Cheryl Sullenger

Cheryl Deann Sullenger (born 1955) is an American convicted felon, religious fanatic and activist against women's reproductive health services. Sullenger is currently the senior vice president for Kansas-based hate group Operation Rescue.

Anti-abortion activism

Sullenger started her involvement with the anti-abortion movement in 1984, volunteering for a crisis pregnancy center in San Diego County.[1]

Attempted bombing of abortion clinic

Sullenger and her husband Randall were members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship, a fundamentalist church in Santee, California. On July 27, 1987, a member of that church attempted to bomb the Family Planning Associates abortion business. Sullenger provided a wig for co-conspirator Eric Everett Svelmoe, who planted the bomb. The gasoline bomb was placed at the premises but failed to detonate as the fuse was blown out by wind.[2]

Sullenger and her husband both pleaded guilty to conspiring to damage the Alvarado Medical Center abortion clinic.[2] Sullenger's husband was sentenced to 18 months and she was sentenced to three years by US District Judge Earl B. Gillam. Her sentence was scheduled to begin after her husband's ended so that one of them could stay at home with their daughters, then four and six-years-old.[2] Sullenger served two years in U.S. federal prison and was released in April 1990.[3]

Following completion of her sentence, Sullenger taught children at a Christian school for seven years. She was also elected to the Central Committee of the 75th District of the San Diego Republican Party.[1]

Wichita and Operation Rescue

In 2003 Sullenger moved to Wichita, Kansas where she began serving as a senior policy advisor for Operation Rescue under Troy Newman. With Newman she wrote the books Their Blood Cries Out! and Abortion Free. In 2003 she and Newman issued a statement on upon the execution ofPaul Jennings Hill, writing that because Hill was denied by a judge from mounting the defense of justifiable homicide, he was denied due process. She felt that because he was not allowed to defend himself by asserting that he murdered Dr Tiller in cold blood because "it was necessary to save unborn lives", his execution was unjust.[4] As a part of Operation Rescue, she pressured companies to cease doing business with abortion provider George Tiller. Sullenger also participated in protests outside the homes of clinic workers, harassed clinic workers at restaurants and shops, and publicly released the home addresses, telephone numbers, and divorce complaints of clinic workers. She also repeatedly advocated violence against anyone who worked in women's reproductive health services, or who disagreed with her extreme religious beliefs. [5]

Link to Tiller assassination

In 2009 Sullenger was accused of aiding Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist who assassinated Wichita physician George Tiller. Roeder had called her and Operation Rescue president Troy Newman repeatedly, and she provided information about Dr Tillers whereabouts and movements that Roeder used in his plan to murder Dr Tiller.[6][7] Rachel Maddow ran an expose detailing the "unholy alliance" between Sullenger and Roeder.[8]

Sullenger continues to advocate violence against anyone who supports the free reproductive rights of women. In a book she co-authored with Troy Newman, she calls for the execution of physicians who provide women's health services.

References

  1. 1 2 "Who We Are: Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor". Operation Rescue. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Frammolino, Ralph (May 6, 1988). "2 Get Prison for Trying to Bomb Abortion Clinic". Los Angeles Times.
  3. ↑ "Inmate Locator - CHERYL DEANN SULLENGER". Register Number, 10664-198. Federal Bureau of Prisons.
  4. ↑ Newman, Troy; Sullenger, Cheryl (September 3, 2003). "Execution of Paul Hill Nothing Less than Murder" (Press release). Operation Rescue West. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008.
  5. ↑ Sevcik, Kimberley (June 1, 2009). "The Anti-Abortion Campaign Against Dr. George Tiller". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 12, 2009.
  6. ↑ Bauer, Laura; Thomas, Judy L. (June 3, 2009). "Operation Rescue adviser helped Tiller suspect track doctor's court dates". Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on August 3, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kendall, Justin (June 1, 2009). "Phone number found inside car of man suspected of killing George Tiller belongs to woman who plotted 1988 clinic bombing". The Pitch. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  8. ↑ Links to Expose

External links

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