It is no surprise that anti-abortion zealots are organizing to support the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. This moment, now, is their chance to cement the balance of power on the Supreme Court into an enduring conservative majority ready to overturn Roe v. Wade.

So, abortion opponents are knocking on doors, taking out advertisements, and hosting rallies and press conferences targeting key senators considered vulnerable to voting for Kavanaugh. And boy, do we need to talk about that. Specifically, a group calling itself the ‘Pro-Life Court Coalition,’ convened by the Susan B. Anthony List, has welcomed Operation Rescue into its coalition leadership.

Below is a screen shot from prolifecourt.com showing the list of coalition members, including Operation Rescue:

Operation Rescue is a national group whose president, Troy Newman, has called for executing abortion providers and called women who have abortions “contract killer(s).”  Mr. Newman is considered so dangerous that Australia detained him at an airport and barred him from entering the country in 2015 for a planned speaking tour after political leaders raised concerns that his work might encourage violence against abortion providers and people seeking abortion care. What’s more, Operation Rescue senior vice president Cheryl Sullenger served two years in prison for attempting to bomb an abortion clinic and later helped Scott Roeder track court hearings for the late abortion provider Dr. George Tiller before Roeder entered Dr. Tiller’s church one Sunday morning, shot him in the face, and murdered him.

It is notable that Operation Rescue is part of this coalition because they are helping to organize and support rallies targeting specific senators in their home states. That’s why today we will hand-deliver letters to the offices of Senators Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Doug Jones (D-AL), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Bill Nelson (D-FL) letting them know that rallies and press conferences outside their offices and in communities throughout their states organized by this coalition are not mere expressions of grassroots support for overturning Roe v. Wade from people in their states. Rather, they are part of a national plan of ending abortion through all means, including bombing, murder, and violence.

We are calling on Senators Donnelly, Heitkamp, Jones, Manchin, McCaskill, and Nelson to immediately denounce the efforts and organizing of any groups conspiring with terrorists to confirm Kavanaugh. Senators need to know that it is Operation Rescue putting people with signs outside their offices, no matter how ‘mainstream’ their signs may seem.

The inclusion of Operation Rescue in the broader anti-abortion coalition to confirm Kavanaugh is part of an ongoing and worrisome trend of mainstreaming calls to violence within a movement closely allied with the Trump administration.

At Reproaction, we have been watching the creeping gush of promoting anti-abortion violence into the mainstream of political life closely from day one, breaking the news to you with opportunities to take action when Troy Newman offered to “assist” the Department of Justice after Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to “disavow Operation Rescue’s endorsement of you” during his confirmation, and when we confronted and live streamed an interaction with Sen. Joe Manchin after he took a meeting with deceptive video-maker David Daleiden – and though I pressed him personally on the limits and boundaries of a so-called ‘big tent’ on abortion and provided Sen. Manchin ample opportunity to denounce anti-abortion terrorism, he failed to do so.

We will not stop fighting anti-abortion terrorism with all of our might. Ensuring the safety of abortion providers is an indivisible part of our fight for justice for all. One piece of that work is making sure politicians know they will be held accountable if they treat the efforts of those who fan the flames of violence against abortion providers as part of acceptable political discourse, simply one side of an issue. They are not.

Sign the petition to tell your Senators to vote “NO” on Brett Kavanaugh here.