Religious extremists have terrorized abortion providers for years, and now the war is moving online. We investigate abortion clinic cameras Tuesday, 4/30 at 9 p.m. Eastern on 'CyberCrime.'
Also airs: 5/1 at 12 a.m., 5/2 at 10:30 a.m., 3 p.m., 9 p.m., 5/3 at 12:30 a.m., 5/4 at 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 5/5 at 1 a.m., 11 a.m., 7 p.m., and 5/6 at 12 a.m. 5/7 at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 6 p.m. (all times Eastern).

Note: Some readers may be jarred by images on the sites linked to below.

If you want to see a list of the people on the front lines of the battle over abortion, visit The Nuremberg Files. The site, run by militant anti-abortion activist Neal Horsely, offers an extensive list of abortion providers throughout the United States. Not surprisingly, many people are upset about these site, and on this week's episode of "CyberCrime" we investigate exactly how damaging they are to the people mentioned and pictured online.

Providers assassinated by anti-abortion activists, as well as women who died while undergoing abortions, have their names struck through with a line. The injured are printed in gray.

At another of Horsely's sites, abortioncams.com, you can find pictures and videos taken by fellow activists of patients, doctors, and clinic workers as they exit and enter abortion clinics around the country. Horsely hopes the pictures will deter women from getting abortions.

"If you were pregnant, would you be more or less likely to go kill your baby if you knew there was a possibility your picture might be published in a place where your friends and family and the whole world might see it?" Horsely asks on the website.

Horsely hopes to soon bring a similar project to public access cable television.

Stirring up violence online

While most abortion rights activists don't believe the websites deter women from getting abortions, they worry that the sites mark women and doctors as targets of violence.

"I think his websites constitute threats and they are in fact a violation of laws that exist," Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation, told "CyberCrime." "And [they] shouldn't be allowed to be up on the Internet."

Saporta isn't the only one who feels that way. In 2000, the abortion rights organization Planned Parenthood, along with several doctors, sued the American Coalition of Life Activists, of which Horsely is an agent, and several other anti-abortion organizations. The suit argued that The Nuremberg Files should be shut down because it places the lives of abortion clinic workers in jeopardy. The abortion rights activists won the suit and more than $100 million in damages, but an appeals court later vacated the decision on the grounds that Horsely and other webmasters are exercising their right to free speech. Planned Parenthood has appealed that decision.

An online army under free speech protection

In recent years, anti-abortion activists have taken to the Web in droves in an effort to spread their message. Their sites grow increasingly militant and they all claim the protection of the First Amendment.

Pentecostal minister Donald Spitz runs one such site -- the Army of God -- which praises those who have committed violence against abortion providers.

Members of the Army of God have been linked by law enforcement to the 1996 bombing of the Atlanta Olympics and the bombing of two Atlanta abortion clinics. The organization applauds murderers such as Paul Hill, on death row for killing two Florida abortion clinic workers, and James Kopp, who awaits extradition from French prison for the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian. And when 200 abortion clinics received letters in November 2001 containing a white powder and warning, "Enclosed is anthrax, the real thing, very high quality," the letters were signed "The Army of God." The powder turned out to be fake.

The threat, however, is real. The Army of God website uses Bible quotations to justify violence against abortion doctors, and the site lists the names of abortion practitioners killed by anti-abortion militants. Visitors can also access the Army of God manual, which outlines "99 covert ways to stop abortion" and tells followers how to tail abortion providers, make harassing phone calls, and lie to police.

Legal threats

Clinicworker.com, meanwhile, takes a different approach, asking visitors "Could your job land you in jail?" Texas-based anti-abortion organization Life Dynamics launched the site in October of last year to convince abortion clinic employees that they are unwittingly participating in illegal activities, which the site claims are rampant at clinics.

These alleged activities range from sexual assault and statutory rape to income tax evasion, money laundering, and Medicaid fraud. The site instructs clinic workers what to look for and promises them large financial rewards for turning in their employers.



"You may not think this applies to you," Clincworker.com says. "However, if this illegal activity is ever discovered, the decision about your level of involvement will not be made by you, but by a law enforcement agency or perhaps even a federal prosecutor."

The battle continues

Scare tactics such as these abound on the Web. More frightening, though, is that people like Clayton Waagner, who has allegedly claimed responsibility for the anthrax hoax mailings, increasingly act on those threats in the real world. Saporta claims it is the websites that are inciting the violence, and some abortion rights organizations have taken legal action to shut the sites down. So far, though, the courts have upheld anti-abortion webmasters' rights to speak their minds on the Web.

Saporta insists that whether the sites remain protected or not, they will not succeed.

"The sites really are not working," she said. "Our member providers continue to offer women reproductive health care services because they know what they're doing protects women's health and saves women's lives, and they refuse to be threatened or terrorized out of providing those services to women."

This article is based on original reporting by "CyberCrime" show producer Jenniferlyn Chiemingo.