Washington - Some of the US's most extreme antiabortion militants have won a major victory in the courts by reversing a ban on a website, known as "the Nuremberg List", which listed doctors who perform abortions as "wanted" and "baby butchers", reports Patrick Smyth
The federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled that the site is protected by the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment despite evidence that it is used by militants to target individual doctors with protests and even with violence. Several doctors testified that they had started wearing flak jackets and disguises in public for their own protection following the appearance of the "hit list".
The court reversed a $109 million award to Planned Parenthood and four doctors who had sued a dozen abortion opponents under federal anti-racketeering legislation and under laws making it illegal to incite violence against abortion providers.