Andy Moore, 27, was born and raised in Christchurch but he now lives in Dallas. As everyone knows, things in Texas are bigger. And that includes social wars like the Pro-choice / Pro-life debate that gets Americans hot under the collar. While New Zealand’s anti-abortion and pro-abortion lobbies are relatively small, in America whole radio stations are devoted to the cause and groups and media outlets devoted to abortion, both for and against, are legion. Moore runs the increasingly-influential website Abortion Wiki and publishes stories like the “sting” run on an Orlando, Florida abortion clinic in August.

An Abortion Wiki operative contacted a suspended abortion doctor seeking a termination for a 32-week-old fetus. Moore then published the correspondence between them showing the doctor paying lip service to laws but appearing to get the money side of the equation running (USD$18,000) before the confirmation that the requested abortion was legitimate.

Moore is something of an anomaly. On his website he looks slightly grungy and professes to a love of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Rather than the leftie type you may expect though, he was involved as a student in ACT on Campus and has been a staunch anti-abortionist for years now. There are videos of him on Youtube protesting outside Christchurch hospitals, and taking it pretty well when a man shows up with a sign reading “asshole” and an arrow pointing at Moore.

In 2009 his life changed when he brought the prominent American Pro-Lifer Jill Stanek to New Zealand on a speaking tour. Stanek, a former nurse, is something of a Pro-Life celebrity in the States. She was invited by then-President George W. Bush to the signing of the 2002 Born Alive Infants Protection Act which extended protection to babies born alive after failed abortions. Bush jr singled her out for thanks and invited her back the next year for the signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.

Moore and Stanek hit it off. “She came right out and said ‘you should meet my daughter’.” Moore met Deana Stanek on Facebook and they hit it off. He flew to Stanek’s Illinois home on April 19, 2011. The pair eloped on July 15. They now live in Dallas and have a son, Levi, who is four months old. They undertake abortion stings together like the time they went to a late-term abortion clinic to see what options they were given – “the assumption was we were going to have an abortion – they’re supposed to, by law, give options and counselling”.

Stanek senior wrote on her blog that Andy and Daena “found they were peas in a pod, having compatible personalities, interests, values, and, most importantly, a shared faith in God”. “And it turns out I’m a pretty good pro-life matchmaker!”

Moving to America has been like moving into the big leagues – as if he was in a Christchurch baseball team and then got drafted by the New York Yankees. “It’s almost like I got a bit too big for the pond back in New Zealand,” Moore said. But the scale of things in America is daunting. “People are welcoming but everything is big, it’s so fast paced.” And Americans know how to argue. “The debate is not as taboo. Politics and religion are dinner table conversation. The rhetoric is harsh and unforgiving – you’re either hardcore for one or the there.” While Moore disassociates himself from violent actions, Pro-Choicers here in New Zealand say his website reads as a “who’s who” of radical anti-abortionists. And Moore was visited by the FBI following a protest outside a clinic in Dallas. The agents said they just wanted to talk about the bounds of protesting, though the Pro-Lifers have interpreted it is a clear effort to intimidate. Moore has been supported by the pro-bono Life Legal Defense Fund which claims the Obama administration is engaging in a “witch hunt” and targetting peaceful sidewalk protesters like Moore.

One person who has tracked Andy Moore’s career is Alison McCulloch, a Bay of Plenty columnist and member of ALRANZ – the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand. Moore first rose to prominence in New Zealand when he set uop a spoof ALRANZ site with large pictures of aborted fetuses. McCulloch said the images were shocking and the group set about reclaiming the domain name from Moore. McCulloch is now named on Moore’s Abortion Wiki site among other Pro-Choice advocates. “I find the Abortion Wiki to be a part of a way of intimidating people,” she said. “”It does have a chilling effect on people’s involvement – there’s a phot of me, details of me. When you Google yourself the Wiki comes up first.” McCulloch said she had been asked about her Pro-Life stance at job interviews, obviously from employers having seen Moore’s coverage of her. Although being singled out for attention has its pitfalls, McCulloch said there was a lighter side: ” At one point it became something of a badge of honour to be on Andy’s wiki with a couple of pro-choice people grumbling on ALRANZ’s Facebook page that they didn’t have a profile yet, and wondering why not.” McCulloch approved of Moore moving to America. “It suits him a lot more than the way things are approached in New Zealand.”

Moore has certainly embraced America. His Facebook page is filled with patriotic support for the Republican Party – he was a Rick Santorum supporter early on but has now thrown his support behind Mitt Romney – and he admits he comes across as more American than some native borns. “I’m a libertarian, I love freedom,” he said. He currently has nine interns working on Abortion Wiki and he appears to be thriving in his new home. “Most of my friends (in New Zealand) probably think I’m too extreme,” he said. But he doesn’t feel he has a choice but to continue. “Ninety-nine percent of Pro-Lifers aren’t living out that term. You can’t say you’re Pro-Life and not do anything about it.”