Operation Rescue - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Operation Rescue is a pro-life

Pro-life

Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...

organization which originated in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

and is now based in Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

.

Operation Rescue West was founded by Operation Rescue's tactical director, Jeff White, as a branch of Randall Terry

Randall Terry

Randall Almira Terry is an American pro-life activist and candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2012. Terry founded the pro-life organization Operation Rescue. The group became particularly prominent beginning in 1987 for blockading the entrances to abortion clinics;...

's original Operation Rescue organization. Under Jeff White, Operation Rescue West stayed true to the original intent of the Operation Rescue organization, maintaining its focus on abortion. White stepped down in 1999 following an $880,000 judgment against his organization for harassment and intimidation of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...

staff and handed the organization over to the leadership of Troy Newman

Troy Newman

Troy Newman is an American pro-life activist. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Newman was adopted as an infant and raised in the Southern California area...

. In 2002, Newman moved the headquarters to Wichita, Kansas

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

, to focus its efforts on late term abortion provider, George Tiller

George Tiller

George Richard Tiller, MD was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He was the medical director of a clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy .Pro-life group Operation Rescue kept a daily vigil...

Activities

After the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) bill was signed into law by then-president Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

, Operation Rescue West implemented new tactics that did not involve arrest.

Operation Rescue operates a fleet of what it refers to as “Truth Trucks”, large panel vehicles that bear images of aborted fetuses. These “Truth Trucks” travel around the nation showing what Operation Rescue describes as “grisly truth about abortion.”

Abortion Whistle Blowers program

The organization offers a $25,000 incentive for reports of criminal activity at abortion clinics which leads to a criminal conviction. Kim Nichols, a former employee an an abortion clinic, received the first award in 2011. She reported Rapin Osathanondh who performed an abortion resulting in the death of one Laura Hope Smith, the daughter of Eileen Smith.

Malachi Award

The Malachi Award in an annual award given for service to the pro-life movement. It is named after a fetus discovered outside of an abortion clinic in Texas. The name means "my messenger" and was given to the fetus by the executive secretary of New York Lambs of Christ

The Lambs of Christ

The Lambs of Christ, also known as Victim Souls of the Unborn Christ-Child, is a Christian integrist pro-life organization in the United States. It was founded in 1988 by the Rev. Norman Weslin, a Roman Catholic priest and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel...

Recipients of Operation Save America's Annual Malachi Award
Name	Year	Reason	Note
Phill Kline Phill Kline Phillip D. "Phill" Kline is the former district attorney of Johnson County, Kansas, USA. From January 2003 to January 2007, he was the Attorney General of Kansas. Kline, a member of the Republican Party, lost re-election as attorney general to Democratic challenger Paul Morrison on November 7,...	2006	Investigations of George Tiller George Tiller George Richard Tiller, MD was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He was the medical director of a clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy .Pro-life group Operation Rescue kept a daily vigil... and Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
Leslee Unruh Leslee Unruh Leslee Unruh is an American pro-life activist and executive director of the VoteYesForLife.com campaign. In 1984, spurred by her own abortion experience, she and her husband Allen founded the Alpha Center to offer counseling to women who had had abortions or were considering them.In 1997, she...	2006	Spearheading the South Dakota abortion ban.
Johnny Hunter Johnny Hunter Johnny Hunter is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1940s and 50s. He played in Sydney's NSWRFL Premiership for the Eastern Suburbs club...		Exposing what the group believes to be the devastating effects of abortion on the African American community
Lila Rose Lila Rose Lila Grace Rose is an American pro-life activist and the founder of the pro-life group Live Action. She is known for a series of campaigns against affiliated facilities of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.-Biography:...	2008	For exposing illegal activity in abortion clinics
James Pouillon Murder of Jim Pouillon The murder of Jim Pouillon occurred on September 11, 2009, when pro-life activist James Pouillon was shot dead while protesting abortion in front of Owosso High School in Owosso, Michigan. Soon after, police were alerted to another murder, that of local businessman Michael Fuoss, which they linked...	2009	Murdered at a pro-life protest at Owosso High School	Awarded posthumously
Eileen Smith	2010	Her daughter died during an abortion procedure; the doctor who performed the procedure pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was imprisoned.

Lawsuit over use of name

Randall Terry filed a lawsuit against Troy Newman in 2008, alleging misuse of the name "Operation Rescue." Former Rescue leaders, including Keith Tucci (director), Patrick Mahoney (media director), Jeff White (tactical director) have signed a statement in support of Newman. “We now feel compelled to speak up because Randall’s actions are hurting the work of Troy Newman and Operation Rescue in their efforts to see George Tiller end his barbaric abortion practices in Wichita, Kansas. Additionally, we can no longer remain silent while Mr. Terry continues to fleece unsuspecting pro-life people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal and selfish gain.” Randall Terry feels that, as the initial creator of the organization, he has ownership of the Operation Rescue trademark. Terry headed the organization he started in 1987 until 1991.

Efforts against Tiller

Operation Rescue resides in the building formerly housing Central Women's Services (also previously known as Wichita Family Planning), an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas. According to documents at the Sedgwick County Register of Deeds office, Alison White purchased the building in June 2006. White then donated the former clinic to her father's anti-abortion organization, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.

Operation Rescue also has publicized a number of allegedly "botched" abortions at Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services, including the death of Christin A. Gilbert following a third-trimester abortion. Operation Rescue staff have also investigated and made allegations regarding other facilities around the country. Dr. Tiller was cleared of any charges of medical neglect in the death of Christin Gilbert.

In September 2006, Newman and pro-life activist Keith Mason showed up at an open-air gubernatorial debate dressed as cockroaches, protesting alleged unsanitary conditions at Tiller's clinic. Democratic State Rep. Vaughn Flora (Topeka) recognized Newman, tore his mask off, and was arrested for battery

Battery (crime)

Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault which is the fear of such contact.In the United States, criminal battery, or simply battery, is the use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact...

. Flora was fined $100 in return for a nolo

Nolo contendere

is a legal term that comes from the Latin for "I do not wish to contend." It is also referred to as a plea of no contest.In criminal trials, and in some common law jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of...

plea. Newman later launched a $75,000 lawsuit against Flora which was dismissed. As of September 8, 2006, Youth Ministries Inc. (the incorporated name for Operation Rescue) had its 501(c)(3) status revoked by the IRS, following charges of improper use of contributions, and illegal endorsements of political candidates.

Operation Rescue also worked to mobilize support in the Kansas State Legislature

Kansas Legislature

The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, composed of 125 Representatives, and the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 Senators...

to order the newly-elected Attorney General

State Attorney General

The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states and territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney general serves as the head of a state department of justice, with responsibilities similar to those...

, Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

Paul Morrison

Paul J. Morrison

Paul J. Morrison is a lawyer and a former Attorney General of Kansas. Morrison attended Washburn University and Washburn School of Law, graduating in 1980. While at Washburn, he was a member of the Kansas Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta....

, to reinstate misdemeanor charges that were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds against Dr. Tiller. The group planned a rally in front of the offices of ADA Nora Foulston, to present evidence of mass murder

Mass murder

Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...

against Tiller.

Response to Tiller's murder

On May 31, 2009, Tiller was assassinated in his church. Scott Roeder of Merriam, KS was convicted of first degree murder in the shooting. Operation Rescue denounced Tiller's murder in numerous statements, describing it as "cowardly" and "antithetical to what we believe" The group also noted that Roeder had "never been a member, contributor, or volunteer with Operation Rescue." Roeder responded to Newman's charges by declaring, "Well, my gosh. I've got probably a thousand dollars worth of receipts, at least, from the money I've donated to him."

The phone number for Operation Rescue's senior policy advisor, Cheryl Sullenger

Cheryl Sullenger

Cheryl Deann Sullenger is an American pro-life activist and convicted federal felon.Sullenger and her husband, Randall, both pled guilty in 1988 to conspiring to blow up the Alavarado Medical Center abortion clinic with a gasoline bomb She served two years in U.S. federal prison...

, was found on the dashboard of Scott Roeder's car. At first Sullenger, who was convicted for conspiring to blow up a California abortion clinic in 1988, denied any contact with him, saying that her phone number is freely available online. Then, she revised her statements, indicating that she informed Scott Roeder of where Dr Tiller would be at specific times:

"He would call and say, 'When does court start? When’s the next hearing?'" Sullenger said. "I was polite enough to give him the information. I had no reason not to. Who knew? Who knew, you know what I mean?"