As of Wednesday morning, NPR's morning and evening newscasts have yet to cover the second undercover video of a Planned Parenthood executive revealing how the organization varies its abortion procedures in order to preserve the organs of unborn babies for medical research. Instead, Tuesday's All Things Considered spotlighted a March 2014 incident where the adult son of a pro-life activist vandalized an abortionist's office in rural Montana. The report even featured two soundbites from a local employee of Planned Parenthood.
Host Melissa Block led into Montana Public Radio correspondent Corin Cates-Carney's report by noting that "All Families Healthcare was a family practice in northwestern Montana that also provided abortions. It was the only clinic to do so in the vast Flathead Valley. That made it a target. It was vandalized last year to the point it had to be shut down. Now, the facility's owner says she probably won't reopen it."
Cates-Carney first underlined that "there's never been a welcome mat for abortion service providers in the Flathead Valley. Susan Cahill started providing abortions in 1976 in the first clinic to provide the service in the Flathead." After playing the first of five clips from Cahill, the journalist noted that she "performed abortions as a physician's assistant for 38 years" before the vandalism incident, which he described in detail:
CORIN CATES-CARNEY: ...[P]olice testified Zachary Klundt took a hammer to the photos in Cahill's office; poured iodine on the floor; tossed files from cabinets. Klundt damaged the building's heating and plumbing, and discharged a fire extinguisher. He said he broke into the clinic looking for prescription drugs. Everything was destroyed – including a photo reading, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'
It should be pointed out that in June 2015, Cates-Carney reported on Montana Public Radio's website that that Klundt "struggled with mental heath issues and substance abuse." However, he didn't include these details during his report for NPR.
The correspondent then played up that "Flathead County stretches over 5,000 square miles in the northwest corner of Montana. Along the main roads, you can see crosses, churches, and large Ten Commandment billboards. Cahill's clinic was in Kalispell, the hub of the Flathead – population, 20,000. Its largest employer is Kalispell Regional Medical Center. In a town full of health care professionals, Cahill was the only one providing abortions."
Cates-Carney continued with his two soundbites from the Planned Parenthood representative:
CATES-CARNEY: According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2008, American women traveled an average of 30 miles to access abortion services. Today, a woman in Kalispell would need to drive 120 miles one way to Missoula to get an abortion. And some women are, says Melissa Barcroft of Planned Parenthood in Missoula.
MELISSA BARCROFT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, MISSOULA, MONTANA: Any time a provider stops providing services, the need doesn't go away. Patients still need that care.
CATES-CARNEY: Barcroft says it's frustrating.
BARCROFT: I know, from talking to our providers, that we have seen a definite increase in patients from the Flathead area.
He also touted Cahill's claims about a supposed climate of fear among medical professionals in Montana to provide abortions:
CATES-CARNEY: Cahill says she worries most about poor women, or those from the town of Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation....Cahill says plenty of local physicians can perform abortions, but they're afraid.
Samantha Avery trained under Cahill at All Families Healthcare. At the time, Avery thought about going to medical school to pursue a career like Cahill's.
SAMANTHA AVERY: I know she really wanted me to be the one to take over her clinic. And even before all this, I told her – like, I just don't know if I could do that to my family – as in, my future family. Like, I can't be the Susan Cahill. I'm not that brave of a person.
CATES-CARNEY: She decided instead to work for the public health department in Flathead County. She says it was hard for her to watch Cahill lose everything so quickly, and the weight of the community's opposition to abortion is hard to counter. She points to Zachary Klundt, who was convicted in the attack against the clinic.
Cates-Carney then noted that Klundt's "mother was on the board of Hope Pregnancy Ministries, which advocates for alternatives to abortion. She resigned after the attack." The correspondent finally played a soundbite from a pro-lifer – Michelle Reimer, the executive director of Hope Pregnancy Ministries, who condemned the destruction.
The full transcript of Corin Cates-Carney's report from Tuesday's All Things Considered:
CORIN CATES-CARNEY, MONTANA PUBLIC RADIO: There's never been a welcome mat for abortion service providers in the Flathead Valley. Susan Cahill started providing abortions in 1976 in the first clinic to provide the service in the Flathead.
SUSAN CAHILL, ALL FAMILIES HEALTHCARE: But that had an arson fire; and then, we rebuilt that, you know? And then, the anti-choice people tried to arrest me for doing abortions when I wasn't a doctor.
CATES-CARNEY: She performed abortions as a physician's assistant for 38 years – until one night in March of 2014, when police testified Zachary Klundt took a hammer to the photos in Cahill's office; poured iodine on the floor; tossed files from cabinets. Klundt damaged the building's heating and plumbing, and discharged a fire extinguisher. He said he broke into the clinic looking for prescription drugs. Everything was destroyed – including a photo reading, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'
CAHILL: I've worked since I was 17. I mean, everything I've had, I've worked for.
CATES-CARNEY: Flathead County stretches over 5,000 square miles in the northwest corner of Montana. Along the main roads, you can see crosses, churches, and large Ten Commandment billboards. Cahill's clinic was in Kalispell, the hub of the Flathead – population, 20,000. Its largest employer is Kalispell Regional Medical Center. In a town full of health care professionals, Cahill was the only one providing abortions.
CAHILL: But because I was the only one, I got targeted.
CATES-CARNEY: Cahill's clinic was general family practice, and her patients must now find other health care in Kalispell. But for abortion care, the options are limited.
CAHILL: It's the only medical health care concern that has few providers.
CATES-CARNEY: According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2008, American women traveled an average of 30 miles to access abortion services. Today, a woman in Kalispell would need to drive 120 miles one way to Missoula to get an abortion. And some women are, says Melissa Barcroft of Planned Parenthood in Missoula.
MELISSA BARCROFT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, MISSOULA, MONTANA: Any time a provider stops providing services, the need doesn't go away. Patients still need that care.
CATES-CARNEY: Barcroft says it's frustrating.
BARCROFT: I know, from talking to our providers, that we have seen a definite increase in patients from the Flathead area.
CATES-CARNEY: Cahill says she worries most about poor women, or those from the town of Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
CAHILL: Now, you've got people that don't have – are on Medicaid; that are from Browning; that are teenagers. It's much harder for them to get to Missoula. I mean, I used to give gas money for people to go home. It's just a harder struggle for them.
CATES-CARNEY: Cahill says plenty of local physicians can perform abortions, but they're afraid.
Samantha Avery trained under Cahill at All Families Healthcare. At the time, Avery thought about going to medical school to pursue a career like Cahill's.
SAMANTHA AVERY: I know she really wanted me to be the one to take over her clinic. And even before all this, I told her – like, I just don't know if I could do that to my family – as in, my future family. Like, I can't be the Susan Cahill. I'm not that brave of a person.
CATES-CARNEY: She decided instead to work for the public health department in Flathead County. She says it was hard for her to watch Cahill lose everything so quickly, and the weight of the community's opposition to abortion is hard to counter. She points to Zachary Klundt, who was convicted in the attack against the clinic. His mother was on the board of Hope Pregnancy Ministries, which advocates for alternatives to abortion. She resigned after the attack.
Hope Pregnancy Ministries executive director Michelle Reimer says what happened to Cahill and her clinic was terrible, and totally against her group's mission.
MICHELLE REIMER, HOPE PREGNANCY MINISTRIES: There's not a place for it in a Christian organization. And then. there's always going to be the outlier – the one who represents us poorly; or who says the wrong thing; or, as we all would with a very volatile topic like abortion, express ourselves passionately, rather than logically. And I think we see that on both sides.
CATES-CARNEY: Reimer says the biggest part of her faith is compassion, and telling a woman, regardless of what she chooses, she is loved.
Last month, Klundt was sentenced to 20 years with 15 years suspended. He was also ordered to pay restitution. In the courtroom, Klundt read Cahill an apology.
ZACHARY KLUNDT (from court hearing): I cannot even believe that I did that to another soul, but I did it to you. I know what it's like to live with fear, and for me, to do that to you is awful. And I am truly so sorry.
CATES-CARNEY: He said his actions do not represent his faith. Susan Cahill says for women in the Flathead Valley, getting reproductive care is not any easier now that Klundt is sentenced. Her clinic is still gone. For NPR News, I'm Corin Cates-Carney in Missoula.
