
A temporary injunction stopped both provisions from taking effect. Only now is that injunction coming under review to see if it should be made permanent.
The ACLU contends the law was specifically designed to intimidate women and wants it deemed unconstitutional. The trial is to begin Feb. 14.
The case is being closely watched to see if the courts will let states chip away at the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
Blanchard, 71, a Justice Department consultant on abortion clinic violence during the Clinton administration, is writing a book about Operation Rescue, the group that tried to shut down abortion clinics during the 1990s.
He was co-author of "Religious Violence and Abortion: The Gideon Project" in 1993 and wrote "The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Rise of the Religious Right: From Polite to Fiery Protest," a year later.
In a telephone interview, Blanchard didn't waiver.
"All the people who commit violence are theocrats," he said.
He stuck to his view that militant abortion foes want to establish a nation governed by religious laws where stonings would take place.
Women would be more vulnerable under the 1998 law, he said, because they would have to see a doctor twice before receiving an abortion, doubling their exposure to abortion opponents.
"Look, I was trying to put things in context," Blanchard said. "I guess some people aren't comfortable with that, or they don't want to hear it."
Former State Rep. Jerry Luebbers, a Cincinnati-area Democrat, proposed the law. He said he wasn't trying to help militants.
"I was an old-fashioned Democrat. I am an old-fashioned Democrat," said Luebbers, who left the House because of term limits. "I was against it [abortion]."
As the case neared trial, lawyers for the Ohio attorney general sought Blanchard's ouster.
"Professor Blanchard is neither a psychiatrist nor a psychologist, and he admittedly has not done any studies regarding what does or does not intimidate women who go to abortion clinics," Assistant Attorney General Anne Berry Strait said in a court filing.
In the phone interview, Blanchard called his predictions about the plans of the anti-abortion movement "informed speculation."
"I find that as I get more and more information, my speculation tends to become more and more true through time," he said.
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Posted by Editor at February 5, 2005 12:08 PM
