American Notes ABORTION

"The rescue mission is not through," declared antiabortion zealot Randall Terry, but the Binghamton, N.Y., headquarters of his Operation Rescue is closing its doors. The three-year-old pro-life group won national notoriety by organizing blockades of abortion clinics around the country. Terry, convicted on misdemeanor charges of trespassing during a 1988 Atlanta-clinic protest, announced the closing last week upon his release from a Georgia prison, where he spent four months on a chain gang. The group buckled, he says, under the weight of a $50,000 lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Women.

Lawyers for NOW dismiss the assertion as a foe's ploy to "lose its creditors." Antiabortion activists privately concede that Terry's move is tactical and say Operation Rescue activities will be shouldered by the group's 110 local, legally autonomous chapters around the nation.