Anti-abortionists in the United States have won the right to publish on the internet what amounts to a hit list of doctors who provide terminations for pregnant women.
The site, known as the Nuremberg Files, describes abortions as "Satan's food source". It prints "wanted" posters of the "baby butchers" and in some cases lists their addresses, car licence plate numbers and relatives' names. Seven doctors providing abortions in the US have been murdered in the past ten years.
The danger posed to doctors was underlined yesterday when one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives was arrested in France on suspicion of having murdered a gynaecologist in 1998. James Kopp, dubbed "Atomic Dog" by fellow anti-abortionists, was the subject of an international manhunt after Dr Barnett Slepian was shot dead at home near Buffalo, New York state.
Within hours, Slepian's name was posted on the Nuremberg Files with a cross through it.
The ruling upholding the right of the site to publish its content was upheld by a federal appeals court sitting in San Francisco.
The decision aroused despair last night among pro-choice doctors and campaigners. Warren Hern of Boulder, Colorado - one of the doctors who lodged the original lawsuit in Oregon that went on to the appeal court - said he was "shocked, disappointed and alarmed" by the decision. Dr Hern, who has been the target of an attack, said the ruling would be a "green light" for the most violent anti-abortionists.
Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, condemned the decision: "Reasonable people understand the difference between free speech and harassment that creates a violent social climate."
In making its ruling the bench pointed to the first amendment to the constitution, which guarantees free speech. One of the three judges said that "extreme rhetoric and violent action" had always played a part in American political life.
The ruling arose out of a 1999 case in Portland, Oregon where a jury awarded $107m (then worth £66.5m) in mainly punitive damages against the American Coalition of Life Activists, the Advocates for Life Ministries and 13 individuals who had put wanted posters of doctors on the web and described them as baby butchers.
The case had been brought by four doctors, a clinic and the Planned Parenthood organisation under the Freedom of Access to Clinics Act.
The identities of three of the seven doctors murdered in the past 10 years were listed on websites; there have been a further 17 attempted murders. Many such doctors now wear disguises and bullet-proof vests, live in fortified houses and vary their journeys to work.
"Political speech may not be punished just because it makes it more likely that someone will be harmed at some unknown time in the future by an unrelated third party," said Judge Alex Kozinski in the judgment.
"Extreme rhetoric and violent action have marked many political movements in American history. Patriots intimidated loyalists in both word and deed as they gathered support for American independence. John Brown and other abolitionists, convinced that God was on their side, committed murder in pursuit of their cause.
"In more modern times, the labour, anti-war, animal rights and environmental movements all have had their violent fringes," said Judge Kozinski, who was appointed under Ronald Reagan's presidency.
"As a result, much of what was said by non-violent participants acquired a tinge of menace ... If their (the websites') statements merely encouraged unrelated terrorists then their words are protected by the first amendment."
The American Civil Liberties Union agreed that the first amendment protected the right to protest against abortion, but argued that "it doesn't protect the right to threaten abortion providers with harm".
The ruling delighted anti-abortion groups. "Hallelujah!" said Neal Horsley of Carrollton, Georgia who runs the Nuremberg Files site.
Yesterday the site was posting new names of doctors, calling for fresh volunteers to carry out surveillance on doctors to protect "God's little babies". It also guided site visitors to the names of doctors killed.
"This is a reaffirmance of first amendment liberty," said Christopher Ferrara of the American Catholic Lawyers Association, an attorney in the case. "The posters do not contain any threats and in comparison to what we see in other protest movements, they are rather tame."
