Tom Kovach
Abortion: legalized kidnapping to enable legalized murder
Fourteen-year struggle fails to stop cross-border operations
By Tom Kovach
Thu, 14 Feb 2008 (Valentine's Day)
On a day when we honor the romantic love between a man and a woman, let us remember that romance sometimes leads to pregnancy. And, unfortunately, some pregnancies are aborted. And, as bad as that is, the situation is made even worse by the fact that some abortions will be enabled by a legal form of kidnapping.
Fourteen years ago, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania enacted a law that required parents to be notified before a minor could get an abortion. To satisfy the rare circumstances when a parent impregnates a child, or when the minor fears abuse for revealing a pregnancy to her parent(s), the law made a provision for judicial intervention. But, in order to ensure the free flow of money into their coffers, abortionists developed a bit of intervention — or, more correctly, circumvention — among themselves.
To circumvent the 1994 Pennsylvania law, an abortion mill in the city of Binghamton, New York (ten miles north of the Pennsylvania line), arranged to send shuttle vans to pickup points in and around Scranton, Pennsylvania (sixty miles away). It became possible for a teenage girl to arrive at school in the morning, later ride across state lines in a shuttle van to get an abortion, and still be home after school as if nothing unusual had happened. The fact that this constituted kidnapping did not seem to bother politicians.
Notably, during the Vietnam War, the political Left was sternly against "cross-border operations" that might save American troops' lives by disrupting North Vietnamese supply lines that used trails through Laos and Cambodia. (Thus was born the task of scraping "classified mud" from one's combat boots.) That same Left, however, has no problem with domestic cross-border operations that are intended to destroy innocent American babies' lives. "Somebody 'splain it to me!"
The abortion mill in Binghamton has a unique place in American political history. Not only was it a leader in this form of legalized kidnapping, but it was also the site of the "birth" of the modern anti-abortion protest movement. In 1984, a used-car dealer named Randall Terry made national news by breaking into the abortion mill and then chaining himself to the machine. He did this on more than one occasion. He was, of course, jailed for trespassing. He continued to do it, and inspired others to do likewise.
In late 1985, having left the Air Force the first time after almost ten years (I was on active duty twice, with Air National Guard service in between), I became a deputy in the Broome County (NY) Sheriff's Department. I was assigned to the jail. Although the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 moved most of my views significantly to the right, in 1985 I was still ambivalent about the abortion issue. That is, until I met an inmate named Randall Terry, and saw how far out of its way The System went to mistreat him. (In his seminal book, Operation Rescue, he anonymously mentions a Christian deputy that protected him in the jail. Actually, there were two of us. The other was also a former Blue Beret. He worked days; I worked evenings.)
Although it is a historical side note, the treatment of Randall Terry serves as an illustration of how the abortion "industry" seems to usually get whatever it wants. The normal sentence for trespassing in Broome County was three days in jail. The day of the sentencing hearing counts as the first day. One-third off for "good behavior" under NYS Correction Law eliminates the second day. Releases were done at 6am on the final day, to save the cost of feeding the inmate another meal. Thus, from courtroom to release, the "three-day" sentence could actually be less than 24 hours. That is, unless you are sentenced for trespassing at an abortion mill. When I worked in the Broome County Jail, two child molesters each got 30-day sentences while Randall Terry got 45 days for trespassing. And, while he was in jail, pro-abortion deputies and supervisors would suddenly transfer him from one section to another after a fight. (In the aftermath of a jail fight, inmates will sometimes take out any seething hostilities upon the new guy. The supervisors would sometimes put Randall into the section while it was still being cleaned from the last fight, hoping that he would become a target. He was never injured.)
Watching the above is what tipped the scales for me. Randall Terry and I became acquainted, and I became a convert to the anti-abortion cause. The timing was perfect, because my first wife became pregnant the following summer. (When we got the news, she actually brought up the subject of getting an abortion, and I talked her out of it. It only took one sentence, "Let's leave it in God's hands.") During the remainder of my employ at the jail, Randall was in and out a few more times. I went back into the military in 1989, and he recognized me in the audience during a speaking engagement near the base. We each got talk radio programs for a while, and we each ran for Congress against the same Leftist incumbent (I ran in 1994, Randall in 1998). Some things happened that put us on separate paths, but I will always credit our jail discussions for convincing me not only that abortion is wrong, but that it is an evil practice that recruits its followers based upon a foundation of lies. And, it operates with impunity based upon moneyed connections with corrupt politicians that willfully neglect to uphold our laws and our established societal values. Those corrupt politicians bind the hands of good officials.
That brings us back to today's topic. Our society not only values individual life, but also values being "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects." That is, unless one's home is a mother's womb, or unless one's "property" includes an unborn baby. (Although I applaud parental-notification laws, I know of no such laws requiring a pregnant woman to notify the father of the baby, much less to get his permission in writing. Not all young fathers want to merely "get rid of it." I've met many young men that were brokenhearted because of an abortion.) In such cases, it seems that all the societal values, laws, and rules are diced up and thrown into a bucket of bloody mess. Shame on us for allowing it.
My conversion to the anti-abortion cause led, in 1992, to my direct involvement in the political process. That led quickly to my becoming spokesman for the Broome County committee of the Conservative Party of NY State. It was in that role that I spoke out in 1994 against the cross-border shuttle that the Binghamton abortion mill was advertising for teens in Scranton. (See highlighted sections of above clipping.) After the newspaper article appeared, and during subsequent talk-radio interviews, I called it exactly what it was: kidnapping.
Because interstate kidnapping is a Federal crime, I even went so far as to make an appointment with the local United States Attorney to inquire as to whether it would be enforced. I got some legal mumbo-jumbo about how the FBI could only get involved if there was a specific complaint of a missing person. But, people were not declared "missing" in those days until at least 24 hours had elapsed. Thus, the kidnapping law could not be invoked.
I countered that the abortion mill was openly advertising that they would transport unaccompanied minors across state lines for the purpose of circumventing the parents' rights and the state law. He said that the FBI could not interfere in the "constitutional right" to an abortion. (Yet, in that same city, Bill Clinton used the IRS to interfere with the real constitutional right of free speech by a church congregation. Interestingly, Randall Terry was a member of that church, and I used to visit there frequently.) That same US Attorney told me that the only way to stop the Death Shuttle would be to pass a specific Federal law to cover that situation. So, later that year, I ran for Congress for the first time. I lost in a three-way race. (Both the Democrat and the Republican were pro-abortion.) Abortionists get a free pass with regard to logic, common sense, the law ... and politics.
The struggle continues. The front-page story about the Binghamton cross-border abortion shuttle was the opening round in the interstate "border war" over abortion. Legislators have tried repeatedly to pass a specific Federal law to stop the cross-border Death Shuttles. The current version, HR 1063, was re-introduced last year. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office showed that the previous version, HR 748, would not cost the Federal government any significant extra money to enforce. Despite the stalwart actions of US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the bill has been stalled in committee for months. Perhaps it is time for some phone calls to the committee, which is stacked with Democrats. Inspiring such calls is part of why my talk-radio program is called The US Phone Force.
One thing is certain, based upon a decades-long pattern of history. Unless there is specific, intense, targeted action by large numbers of citizens, the abortionists will continue to get a free pass to use kidnapping to enable murder.
© Tom Kovach
Thu, 14 Feb 2008 (Valentine's Day)
On a day when we honor the romantic love between a man and a woman, let us remember that romance sometimes leads to pregnancy. And, unfortunately, some pregnancies are aborted. And, as bad as that is, the situation is made even worse by the fact that some abortions will be enabled by a legal form of kidnapping.
Fourteen years ago, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania enacted a law that required parents to be notified before a minor could get an abortion. To satisfy the rare circumstances when a parent impregnates a child, or when the minor fears abuse for revealing a pregnancy to her parent(s), the law made a provision for judicial intervention. But, in order to ensure the free flow of money into their coffers, abortionists developed a bit of intervention — or, more correctly, circumvention — among themselves.
To circumvent the 1994 Pennsylvania law, an abortion mill in the city of Binghamton, New York (ten miles north of the Pennsylvania line), arranged to send shuttle vans to pickup points in and around Scranton, Pennsylvania (sixty miles away). It became possible for a teenage girl to arrive at school in the morning, later ride across state lines in a shuttle van to get an abortion, and still be home after school as if nothing unusual had happened. The fact that this constituted kidnapping did not seem to bother politicians.
Notably, during the Vietnam War, the political Left was sternly against "cross-border operations" that might save American troops' lives by disrupting North Vietnamese supply lines that used trails through Laos and Cambodia. (Thus was born the task of scraping "classified mud" from one's combat boots.) That same Left, however, has no problem with domestic cross-border operations that are intended to destroy innocent American babies' lives. "Somebody 'splain it to me!"
The abortion mill in Binghamton has a unique place in American political history. Not only was it a leader in this form of legalized kidnapping, but it was also the site of the "birth" of the modern anti-abortion protest movement. In 1984, a used-car dealer named Randall Terry made national news by breaking into the abortion mill and then chaining himself to the machine. He did this on more than one occasion. He was, of course, jailed for trespassing. He continued to do it, and inspired others to do likewise.
In late 1985, having left the Air Force the first time after almost ten years (I was on active duty twice, with Air National Guard service in between), I became a deputy in the Broome County (NY) Sheriff's Department. I was assigned to the jail. Although the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 moved most of my views significantly to the right, in 1985 I was still ambivalent about the abortion issue. That is, until I met an inmate named Randall Terry, and saw how far out of its way The System went to mistreat him. (In his seminal book, Operation Rescue, he anonymously mentions a Christian deputy that protected him in the jail. Actually, there were two of us. The other was also a former Blue Beret. He worked days; I worked evenings.)
Although it is a historical side note, the treatment of Randall Terry serves as an illustration of how the abortion "industry" seems to usually get whatever it wants. The normal sentence for trespassing in Broome County was three days in jail. The day of the sentencing hearing counts as the first day. One-third off for "good behavior" under NYS Correction Law eliminates the second day. Releases were done at 6am on the final day, to save the cost of feeding the inmate another meal. Thus, from courtroom to release, the "three-day" sentence could actually be less than 24 hours. That is, unless you are sentenced for trespassing at an abortion mill. When I worked in the Broome County Jail, two child molesters each got 30-day sentences while Randall Terry got 45 days for trespassing. And, while he was in jail, pro-abortion deputies and supervisors would suddenly transfer him from one section to another after a fight. (In the aftermath of a jail fight, inmates will sometimes take out any seething hostilities upon the new guy. The supervisors would sometimes put Randall into the section while it was still being cleaned from the last fight, hoping that he would become a target. He was never injured.)
Watching the above is what tipped the scales for me. Randall Terry and I became acquainted, and I became a convert to the anti-abortion cause. The timing was perfect, because my first wife became pregnant the following summer. (When we got the news, she actually brought up the subject of getting an abortion, and I talked her out of it. It only took one sentence, "Let's leave it in God's hands.") During the remainder of my employ at the jail, Randall was in and out a few more times. I went back into the military in 1989, and he recognized me in the audience during a speaking engagement near the base. We each got talk radio programs for a while, and we each ran for Congress against the same Leftist incumbent (I ran in 1994, Randall in 1998). Some things happened that put us on separate paths, but I will always credit our jail discussions for convincing me not only that abortion is wrong, but that it is an evil practice that recruits its followers based upon a foundation of lies. And, it operates with impunity based upon moneyed connections with corrupt politicians that willfully neglect to uphold our laws and our established societal values. Those corrupt politicians bind the hands of good officials.
That brings us back to today's topic. Our society not only values individual life, but also values being "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects." That is, unless one's home is a mother's womb, or unless one's "property" includes an unborn baby. (Although I applaud parental-notification laws, I know of no such laws requiring a pregnant woman to notify the father of the baby, much less to get his permission in writing. Not all young fathers want to merely "get rid of it." I've met many young men that were brokenhearted because of an abortion.) In such cases, it seems that all the societal values, laws, and rules are diced up and thrown into a bucket of bloody mess. Shame on us for allowing it.
My conversion to the anti-abortion cause led, in 1992, to my direct involvement in the political process. That led quickly to my becoming spokesman for the Broome County committee of the Conservative Party of NY State. It was in that role that I spoke out in 1994 against the cross-border shuttle that the Binghamton abortion mill was advertising for teens in Scranton. (See highlighted sections of above clipping.) After the newspaper article appeared, and during subsequent talk-radio interviews, I called it exactly what it was: kidnapping.
Because interstate kidnapping is a Federal crime, I even went so far as to make an appointment with the local United States Attorney to inquire as to whether it would be enforced. I got some legal mumbo-jumbo about how the FBI could only get involved if there was a specific complaint of a missing person. But, people were not declared "missing" in those days until at least 24 hours had elapsed. Thus, the kidnapping law could not be invoked.
I countered that the abortion mill was openly advertising that they would transport unaccompanied minors across state lines for the purpose of circumventing the parents' rights and the state law. He said that the FBI could not interfere in the "constitutional right" to an abortion. (Yet, in that same city, Bill Clinton used the IRS to interfere with the real constitutional right of free speech by a church congregation. Interestingly, Randall Terry was a member of that church, and I used to visit there frequently.) That same US Attorney told me that the only way to stop the Death Shuttle would be to pass a specific Federal law to cover that situation. So, later that year, I ran for Congress for the first time. I lost in a three-way race. (Both the Democrat and the Republican were pro-abortion.) Abortionists get a free pass with regard to logic, common sense, the law ... and politics.
The struggle continues. The front-page story about the Binghamton cross-border abortion shuttle was the opening round in the interstate "border war" over abortion. Legislators have tried repeatedly to pass a specific Federal law to stop the cross-border Death Shuttles. The current version, HR 1063, was re-introduced last year. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office showed that the previous version, HR 748, would not cost the Federal government any significant extra money to enforce. Despite the stalwart actions of US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the bill has been stalled in committee for months. Perhaps it is time for some phone calls to the committee, which is stacked with Democrats. Inspiring such calls is part of why my talk-radio program is called The US Phone Force.
One thing is certain, based upon a decades-long pattern of history. Unless there is specific, intense, targeted action by large numbers of citizens, the abortionists will continue to get a free pass to use kidnapping to enable murder.
© Tom Kovach
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