The legal manoeuvrings continue, but it is the fallout from James Kopp’s confession to shooting Buffalo, N.Y. abortionist Barnett Slepian that predominates in the wake of the admission. Pro-life and religious leaders have continued to make known their condemnations of Kopp’s apparent actions, while pro-abortion advocates have sought to seize political ground.
“James Kopp is an extremist, a terrorist and a confessed murderer – plain and simple,” huffed Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “His jailhouse confession is a cynical attempt to curry favour through the media. This ploy comes at a time when the Bush administration and Congress are poised to enact a laundry list of restrictions to undermine a woman’s ‘right to choose.’ Kopp’s confession is a painful reminder of the dangers to our individual rights posed by extremists who will go to any lengths to impose their ideology on others.”
However, Catholic Bishop Henry J. Mansell of Buffalo said it is inconsistent for anyone in the pro-life movement to take a life. “Our ways are not the ways of violence,” he stressed.
Even Kopp’s stepmother said she was puzzled about why he fled from authorities and took so long to confess to the crime. “He said he didn’t mean to kill but that he meant to protect unborn children. Isn’t that a contradiction? If you did it, if you had such intense feelings, why hide from them after you’ve done the deed?”
On the Canadian side, Campaign Life Coalition has a policy that demands the resignation of anyone within its ranks espousing violent conduct. And Jakki Jeffs, of Alliance for Life Ontario, said people of Kopp’s persuasion do not represent the pro-life movement or its philosophy. “I would state emphatically, there is no room for violence,” she said.
However, members of a Canadian police task force into shootings of abortionists in this country suggest there is “a strong possibility” Canadians provided help to whoever was responsible for those attacks.
“We have never closed our eyes to the fact that he could have had accomplices in Canada. That’s a strong possibility,” said Inspector Keith McCaskill. But he admitted that there are no investigators working full-time on the matter and he thinks police have “investigated it as much as we can in Canada.” They continue this line despite the lack of evidence linking Kopp to the wider pro-life movement.
On the legal front, John V. Elmore, a veteran attorney specializing in criminal defence and civil rights, is joining Kopp’s defence team. He will assist Long Island attorney Bruce A. Barket in that capacity.
And a judge has slapped a gag order on all attorneys, investigators and Kopp himself, so that the only discussion on the case can take place in open court.
