[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S21-S22]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   BROOKLINE ABORTION CLINIC MURDERS

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, this is the second time in 6 months that I 
have risen to discuss the terrifying implications of abortion clinic 
murders, but now I am deeply saddened that my State has joined others 
that have seen the horror and felt the pain of this senseless violence.
  Last Friday morning at 10 a.m. Shannon Lowney, a 25-year-old activist 
working as a receptionist at a clinic in Brookline, MA, looked up and 
smiled at a man who had just walked into her office. It was John Salvi.
  In response to her smile and welcome, he pulled a collapsible Ruger 
rifle from his bag--aimed it at Shannon and fired at point-blank range. 
He killed Shannon and wounded three others.
  In mourning her death, many people in Massachusetts and in the 
country are wondering about why this occurred and they are also 
wondering about who was Shannon Lowney and what does her life now show 
us.
  Her friends called her ``Shanny'' and she was a very caring, 
committed young woman who represents the best of her generation. She 
cared about people. She tutored Spanish-speaking children in Cambridge, 
helped poor villagers in Ecuador, worked with abused children in Maine, 
and last week she finished her application to Boston University for a 
masters in social work.
  She was one of those rare people in a generation that has been often 
called Generation X or the uninvolved generation, yet Shannon 
confronted injustice and acted on her deep and abiding belief that we 
are all in this together; that we are community and each of us must 
accept our personal responsibility within that community, no matter 
what our beliefs.
  The irony and the tragedy is that to John Salvi, Shannon's life meant 
nothing except an opportunity to make a statement. The good and the 
decent life of someone who truly cared about others was taken in the 
name of life.
  Mr. President, no matter what our views on abortion might be, I am 
confident that every decent American mourns the senseless murder of 
Shannon Lowney and is touched by the loss of someone so young and so 
committed to working with other people.
  Contrast Shannon's life and her motives and the motives of a man like 
John Salvi--a man who killed one person and wounded five others and 
then left Planned Parenthood and walked a few blocks to the Preterm 
Health Services Clinic where he asked Lee Ann Nicols, a 38-year-old 
receptionist engaged to be married this year, whether this was, indeed, 
the Preterm Clinic. She said yes, and he shot her from less than 1 yard 
away killing her on the spot.
  He then said, ``In the name of the mother of God,'' aimed at Richard 
Seron, a lawyer working as a security guard, and shot him once in each 
arm. He shot one other person, 29-year-old June Sauer once in the 
pelvis, once in the back, and then he left.
  So five people injured, two people killed. He then drove 600 miles 
south to the Hillcrest Clinic in Norfolk, VA, where he went on another 
shooting spree, but nobody was hurt. And now we must ask ourselves what 
does this mean, who is John Salvi, and what does his life show us?
  On Christmas eve, Salvi delivered a sermon about the Catholic Church 
and its failure to see the true meaning of Christ. But what was his 
motivation beyond whatever warped perceptions he had as a diviner of 
the scriptures?
  Paul Hill, the minister currently on Florida's death row, gives us 
some insight into John Salvi's motivations. Hill gave us a chilling 
reason for killing a doctor and his assistant in Pensacola. He said:

       The Bible teaches us to do unto others as you would have 
     them do unto you. Therefore, according to his reasoning 
     killing a man who is about to kill an unborn child 
     constitutes self-defense.
  [[Page S22]] To Paul Hill, the murder was a justifiable homicide.
  Mr. President, this syllogism lies at the heart of one of the most 
corrosive dangers that we face in an ever increasingly violent world 
and a violent America.
  There are religious teachings that offer justifiable excuses for 
killing, but the mainstream religions, all of them, have always 
promoted tolerance over intolerance. The only people who use religion 
to justify cold-blooded murder are religious fanatics, and they must be 
recognized as such.
  But what happened in Brookline and what happened to Shannon Lowney 
and Lee Ann Nicols and the tragedy of their deaths tells us that we can 
no longer dismiss these fringe elements of our society, we can no 
longer let good people fall victim to intolerance and fanaticism.
  Yes, John Salvi read from the same Bible that Shannon and Lee Ann 
did. The teachings and the words were the same, but their lives could 
not have been more different.
  It is our task to remember that commitment and dedication can be 
manifest in kindness and concern, or they can take the hideous form of 
fanaticism and hatred that motivated John Salvi to play God.
  Mr. President, it is incumbent on all of us, and particularly as we 
begin this term in the Senate, to understand the increasing danger that 
can be wrought by those who interpret religious teachings as a crusade 
against others and as a justification for cold-blooded murder or for 
violent acts.
  It is our task to understand that we live in dangerous times and that 
the easy availability of weapons in society makes it even more 
dangerous. People like John Salvi and Paul Hill have increased the 
danger and increased the threat to those who choose to show their 
commitment and their faith by helping others build a better life for 
themselves and their families.
  So I believe, Mr. President, it is time for both sides on the 
abortion issue to exert leadership and to show that we can find a way 
to express our views without increasing the rhetorical violence or the 
physical violence.
  It is our task to sit down and to talk to each other, and I commend 
my friend and constituent and his eminence, Cardinal Bernard Law of the 
Archdiocese of Boston, for his personal efforts to bring both sides 
together. He has shown courage in this regard. Even though he is 
strongly pro-life, he has called for an end, temporarily at least, to 
antiabortion protests in Boston. He is trying to bring everyone 
together in an unprecedented sense of negotiation.
  Cardinal Law has shown leadership and tolerance, and his deep faith 
serves as an example to all of us who want to bring an end to the 
senseless violence. What we achieve together can send a loud and clear 
message to those who would use their beliefs as justification for 
murder that, though we may not agree, we are still one people bound 
together not only by our faith and our commitments to our beliefs but 
by the expression of our common interest through tolerance for our 
differences and a mutual respect and understanding for each other.
  Mr. President, Shannon Lowney, obviously, did not deserve her fate. 
She was a good and decent woman, though some might disagree with what 
she chose to do. They certainly could not wish on her the death she 
found. She was the personification of the principles of freedom, 
freedom of choice and equality and the justice that unites us as a 
people, and she was working to help others because she cared about 
other human beings.
  Make no mistake, the wrong response to these shootings would be to 
turn clinics into armed fortresses on the fringes of our medical 
delivery system, further from those who have a constitutional right to 
seek the procedure.
  We must learn from this and, indeed, in tribute to those who died, 
make certain that this constitutional right is protected at the 
Federal, State, and local level by providing the resources necessary to 
maintain peace in our country.
  When those shots rang out in Brookline last Friday, Mr. President, 
John Salvi did not just take life, he took something very precious from 
all of us. He took our freedom to believe and to express our beliefs as 
we choose and he took our freedom to act on our beliefs without fear of 
violence. We cannot permit that to happen in this country.
  For many days, there will be many who will continue to mourn the 
deaths of Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nicols. The people of my State 
will remain shocked and outraged at this senseless act of violence that 
took them from us. And I know I speak for every Member of the Senate in 
extending our deepest condolences to their families and friends and to 
all the victims of this tragedy.
  The lesson, Mr. President, is tolerance, and it is a lesson we would 
do well to learn and to think about as we witness other divisions in 
the United States of America, particularly the division of race. If we 
do not learn it, then we will dishonor the memory of these two young 
women from Massachusetts who lost their lives through intolerance in 
the name of God.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. BREAUX addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  

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