Abortion

Australia Deports Anti-Abortion Extremist Troy Newman

Anti-abortion extremist Troy Newman has been deported from Australia after an appeal to remain in the country failed to convince the High Court.

via  Hai Linh Truong
via Hai Linh Truong

Newman was scheduled to speak at a 10-day Right To Life Australia event, but was detained in Denver, Colorado after Immigration Minister Peter Dutton cancelled his visa citing as grounds for revocation Newman’s prior history of promoting violence against abortion providers and their patients. Ignoring Dutton’s order, Newman rerouted his trip using a different airline and was able to touch down in Melbourne on Thursday where he was detained by officials. Newman’s attorneys immediately filed an emergency injunction to halt his deportation, but a High Court judge denied the bid and Newman departed Australia Friday morning.

Prior to Newman’s visit, several Australian politicians expressed fear of increased harassment and violence against women and women’s healthcare providers with his presence in the country, including Australia’s Labor MP, Terri Butler, who wrote a letter to Immigration Minister Dutton warning Newman could inspire “threats or the commission of acts of violence” during his stay.

“I am most concerned that Mr. Newman’s call for abortionists to be executed could lead to threats or the commission of acts of violence against women and medical professionals,” said Terri Butler, Australia’s Labor MP, in a statement. “To think he is above the law gives us insight into the sort of person we are dealing with. We don’t welcome extremists into our country and we don’t welcome extremism.”

Despite his claims that he “has never advocated violence,” Newman, president of Operation Rescue and Center for Medical Progress board member wrote in a 2000 tome called Their Blood Cries Out, “In addition to our personal guilt in abortion, the United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people.”

In 2003, Newman defended the actions of death row inmate Paul Jennings Hill, the convicted murderer of Dr. John Britton, an abortion provider slain along with his volunteer escort in 1994. A participant in activities of Newman’s organization Operation Rescue, Scott Roeder, was found guilty of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in Wichita, Kansas in 2010.

Media resources: The New York Times 10/1/15; BBC 10/2/15

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