Army of God Leader Released on September 11th, 2007:
By AlliHi, Section Flasher Diaries
Posted on Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 04:21:11 PM EST
Tags: abortioncare, kidnapping, choice, fire bomb, unwanted pregnancy
Don Benny Anderson and his nephews, Matthew and Wayne Moore, kidnapped Dr. Hector Zevallos, the Obstetrician Gynecologist I worked for in 1982. Calling themselves the Army of God, they were out to stop abortion. Anderson will be/was released from prison on September 11th, 2007; he will be living an hour and a half away from our clinic.
1982 was a frightening year for The Hope Clinic for Women, where I continue to work. Saturday, January 23rd, the day after the 9th anniversary of legal abortion everywhere in the U.S., I got a late night phone call from our then director asking me to alert our staff the clinic was on fire.
With only one exception (a nurse frightened for her children), our staff came in the next morning to clean smoke damaged areas. A third of our building (counseling offices and lobby) was destroyed by the fire. A wall mounted television dripped down several feet, pictures literally vaporized off the walls, and water damage from our sprinkler system soaked the area. Our determined staff and professional cleaners worked round the clock to ready the other 2/3 of our facility for patients and dozens of women arrived for their abortion appointments three days later. The fire had not even singed our patients' desperation. They seemed not to care about the crowded waiting area or being counseled in exam rooms. We continued to provide abortion care in our limited areas during the weeks it took to rebuild.
This was before the days when abortion care providers could call the department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and before the days the phrase "domestic terrorist" had been coined.
No one was ever charged with starting the fire.
Only months after moving back into our renovated section, one of our physicians was late for work. This was so unusual, we called his home to check. No answer. We called a neighbor to be sure he and his wife were alright. A grim report came back. Their cars were in the garage, their door was open, the television was on with a bowl of popcorn sitting nearby and his wife's shoes were next to the couch. No one was home.
For eight days our only source of news inside the clinic was from the media. Throughout this ordeal, women still arrived for care. I went into our waiting room to talk with them and with their loved ones. They would mumble something about having heard it in the news but were so wrapped up in their own crises, their worlds were focused only on their unwanted pregnancies.
For eight days that August, Dr. Zevallos and his wife Jean were held at gunpoint, fearing for their lives - bound, blindfolded, and gagged, on the dirt floor of an abandoned WWII ammunitions bunker between Springfield and Decatur. They were fed ham sandwiches and a pot was placed in the bunker as a toilet. The kidnappers said God had spoken to them and suggested they use kidnapping to stop abortion. With a gun to his head, Dr. Zevallos was forced to make an audio tape urging President Reagan (who already did so) to oppose abortion.
On the last day, the kidnappers were harsher than they had been during the week. When they took Jean outside alone, Hector became concerned they were going to rape or hurt her. One of the younger ones admitted to the doctor he had been up all night praying as he had been told to kill them and he was trying to figure out how. Fortunately, the ringleader said God changed his mind and said to release them.
Neither the burning of our building nor the kidnapping of our doctor did anything to stop the need for abortion care. The phones continued to ring then as they do today.
Regardless of your position on abortion, we must all work together to reduce the need for it through accurate sexuality education and contraception accessible to all. What we must NOT do is reduce the availability of quality abortion care. It must remain safe whether it is us or our daughters or granddaughters who need it.
