By Scott Tibbs, June 2, 2009
On Sunday, an anti-abortion fanatic murdered infamous abortionist George Tiller, who had been the target of legal action and protests by abortion opponents for years. Here are some of my initial thoughts, that I will expand on later.
First, this was an act of terrorism. Abortion is a great evil, but must be stopped through legal and peaceful means, not lawlessness, murder and terrorism. We cannot have people taking the law into their own hands and waging a campaign of terrorism, even for a "good" cause. We need to respect the rule of law and the legal process. If anything, the anti-abortion movement stands for equal rights under the law and the protection of the innocent, not acts of terrorism. If the shooter/terrorist is convicted after a fair trial by a jury of his peers, he should be executed.
Killing abortionists accomplishes nothing. Someone will step in to take Tiller's place. After all, we have 1.2 million abortions taking place every single year in this nation. The abortions that Tiller has performed are statistically insignificant to the total number of abortions that have taken place over the last 36 years. Random acts of violence do nothing but damage the cause of protecting all innocent human life from fertilization to natural death. Terrorism discredits the anti-abortion movement and puts us on the defensive, and increases the tension on the "front lines" where people picketing abortion clinics try to convince women going in to give their babies a chance at life.
Second, it is important to keep perspective. Abortion is a great and terrible evil, and well over 50 million unborn babies have been killed by America's abortion industry. One act of violence by a lawless fanatic does not erase or even begin to approach the evil of abortion, and opponents of abortion should not shy away from proclaiming that abortion is evil and an abomination to a holy and righteous God. If abortion-rights supporters are offended by the use of the word "murder" they should seek to convince abortion opponents why abortion is not murder, instead of seeking to intimidate abortion opponents into silence by endlessly screeching that such "violent" rhetoric causes these violent acts. Violent and crazy will always find a way to be violent and crazy, regardless of the "cause" various thugs are claiming to support.
Third, the idea that abortion opponents have to "own" this is laughable. I have a record stretching back years that violence is not the solution to abortion, and the vast majority of the pro-life movement shares my position. The latter is a well-known fact, especially to all of the people screeching that abortion opponents are responsible for this act of terrorism. It amazes me that these people can praise Barack Obama's call for more civil discourse on abortion and then throw out these smears that they know are false. What hypocrisy.
Finally, we have heard for years about how George W. Bush waged an "illegal" war in Iraq and how Bush is responsible for a huge number of civilian deaths in Iraq. We have heard about how Bush should be put on trial for "war crimes." What if an unstable fanatic assassinated Bush, bombed a military recruiting station, or followed the advice of the little gem below? Would the entire anti-war movement be called on to "own" the murder? We all know the answer is "no", and the hypocrisy is obvious.
