In History: Birmingham abortion clinic bombed

This is the 10th post in a weekly feature here at Spare Candy, called "In History." Some posts might be little more than a photo, others full on features. If you have any suggestions for a person or event that should be featured, or would like to submit a guest post or cross post, e-mail me at rosiered23 (at) sparecandy (dot) com.

Unfortunately, this week's "In History" column serves as another reminder of the potential dangers faced by all the doctors, nurses, workers, escorts, security personnel, patients and bystanders at abortion clinics, every day.

On Jan. 29, 1998, the New Woman, All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed. Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who was working at the clinic as security was killed, and Emily Lyons, a nurse, was badly injured. The attack was later attributed to a terrorist who had committed other bombings; he was caught in 2003 and eventually sentenced to five life terms in prison. You can read CNN's news story from the next day here.