David Leach (activist)

In April 2013, Leach posted a video to YouTube which included a recorded telephone conversation with Roeder, discussing the fact that Tiller's abortion clinic had been re-opened by another agency. Leach said:

Leach's publications argue in favor of the doctrine of justifiable homicide in the case of abortion doctors. Leach wrote in a 2002 newsletter that violent acts against abortion clinic property in the defense of unborn children is justifiable, since the person reasonably believes the violence is absolutely necessary in order to prevent serious harm or death to innocents, and the violence should not considered a criminal offense if it can be proven that the person acted in the defense of others. He has also written a number of legal arguments including appellate and pro se trial briefs in support of what he calls the "Necessity Defense", in which necessity may be either a possible justification or an exculpation for breaking the law. Prayer & Action News also featured occasional contributions from Scott Roeder, the convicted killer in the assassination of George Tiller, a doctor in Wichita, Kansas who performed late term abortions. Leach, who described Roeder as "anti-government," said he stopped to see Roeder in Kansas prior to 2009, after visiting Shelley Shannon in prison. (Shannon was convicted in 1993 of shooting Tiller in both arms outside his clinic.) Leach also conducted a telephone interview with Roeder in April, 2013. During this interview, Roeder issued further threats of violence, for which he was held in solitary confinement for 45 days.

In 2002 Mediacom, owner of the cable television station hosting Leach's program The Uncle Ed. Show. said that Leach would not be allowed to broadcast film of women entering a Planned Parenthood clinic here unless their faces were covered.

In 1998 the fictional series Rescue Platoon, a story of a future, final war against abortion, was serialized on Leach's website. The story ends with the Army of God, following a violent battle, gaining the final victory. The story includes a depiction of the Army of God bombing a Florida abortion clinic.

Leach was fired in 1996 from his reporter job at Ankeny Today, after he reprinted 40 pages of the Army of God Manual in the January 1996 issue of his Prayer & Action News, which gave step-by-step instructions for making plastic explosives and fertilizer bombs. The publication also discussed strategies for disabling or destroying abortion clinics. At the time, he said he published the material because he feared it was about to be suppressed by a court. In 1994, United States Marshals were sent to guard the Des Moines office of Planned Parenthood. Officials said the step was taken partly because of concerns about Leach, after he had signed statements saying that Paul Jennings Hill and Michael F. Griffin could have been justified in killing abortion-providing doctors in Florida.

David Francis Leach is an American anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa. He publishes the Prayer & Action News quarterly newsletter (1989–present), and edits the website The Partnership Machine (1998–present) which covers social issues including abortion, politics, religion, immigration, divorce, sodomy, and education.

He has run for the Iowa General Assembly six times and lost, in his first attempt (1986) as a Democrat and in the rest (1988, 1990, 2000, 2002, 2010) as a Republican. He was a candidate for the Iowa legislature again in 2012 but lost in the Republican primary election. Since 1995 Leach has operated a public-access television show on cable called "The Uncle Ed Show" and he also worked as a journalist for the central Iowa newspaper Ankeny Today.. In 2011, Leach authored and self-published the book entitled Eternal Hell: Heaven's Loving Purpose (.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}ISBN 978-1466371910).

Leach runs a Des Moines, Iowa music store, the Family Music Center. Leach and his wife Dorothy have music degrees and have taught since 1974 on several instruments.