Threat to doctors who perform abortions remain. Honour Dr. Tiller

Gary Romalis is a brave man. Six years ago, after the last attempt on his life that almost killed him, Dr. Romalis not only continued providing abortions, he decided to become a spokesperson for abortion providers.

Before that terrible day on November 8, 1994, when he was shot by a sniper in his own kitchen, Dr. Romalis kept a low profile. He provided abortions, but unlike Dr. Henry Morgentaler, he did no public speaking or advocacy for the pro-choice cause.

In reaction to the attempt to stop his work, Romalis decided to speak out. Ever since, he has been speaking to medical students, encouraging them not to be intimidated either by the threat of violence or by the overheated rhetoric and harassment of the anti-abortion forces.

Romalis is a shy, quiet man. Speaking out on public platforms is not his style. Nevertheless, he felt so strongly about refusing to be intimidated by the violence against him that he overcame his dislike of the limelight to become one of the most important spokespeople for pro-choice doctors.

At a spontaneous demonstration held in Vancouver to protest the attack, a medical student began to sob while speaking to the crowd. "I am a little worried, as you can probably understand," said the young speaker, a member of UBC Medical Students for Choice whose name was not revealed to protect her safety. "He is more a human rights advocate that just a doctor," the student told the protesters.

Indeed every doctor who performs this legal service has now become more a human rights crusader than a doctor. Maria Corselli, who administers an abortion clinic in Toronto and whose husband Dr. Bob Scott, along with Dr. Morgentaler, successfully challenged the abortion laws more than a decade ago, feels this way: "Every day, I say enough of this already," Corselli said, referring to the harassment and threat of violence she faces almost daily from anti-abortion protesters.

"I didn't intend to do this with my life but I just can't let those people stop me. They want to eliminate the very idea that there should be abortions. They want to control your thinking and this I cannot tolerate."

These are the reasons, too, that Dr. Romalis fought back against his assailant by inspiring a new generation of young doctors to have the courage of their convictions in a way that most of us will never be called upon to do. His courage and determination make this second attack all the more terrible.

The mainstream anti-abortion movement knows that violence hurts their cause. Yet, just last year, Joan Andrews-Bell, a U.S. anti-abortion activist, told the Human Life International Conference in Toronto, "The whole thing depends on if it's justifiable homicide. If you shoot them at home, it's not. If they are shot as they're walking into an abortion mill, I will accept whatever the church teaches on that - whether it's justifiable homicide, like a policeman shooting a terrorist."

As long as the mainstream anti-abortion movement continues to promote people like Andrews-Bell who council violence, they cannot refuse responsibility for that violence. If the anti-abortion movement really wants to stop the violence against abortion doctors then they will use their networks to help police identify the assailant who knifed Romalis, and they'll help find James Kopp, the suspect in the last Romalis shooting and in the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998.

In addition, the highest profile member of the anti-abortion movement, Stockwell Day, should denounce the violence so that no one will be able to get the idea that his election, which is widely seen by anti-choice forces as their victory, gives permission for a war on abortion providers.