9,487
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
{{cquote|Get rid of the Klan's violence and racial bigotry, and I could work with those people. Fundamentalist Christians and those people are pretty close, scary close, fighting for God and country. Some day we may all be in the trenches together in the fight against the slaughter of unborn children.<ref name="towering">" Towering Over the Abortion Foe's Trial: His Leader." ''New York Times'', March 5, 1994.</ref>}}
Burt and his wife Linda began their Christian street ministry in [[1978]]. Their ministry and women's shelter, [[Our Father's House]], was incorporated on [[December 30]], [[1981]].<ref>[http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=761278&inq_came_from=NAMFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=N&names_cor_number=&names_name_seq=&names_name_ind=&names_comp_name=OURFATHERSHOUSE&names_filing_type= SunBiz.org record]</ref> After reading in the ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' that the number of local abortions nearly matched the number of live births (a figure elevated by the fact that Pensacola had the only abortion clinics in the region<refname="wrath">James Risen and Judy Thomas. ''Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War''. </ref>), Burt focused his ministry on stopping the practice.
==Activism & arrests==
When [[Michael Griffin]] shot and killed Dr. [[David Gunn]] outside the [[Women's Medical Services]] on [[March 10]], [[1993]], Burt was accused by defense attorney [[Bob Kerrigan]] of brainwashing Griffin with graphic anti-abortion propaganda to the point of a "nervous breakdown" which led to the murder.<ref name="towering"/> Burt was sued in a civil lawsuit that was settled on [[July 3]], [[1996]], with Gunn's family taking possession of land adjacent to the Ladies Center that Burt had purchased in [[1991]] to protest the clinic without violating obstruction laws.
On [[February 26]], 1994, during the Griffin trial, Houston anti-abortion activist Daniel Ware arrived in Pensacola and notified Burt of his plans to mount a suicide assault against a group of abortion providers who were in town for a memorial to David Gunn. Burt sent him back to Houston and notified the authorities, who arrested Ware on weapons charges. Burt was shunned by some anti-abortion groups after this incident.<ref name="wrath"/>
Burt was also a known associate of [[Paul Hill]], who murdered Dr. [[John Britton]] and his bodyguard [[James Barrett]] on [[July 29]], [[1994]].
