Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Anti-abortion Activists Post Pictures on the Internet

Aired May 29, 2002 - 14:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Worldwide Web has given anti-abortion activists a new way to spread their message. And it also raises new concerns for clinics and their patients. CNN's Anne McDermott explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They used to just yell at each other about abortion. But it got a lot worse. Now another tactic: anti-abortion sites on the Internet. Actually, they've been around for a while, and some of them name names of abortion doctors and characterize them as killers.

What's new are sites like Neal Horsley's abortioncams.com. He puts up photos of women entering abortion clinics, all in an effort to shame them.

NEAL HORSLEY, ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVIST: Because people know that go there to kill their babies, that what they're doing is a shameful thing. The knowledge of that shameful act is sufficient to cause many of them to change their minds when they realize that they're going to be exposed through our news coverage.

MCDERMOTT: Abortion rights activists say this is not right.

KATE MICHELMAN, NARAL: It is obviously an egregious violation of our privacy rights.

MCDERMOTT: Is it? If the photos are taken in public places, it's not illegal. But a First Amendment attorney says, what you do with the photos may make the difference.

DOUG MIRELL, ATTORNEY: Is this more like intimidation, political intimidation as it were? Or is it a true threat?

MCDERMOTT: Horsley says he doesn't want to see anyone harmed. But he does want to see them in jail.

HORSLEY: Absolutely. I think that people who commit homicide are deserving of criminal punishment.

MCDERMOTT: Abortion doctors have been killed. Nurses have been wounded. And some people do feel threatened, like Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred. She made one list apparently simply because she describes herself as pro-choice. And she is a little worried.

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Because there are people who are extremists who think that the best way to support life is to kill.

MCDERMOTT: But she says having her name on a Web site won't stop her. And abortion clinics have adopted ever more creative ways of shielding their patients from anti-abortion paparazzi. But Horsley says he'll keep his site up and running as long as abortions are legal.

Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com