For some time, Flip Benham, the leader of Operation Save America, had been targeting a doctor in my hometown, Charlotte. Benham compiled "wanted" posters which had pictures of the doctor's house and the inside of his clinic, along with the doctor's name and address. He even went as far as to get in touch with the doctor's neighbors and call him a murderer. Last weekend, a Charlotte jury recognized this behavior for what it was and found him guilty of misdemeanor stalking (diaried here).
For his troubles, Benham got slapped with 18 months probation and is barred from ever contacting the doctor, coming within 500 feet of him, or using him on a "wanted" poster. However, the fact that Benham finds it even remotely acceptable to engage in behavior that any reasonable person would call harassment convinces me that this so-called "mainstream" pro-life organization needs to be sued out of existence.
Benham officially eschews violence, and claims he's doing this for the greater good of protecting babies. No thanks to Benham's so-called nonviolent tactics, the doctor has been forced to tint his car windows, never comes to work using the same route and never parks in his designated space. He probably remembers that two of his compatriots were murdered and a third was nearly killed after being targeted by "wanted" posters. To my non-lawyer's mind, that doctor has grounds for one whopper of a civil suit against Benham.
I find it hard to believe that Benham didn't know what he was doing. Plastering someone's address all over the place, taking pictures of the inside of a doctor's clinic and taking pictures of someone's house and plastering it all over the place are all by themselves egregious invasions of privacy. Taken together, this proves Benham has absolutely no regard for basic human dignity. An organization with this mentality can't be allowed to exist.
However, you can't really be surprised at this kind of thinking from the "mainstream" pro-life movement. After all, Cheryl Sullenger, a convicted clinic-bomber, is not only a top leader in Operation Rescue, but is frequently quoted in fundie publications. I saw this mentality first-hand in my college days. Many of you know that I was suckered into joining a hypercharismatic dominionist outfit in my freshman year at Carolina. That group found it perfectly acceptable to deceive people about who they really were and hector people about being saved.
It's hard to imagine that there are other doctors who haven't felt the same sense of fear this doctor in Charlotte has felt. Hopefully at least one of them will have the courage to sue Operation Save America out of business.