Despite daily pickets, protests and death threats from anti-abortionists, Dr. David Gunn provided abortion services to women in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. He paid for his courage and defiance with his life on March 10, 1993. That's the day anti-abortion extremist Michael Griffin responded to what he called "a sign from God" by murdering Gunn outside the Pensacola Florida Women's Medical Services abortion clinic. The crime fuelled the debate over abortion in the U.S.

John Burt, regional director of the anti-abortion organization Rescue America, said, "The use of lethal force was justifiable, provided it was carried out for the purpose of defending the lives of unborn children."

Although Griffin was sentenced to life in prison in 1994 for the murder of Dr. Gunn, doctors performing abortions continued to be killed or wounded by anti-abortion fanatics for several years following Gunn's death.