By Christa Delaney
The threat of a Remembrance Day sniper won’t stop doctors from performing abortions at a Centretown clinic in November.
The Morgentaler Clinic, on Bank Street, has three physicians who will continue working regular shifts, says Joan Wright, the clinic’s manager.
Abortion providers in Canada and New York State are on alert following the Oct. 23 murder of a doctor in Amherst, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo near the Canadian border.
Dr. Barnett Slepian, 51, was killed by a suspected serial sniper, who is now the target of a North American police search.
The killing occurred days after a national police task force created to investigate crimes against abortion doctors told Canadian police to put local physicians performing abortions on special alert. Four doctors, three Canadian and one American, have been shot and wounded within a week of Remembrance Day in the last four years.
“We are extremely disturbed after what happened over the weekend,” says Wright.
She says staff at the four-year-old Morgentaler Clinic are acutely aware Nov. 11 is approaching.
“For the last three years, this time of year has been stressful for us,” she says. “But the shooting on Friday night (Oct. 23) was the ultimate horror.”
Security strategy has been an ongoing topic of discussion between the clinic and local police.
“On Monday morning it was the most wonderful feeling to arrive at work and see a kind young police officer, who was pulled up in his car in front of the building,” Wright says.
Staff Sgt. Mike Sanford of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police says the force has worked with local abortion providers on security issues for several years, but the effort has increased over the last few years because of the November shootings.
“We were disappointed and shocked that it (an attack) happened again,” he says of the Slepian murder.
Sanford says Ottawa is as much at risk of an attack as any other Canadian city with abortion clinics.
“We just have to keep the local doctors and staffers informed,” he says.
Marilyn Wilson, Canadian Abortion Rights Action League executive director, says the most recent attack was tragic, and it is likely to happen again.
“The national task force has been in place for a year, yet they need more resources,” Wilson says.
The league announced Oct. 26 that it would donate $20,000 to a reward fund for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shootings.
Karen Murawsky, Campaign Life Coalition public affairs director, says the pro-life organization absolutely condemns the murder of doctors.
“Whoever is participating in this activity is not standing for the same things we do,” says Murawsky. “They are anti-life terrorists, they do nobody any good.
“Their violence is not something we support in any way. We are against killing human life.”
Wright says that the Morgentaler Clinic staff have had scary encounters in the past with protesters, including threatening mail and phone calls.
“We definitely worry about attacks,” she says.
Anywhere between six and 15 protesters walk in front of the clinic each Thursday and Friday, the two days when abortions are performed.
“It’s dreadful for the staff, to look outside and see things like ‘Holocaust’ and ‘Murder,’” she says. “But it’s indescribably hard for patients.”
But Wright stresses there is no way she will cancel the clinic’s appointment schedule for Nov. 12 and 13.
“It wouldn’t be fair,” she says. “There is a need for these abortions. These women would be absolutely panic stricken, you can’t just tell them to put it off. Despite the risk, we have a service to provide.”