Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, has agreed not to commit violent acts against abortion clinics, staff and patients, and has agreed not to belong to any group which commits these acts. Terry, who is running for Congress in New York, made this agreement to settle the lawsuit against him by the National Organization for Women and two abortion clinics (NOW vs. Scheidler). If Terry violates this prohibition he will be liable for a $15,000 fine.

NOW vs. Scheidler, a lawsuit brought twelve years ago after a NOW activist was injured during a clinic invasion, charges that anti-abortion extremists violated the Racketeering-Influenced Corrupt Organizations act (RICO) by conspiring to shut down legitimate businesses -- abortion clinics. Although Terry has settled his portion of the case, the other defendants -- Joseph Scheidler of Chicago, his Pro-Life Action League, anti-abortion activists, and Operation Rescue -- have not settled. The case is scheduled for trial in Chicago in March. If NOW wins the case, the defendants will be liable for triple punitive damages.

If the Voters' Choice Act passes Congress, women and minorities will have a chance to dramatically improve their representation in Congress.

The Voters' Choice Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), would allow states to use "proportional representation" to elect members of Congress. Proportional representation systems, used widely in Europe and in virtually every other democracy in the world, help increase voter turnout and help women and minorities gain seats.

The U.S. system is a winner-take-all" system in which the person who wins a majority of the vote -- and in some states just a plurality of the votes -- wins the election, and everyone else loses. This often hinders minorities and women from gaining representation in Congress, especially because most Congressional districts are drawn to give incumbents an edge. Proportional representation systems, in contrast, allow voters who are not in the majority to gain some representation in proportion to their votes.

For more information about proportional representation, see the Center for Voting and Democracy Web site: http://www.igc.org/cvd/.