What String of Violence?

based on National Abortion Federation (NAF) "History of Violence"statistics

Lately we have been hearing the following: Tiller's murder is "the latest in a string of shootings and bombings over two decades directed against abortion clinics, doctors and staff."

Lets see what the facts are taken from their own statistics:

- Murder and shootings -- There were none since 1998 until Tiller was murdered on Sunday. From 1993-1998, seven abortion doctors or abortion clinic employees were killed, and 12 others were injured, many very seriously. One cowardly killing after 11 murder-free and shooting-free years following a period of seven in six years does not signal a trend by any reasonable definition.
- Arsons and bombings -- Starting in 1976, NAF lists 13 such crimes during the remainder of that decade, over 75 during the 1980s, over 100 during the 1990s, and 16 since the turn of the century. Only six arsons took place from 2004-2008. The last arson listed at NAF's site occurred in December 2007. It should also be noted that arsons set by business owners in general to collect insurance money are not all that infrequent.
- Butyric acid attacks -- Butyric acid is a clear, colorless liquid with an unpleasant, rancid, vomit-like odor. According to NAF, this clinic attack method was used "about 100" times from 1991-1998, and has not been employed since.
- NAF lists over 650 antrax attacks and fake anthrax attacks from 1998-2002, and none since then. Over 550 of these occurred in 2001.

So again I ask "What string?"

(Note: It is interesting to see how few details the NAF has about why the arsons occurred. How many were pure vanadlism? How many were done by the owners for insurance fraud? None of that is listed. I also checked out the PDF of the complete stats. I would like to know what they consider hate mail. Overall, the PDF shows the only thing on the rise is the number of peaceful protestors. Otherwise, it puts to the lie all the claims of a string of violence.)

Source: AP: Tiller Murder Part of a 'String'; Abort Group's Own History Shreds Claim