Abortion opponents turn on each other over rights to trademark

“Troy was my son in the movement,’’ said Terry, 50, a onetime used car salesman from upstate New York who founded Operation Rescue in 1986. Terry rose to fame leading clinic blockades until lawsuits, jail terms, and a stunning 1998 legal settlement forced him to abandon his militant tactics. He then faded from the forefront of the struggle.

Newman, 43, meanwhile, was an up-and-coming activist in San Diego and a spokesman for Operation Rescue there. He admired Terry’s energy, charisma, and rhetoric.

“Randall was the first guy to say, ‘If abortion is murder, then act like it,’ ’’ said Newman, who became president of Operation Rescue West in 1999. “A lot of us concur that God used him at a certain time for certain projects. For a time.’’

But today, the two abortion foes are locked in an increasingly nasty battle over ownership of the trademark Operation Rescue.

Terry has called his former protégé a weasel. Newman has branded Terry a charlatan.

Operation Rescue, among the first to apply civil disobedience to the abortion debate, has had a tangled history, with numerous incarnations and what some say is questionable political relevance today.

In July, a who’s who of antiabortion leaders convened a conference call they say drew more than 35,000 listeners to discuss their opposition to President Obama’s health care overhaul, which they fear will include taxpayer-funded abortions. Operation Rescue was nowhere to be found on the participants list.

“Operation Rescue is largely a blast from the past and fairly marginalized in the prolife movement now,’’ said Marvin Olasky, editor of The World, a Christian magazine.

“About 20 years go, the Operation Rescue activities were probably creating more support for abortion overall, and as the prolife movement recognized that, the emphasis became one of offering compassionate help to women in a crisis,’’ Olasky said. “The group as a whole, and particularly Randy Terry, never made that leap.’’

Clearly, though, the name, which Newman trademarked in 2006, is worth fighting for: Whoever controls “Operation Rescue’’ benefits from its unquestionable ability to raise money from those who oppose abortion.

“Why does Troy need my name? What does he get from stealing another man’s heritage? Money and media,’’ Terry said in a telephone interview from Falls Church, Va. He moved to the Washington, D.C., area from Florida last year in an effort to reestablish himself as a leader in the antiabortion fight, which has heated up with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress.

Newman, for his part, has accused Terry of being a dilettante and financial failure who hopes to recapture Operation Rescue because it is “the goose that’s laid the golden egg.’’

“Randall is articulate and convincing,’’ Newman said from Wichita, Kan, “but so are used car salesmen and cult leaders. He is not a true believer, but a charlatan and a manipulator. . . . He shows up at a national event, makes a flamboyant speech, gets everyone within earshot rattled, and then passes the collection plate and moves on.’’

Newman said Terry voluntarily walked away from Operation Rescue when he mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1998, then went on to other careers and causes.

Terry insists just the opposite.

“I never stopped using the name,’’ Terry said. “I have been arrested more than 50 times, spent over a year in jail, lost my home, lost my life savings - all because of my fight. Why would I let a newcomer with no scars and no history steal my name?’’

Neither Terry nor Newman has registered as a tax-exempt organization with the federal government, although Terry said the group is a C corporation in Kansas, meaning it must audit its books like a nonprofit and with the same accountability. Contributions to the lobbying and activist group are not tax deductible.

Whoever owns the trademark is in a good position to claim the domain name, which Newman said he registered around 1995 and still owns. He dropped the “West’’ from the name a few years ago.