Task Force to Examine Anti-Abortion Web Site

WASHINGTON — Prodded by doctors’ fears, federal officials will assign a new task force on anti-abortion violence to examine an Internet site that lists physicians who perform abortions as “wounded,” “working” or “fatality,” a senior Justice Department official said Thursday.

That is one of several jobs for a task force the department will launch next week to investigate violence directed at doctors and clinics.

Federal prosecutors will use one or more grand juries to help gather evidence, the official said, requesting anonymity. Discussions are underway with doctors, abortion rights groups, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local law enforcement in New York and Canada about investigative and security measures.

Citing the killing of a Buffalo, N.Y., doctor last month, the wounding of four others in that area earlier and false anthrax contamination letters sent to 10 clinics in four states last week, Associate Atty. Gen. Raymond C. Fisher said Thursday: “It’s a very, very troubling development . . . , and it’s not something we can tolerate.”

The new task force was still being assembled, and its formation likely will be announced next week when Atty. Gen. Janet Reno returns from a short vacation, officials said.