ABSTRACT
The 2009 murder of abortion provider George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, has once again brought this issue into the limelight. Abortion is an emotional issue with political, religious, and feminist implications. Whatever one’s personal views might be on abortion; the fact is it is a legal activity in the United States. Opponents of abortion have reacted in a wide variety of ways, including legislation, protests, and violence. The issue has caused many strange alliances to be formed between legitimate religious groups and extremist groups such as the Army of God. In 1927, Andrew Kehoe bombed a school to protest taxes. As a result of these many extremist groups, the United States has adopted tactics known as the three-box theory to deal with perceived problems: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box are all seen as solutions. The conflict between legitimate means and anti-social behavior can be described as anomie. This chapter examines attacks on abortion providers. The three-box theory explores the case of Wichita, Kansas, abortion provider George Tiller. The chapter attempts to compare these attacks and the FBI definitions of terrorism with anti-abortion political violence using the method of the three-box theory to determine whether attacks on abortion providers should be considered as acts of domestic terrorism.
