David Gunn forever a symbol. He wanted to deliver babies. But then an abortion clinic asked for help, and because no other doctor would order of presentation of abortions in rural areas south Dr Gunn was life. There were wanted posters with his name on it, the man late at night, hate mail, death threats, with demonstrators shouting “murderers!” Dr Gunn held three weapons in his car - in a glove compartment, under the seat and a trunk.
F. Michael Griffin, grew up in this conservative military base in the city, is a fundamentalist Christian and one, moody. Dr. Gunn was fatally shot in the back three times last Wednesday in the parking lot of a hospital, where he worked here, and Mr. Griffin said the police, he pulled the trigger. Two months ago, Mr. Griffin was on the edge of extreme anti-abortion led here by a layman appointed Minister John Burt.
Mr. Burt, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, took pains to distance itself from Mr. Griffin. He did not know much about the newcomer on his group, he said. “I’m like General sends orders to the troops, Mr. Burt said Friday.” I can not control so badly. I can not responsibly. “Two trains acceleration”
The life of David Gunn and Michael Griffin thinking a lot about the bitter divisions on abortion, which people on both pages - those who want the enormous personal risk to ensure that women the right to freedom of choice, and those who want to go to abortion to avoid extremes.
“It was like two trains speeding opposite directions,” said Susan Hill, director of Women’s Health Network, which operates a clinic in Columbus, Ga., one of six clinics, where working Dr. Gunn . “It could happen, in Columbus, Fargo, North Dakota, Fort Wayne, Indiana. There were each clinic or a doctor. But the rates were higher was happening to David, because he worked in clinics probably more than any other. ”
In 47 years, Dr. Gunn does not look like a proprietary standard of shares. “It was a little thin type,” said Don Gratton, set a minister, a member of Mr. Burk ’s anti-abortion group.
And the doctor who worked in blue jeans and Nike, has had serious weaknesses, is the result of a childhood bout of polio. The doctors told him he would never go without a cut-leg or a car, but he did too.
Poliovirus helped lead to medicine. “His granddaddy told him, ‘You know what it is to be sick, you can deal with the man,” said his older brother, Peter Gunn, in a related business’ insurance agents Benton, Ky., where Dr. Gunn grew up.
His lameness was part of the base, he chose to aid birth. “It was something that we discussed,” said Peter Gunn. “She has a baby in a sitting position. He was unable for hours without fatigue.
After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Kentucky and his home at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Dr. Gunn began his work in a public hospital in Brewton, Ala.
“He said he came to Alabama because they have the highest infant mortality in the nation, and he wanted to try some,” said his son, David Gunn Jr., 22
Ten years ago, Dr. Gunn setting up a practice with a fertility specialist in Eufaula, Ala., a former river port is known for its bass fishing. Approximately the same period, the elderly physician, was the implementation of abortions to Ms. Hill’s clinic in Columbus, three hours, it gets sick at work.
“We asked each doctor anywhere in Columbus, Atlanta,” said Hill. “They do not respond to our calls, suspend or they would be on us, they tell us they were afraid.”
Finally, they mentioned Dr. Gunn. “He knew how to make abortions,” said Hill. “It was a laid-back 60’s kind of guy who does not resemble the politics of medicine. He wanted to help.”
He began to abortion once a week, but sooner or later, he was the circuit of six clinics, driving 1000 miles per week. “A clinic cited, and he would say, it would help someone else until it is found,” said Hill. “But there is no other would be a doctor, work, and so David, it was forever.