In the wake of the deadly attack at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Clinic on Nov. 27, multiple media outlets have turned to Professor David S. Cohen for an informed perspective.
The attack that killed three and injured nine is simply the latest example of anti-abortion violence, Professor David S. Cohen said as a guest on the "Melissa Harris-Perry Program" on MSNBC on Nov. 28.
“This fits into a pattern of anti-abortion terrorism that’s been going on for decades,” said Cohen, who as co-author of “Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism,” has become a recognized authority on the rising violence aimed at abortion providers and clinics.
Cohen noted that while eight abortion providers had previously been killed since 1993, the Colorado attack comes amid a recent wave of arsons and death threats that followed the release of videos that purport to show that Planned Parenthood affiliates sought to profit illegally from selling the tissue of aborted fetuses to researchers. (The interview continues here and here.)
Appearing on MSNBC's “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on Nov. 30 (at 8:09), Cohen said that for decades, abortion providers have faced arsons, bombings, stalking, picketing at their homes and having their children followed to school.
“Abortion providers and abortion clinics deal with this kind of fear on a regular basis,” Cohen said, adding that while the indiscriminate shooting that erupted at the Colorado clinic was unprecedented, “it certainly fits with the long history of violence and the fact that there are murders at these clinics.”
In a Dec. 1 article in The Guardian of London, Cohen described measures that doctors and clinic workers and volunteers must take - including donning disguises and bullet-proof vests - that he and his co-author, ’12 alumna Krysten Connon, learned about through scores of interviews that formed the basis of their book.
The extremists’ tactics, Cohen said in a Nov. 30 interview on HuffPost Live, follow their failed efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade for more than 40 years.