BY GREG MARKLEY
OPINION —
It has been 51 years since the Supreme Court ruled in Roe V. Wade that the Constitution allows women to have abortions. It was a dreadful decision for my friend Stephen’s mother. Yet with four young children at home, she served as president of a state’s largest anti-abortion group. Stephen edited our college newspaper and was rabidly against abortion.
When a well-known abortion provider visited our campus, Stephen buried the story to stop pro-choice publicity. In the 2022 Dodd v. Jackson decision, Roe was overturned. Now pro-choicers are pursuing means for abortions to be allowed, in individual states. Jonathan Bernstein noted in a June 22 commentary, that U.S. Senators who insert holds “undermine their power.”
“Once a justifiable way for senators to bring attention to a problem or issue germane to their state, senators are increasingly using the hold as a publicity stunt on matters of national policy, “Bernstein wrote in Bloomberg Opinion. “Republican Tommy Tuberville of Alabama; upset about what he sees as the military’s support for abortion, is blocking many military promotions.”
Tuberville’s “hold” issue has recently been resolved, with the promotions of high-level officers being advanced after months of delay. Tuberville was opposed to a DoD policy to reimburse travel expenses for military personnel who would leave their states for abortions or other reproductive care. In conservative Alabama, a large percentage of its citizens are strongly against abortion.
When I was assigned in the U.S. Army to Fort McClellan in 1989, I met a major in the Alabama Army National Guard who noticed my surname and said, “I defended a priest with your last name, in Birmingham. He destroyed $8,000 worth of equipment and did several other illegal things. His name was Edward Markley, he is a Benedictine monk.”
Occasionally, I come across people with the same last name as mine. Country singer Lee Greenwood had a press agent whose last name was Markley. Anyway, Edward’s case is interesting here as an example of someone whose resistance to abortion got out of hand.
On May 12, 1984, Edward Markley and another man sledgehammered equipment at an abortion clinic in Birmingham. An estimated $8,000 in equipment was lost. Also in that year, he sprayed red paint at a health center in Huntsville. On June 16, 1986, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, after violating probation terms to stay 500 feet away from any abortion clinics.
The witty priest reported that he did not find jail too bad and was pleased to gain firsthand knowledge, having taught criminology courses himself. He was released from prison in 1987, after serving almost a year of his five-year sentence. He had been identified as a model prisoner, which helped him get out early.
“If we are convinced that abortion is the taking of innocent life according to God’s revealed word, he is not acting unjustly according to God’s law in defending the innocent unborn one,” said Bishop Joseph Vath, Markley’s supervisor. “The right to life certainly supersedes the right to property or privacy.”
Dan Turberville, the priest’s attorney, said he (Markley) “is witnessing to the fact that God’s creatures are being killed. God went to a lot of trouble to protect and cushion the unborn,” he said. The Benedictine monk died in 2019 in Cullman at age 79.
Did Sen. Tuberville make a mistake proceeding with his “hold” on promotions for so long? Or did it bolster his religious bona fide — already high — because of his preventing abortions among military women? As a first-term senator could Tuberville get a strong primary challenge?
It’s a different game now with intra-party contests, based on the past three or four cycles with wealthy “outsiders.” We saw Lynda Blanchard and Tim James run for governor. But after they entered the fray the vulnerabilities, Gov. Ivey was said to have (because of COVID-19 decisions and a reported decline in her closeness with President Trump) melted away and their chances of winning, too. Ivey won the general election versus a Democrat, by 67 percent.
In 2023, columnist Steve Flowers wrote, “When Tuberville ran and won two years ago, most of us thought it was a whim, something he wanted to do in his later years. He knows the golden rule of politics, “Your word is your bond, and you dance with those who brought you.”
I believe the hold has not seriously tarnished Tuberville; he ably carried the flag of the anti-abortion group. The Benedictine monk who destroyed property at an abortion clinic died respected at a monastery. Plus, the author of this column now knows he shares a surname with that of a once-wayward priest.
Today I am reading–“Keeping at It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government,” by Paul Volcker; also, WSJ Weekend Edition, Op/Ed section.
Greg Markley moved to Lee County in 1996. He has a master’s in education from AUM and a master’s in history from Auburn University. He taught politics as an adjunct in Georgia and Ala-bama. An award-winning writer in the Army and civilian life, he has contributed to the Observer since 2011. He writes on politics, education, and books. gm.markley@charter.net.