Debt Forcing Operation Rescue to Close National Office, Leader Says

Anti-abortion militant Randall Terry said Wednesday that Operation Rescue is shutting its national headquarters because of debt, but he told a press conference in Washington that 125 local affiliates will continue their efforts to close abortion clinics.

Terry, a born-again Christian and former car salesman who founded Operation Rescue in 1988, stopped in the nation’s capital on his way home to Rochester, N.Y., after release from a Georgia prison. There, he announced the closing of the organization’s Binghamton, N.Y., office.

Operation Rescue is $70,000 in debt, largely because of a $50,000 fine imposed by a New York court in a lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Women (NOW), Terry said.

NOW issued a statement suggesting that closing the national headquarters is “the beginning of the end” for Operation Rescue. “However,” the statement continued, “we suspect it is merely a ploy to put off paying Operation Rescue’s numerous fines.”

Susan Finn, spokeswoman for Operation Rescue’s Southern California office in Anaheim, said the closing “will not have any effect” on the local movement’s operations.

“We have nine different Rescue communities that have been training for the past year, and they are ready and very anxious to start doing their own rescues,” Finn said. “We are very encouraged by what’s happening with Rescue in Southern California.” Finn acknowledged that original Operation Rescue leaders have backed away. “We do have a high turnover rate in leadership positions. It is high stress, what we’re doing. They are leaders for a year, then need to step back and let others take over that kind of work.”

Lake Forest pastor Randy Adler, a former Operation Rescue leader, said his Stone Mountain Church is “regrouping” away from Operation Rescue but not because of troubles affecting the national office or Terry. “I still believe in the concept of Rescue,” Adler said. “It’s time for our church to go on to other things.”

Times staff writer Lynn Smith contributed to this story.