Defense attorneys contend the Internet site is a form of political protest; plaintiffs' lawyers contend it incites harassment and violence
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PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- An abortion doctor testified Friday that she feared for her life when she was named as one of "The Deadly Dozen" on anti-abortion fliers made out to look like wanted posters.

Dr. Elizabeth Newhall is one of a group of doctors who accuse the site, called the Nuremberg Files, of inciting to murder. She worried even more when a Web site listed her among hundreds of "baby butchers."

The names of slain abortion doctors listed on the site were crossed off.

"It escalated the risk enormously," Newhall told an eight-member federal jury Friday.

"They were saying to me that if I didn't stop doing abortions, my life was at risk," she said. "Suddenly, I feel real visible to individuals who might not be quite balanced."

Newhall, who performs up to 20 abortions a week at her Portland clinic, was the first witness in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit accusing The Nuremberg Files Web site of being an invitation to murder.

The Nuremberg Files Web site asks people to send photos and videotapes of doctors' homes, cars and friends

The site records the names of hundreds of doctors who perform abortions, and catalogs such personal information as their addresses, license numbers and the names of their children.

It drew attention in October, when the name of Dr. Barnett Slepian was crossed off the list shortly after he was killed at his suburban Buffalo, New York, home by a sniper.

After Newhall's name appeared, she said, she began wearing a bulletproof vest in public and carrying wigs with her to change her appearance. She also installed steel doors and bulletproof glass at her clinic.

Plaintiffs' attorneys are trying to link anti-abortion posters, statements and books to the Web site as part of a wider intimidation and killing campaign.

Videos of defendant Andrew Burnett, a Portland-area anti-abortion activist, were played for the jury in which he called abortion doctors "paid contract serial killers" and said killing them was justifiable.

Planned Parenthood and a group of doctors are plaintiffs in the suit, which claims the Nuremberg Files site violates a federal law that bars activists from inciting violence against doctors who do abortions and their patients.

Defendants, including the anti-abortion umbrella group American Coalition of Life Advocates, maintain that the site and the fliers are constitutionally protected political speech.

During cross-examination, attorneys for the defendants emphasized that the materials never made any explicit threats.

Responded Newhall: "The poster itself is a threat."

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