Michael Bray is an American anti-abortion activist convicted in 1985 of two counts of conspiracy and one count of possessing unregistered explosive devices in relation to 10 bombings of women's health clinics and offices of liberal advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, he agreed to a plea bargain and served 46 months from 1985 to 1989.
He and his wife, Jayne, are named defendants in the Supreme Court decision Bray v. Alexandria. He is considered to be a terrorist by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.
In 1994, the F.B.I. suspected that he and other anti-abortion figures might be developing "a conspiracy that endeavors to achieve political or social change through activities that involve force or violence", as stated in a confidential teletype sent to all 56 F.B.I. field offices.[
conspiracy and possessing unregistered explosive devices in relation to 10 different bomb attacks Penalty 10 years Status served 46 months from 1985 to 1989; living in Wilmington, Ohio since December 2003 Spouse Jayne Bray (1976 - present) Children 11
Dave Francis Leach is a Des Moines anti-abortion activist and publisher of the extremist newsletter Prayer & Action News and web site The Partnership Machine. His publications support the doctrine of justifiable homicide in the case of abortion doctors, the same doctrine cited by Prayer & Action News subscriber and contributor Scott Roeder prior to the Assassination of George Tiller, a Kansas abortion doctor. Leach reprinted the Army of God manual, which lists ways to damage abortion buildings from putting super glue in locks to two simple bomb recipes, in the January 1996 issue of his magazine. The manual had previously been published only anonymously, and mailed anonymously to pro-life leaders and news reporters. Leach's reprint of it was the first printing that was not anonymous. The introduction explained that Janet Reno's Virginia Grand Jury had, for a year, subpoenaed pro-lifers and "commanded" them to bring any copies they had of the Army of God Manual, which were then taken, treating possession of a book as some kind of crime. Leach explained that reprinting it threw down the gauntlet: "if owning a book is a crime, here I am; prosecute me." Within days after reprints went in the mail, the Virginia Grand Jury was disbanded.
The manual concludes with a paragraph commonly said to advocate the killing of abortion providers. The sentences are "...Whosoever sheds mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed [Gen. 9:6]...we are forced to take arms against you. Our life for yours..." Leach insists that the problem with interpreting this as advocating justifiable homicide is that (1) it says "our life for yours" instead of "your life for the babies'"; and (2) the book only shows how to damage property, never how to hurt people. The alternative interpretation Leach says he had when he reprinted the manual is that the "arms" could mean the tools of vandalism, and "our life for yours" could reference the Christian concept of paying the penalty owed by another - viz. "we will pay the penalty you have earned, by risking spending the rest of our own lives in jail to right your wrongs." Leach cites page 48 of his reprint, which says “murder” is “something no pro-lifer would recommend, being pro-life”. And page 76: “We must die that others may live....don’t construe this to mean I recommend executing abortionists. I do not. Although I think it easily justified from Holy Writ, the A. O. G. adheres to the principle of minimum force. Mercy, rather than justice is the driving force behind our actions.”
Regina Dinwiddie, the Kansas anti-abortion activist who set up an eBay auction to benefit the suspect in the George Tiller murder, tells TPMmuckraker in a phone interview that she's angry that eBay pulled her items -- and that she believes they did not glorify violence, but rather "glorify the end of a very violent man."
"Actually I thought [eBay] was the last bastion of free enterprise in America, where normal people could put things up for sale," Dinwiddie told us. "I see they do have a political agenda."
The items put on eBay -- and pulled by the site today -- included prison art signed by Roeder showing a bloody scene in which David has slain a Goliath labeled "Tiller." Also for sale was Dinwiddie's bullhorn, and various relics and treatises associated with the violent wing of the anti-abortion movement.
Asked whether she believes the items glorify violence, Dinwiddie said she did not believe they did. "David and Goliath -- that's from the Bible," she said.
As news of Roeder's arrest traveled, Kansas City activist Regina Dinwiddie remembered the day a dozen years ago when Roeder hugged her in glee after trying to frighten an abortion provider by staring him down inside a Planned Parenthood clinic.
"He grabbed me and said, 'I've read the Defensive Action Statement and I love what you're doing,' " Dinwiddie said in a telephone interview. She was a signer of the 1990s statement, which declares that the use of force is justified.
On August 19, 1993, Shelley Shannon shot Dr. George Tiller in both arms, outside his Wichita, Kansas clinic.
At the time she shot Tiller, Shannon had been a part of the anti-abortion movement for at least five years. She had written in support of Michael Griffin, the murderer of Dr. David Gunn, calling Griffin "the awesomest, greatest hero of our time." Tiller's Wichita clinic was the site of frequent demonstrations and incidents of direct action by those opposed to abortion rights and of counter-demonstrations by abortion rights activists. Under cover of such a fracas, Shannon shot Tiller with a semiautomatic pistol.
Tiller was later assassinated on May 31, 2009, by Scott Roeder.
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