Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Nurse, injured by
By Helen Altonn
anti-abortionist,
backs rights
Star-BulletinEmily Lyons, 43, had just arrived at the New Woman All Women health care clinic in Birmingham, Ala., at 7:33 a.m. when a bomb exploded.
A policeman providing security for the building was killed in the blast on Jan. 29, 1998. Lyons, the clinic's director of nursing, was hospitalized eight weeks with serious injuries.
The entire front part of her body was scarred and the bomb drove nails into her legs that remain embedded.
She lost an eye and her remaining eye has limited sight, preventing her from resuming her nursing profession, she said in a telephone interview.
Consequently, she travels around the country talking about women's rights and speaking against violence toward reproductive health providers.
Lyons will be keynote speaker at a brunch planned by the Family Planning Centers of Hawaii from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the Hawaii Prince Hotel. Cost of the buffet brunch is $75 per person. Tickets can be purchased at the door.
She said the bombing intensified her belief that "safe, legal abortion care is worth standing up for."
Her talks touch on politics and "what's going to happen this year." Whether women will continue to have freedom of choice depends who's elected president, she stresses.
Republican candidate George W. Bush Jr. wants to ban abortions, with no exceptions, she points out.
Women would be forced to carry a pregnancy that might endanger their health or that they couldn't handle because of personal circumstances, she said. "It would be very emotionally damaging."
Barry Raff, executive director of the Family Planning Centers of Hawaii, said, "We're committed to preserving a woman's right to choose ...
"Some of the radical anti-choice people will obviously resort to violence."
Nationally, clinics last year had more than 8,500 bomb threats, hate and harassing phone calls, Raff said. And there were more than 100 incidents involving bombs, arson, vandalism, burglaries and assaults.
In Honolulu, a letter claiming to contain anthrax was sent in February 1999 to an Ala Moana Building office formerly occupied by Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, now the Family Planning Centers of Hawaii.
Anthrax spores produce bacteria that can cause flu-like symptoms, which can be fatal if not treated quickly. The letter was a hoax, however.
Other than that scare, Raff said, "We've had some anti-choice activity but it was peaceful. People were expressing views. Nationally, that isn't the trend. Although numbers are down, we're still seeing violent acts."
Lyons said a decision regarding abortion is "a very personal right between a woman and her doctor and significant other, if she wants to include them. It is not for religious groups, extremists and fanatics to be involved."
The Family Planning Centers of Hawaii had 8,600 patient visits for services in fiscal 1999. Half of the patients were under age 24; one-third were teens, and two-thirds had below-poverty income.
Hawaii's teen birth rate ranked 15th highest in the nation, based on 1997 data, although it had dropped 18 percent since 1991.
