That's really the best word to use to describe the antics of the Operation Rescue (OR) crowd - the group that had been harassing Dr. Tiller and his staff for the last umpteen years for performing a legal service with which they disagree. Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings describes in some detail here.
The suspect currently detained was reportedly a follower of OR. He also reportedly had a conviction for driving with bomb-making materials. He was a fanatic - an extremist subscriber to an extremist philosophy.
The irony, of course, is that an abortionist was killed by a pro-lifer, be it the suspect in custody, or someone else. What shouldn't be lost is that this is the result that those such as Bill O'Reilly and Troy Newman had undoubtedly hoped for, even if they couldn't outright ask for it.
What this amounts to, essentially, is someone killing someone else because they have a difference of opinion. Dr. Tiller believed that he was performing a service to women who requested it, making a legal choice. His murderer, and many pro-lifers, believed that he was nothing less than a murderer himself, because their faith dictated it be so - their belief was, by this virtue, founded on another belief. A difference of opinion resulted in the cold-blooded murder of a doctor and obeyer of the law, yet there are those defending the action of the murderer as justifiable.
The irony.
2 comments:
The overwhelming majority of pro-lifers do not condone murder, even the murder of an abortionist.
Steve, where do you personally draw the line on the morality of abortion? 2 months? 5 months? 8? Or is the vagina the line? Do you feel that once a baby passes through the vagina he is finally safe? What if just the head is out but the body is still in? Can the mom then decide to abort? Or, is the umbilical cord where you draw the line? Can a mother make her decision just before the cord is cut? If in Roe v. Wade SCOTUS decided that a baby can be aborted up to 5 months after he was born would you support that?
I’d like your take on the dilemma. Not the Supreme Court’s ruling or your law professor’s teaching or Andrew Sullivan’s opinion.
I agree nuje. I don't condone this murder and I think to say that any pro-life group wanted him dead is a terrible thing to say. Also, why do you think OR is so radical? Have you listened? Have you ever been to anything to hear them speak or met any of them or are you going by lopsided mainstream media? I don't necessarily agree with OR methods but they have denied this mans involvement with their organization. I think abortion is murder and I can still manage to not kill abortion doctors. Imagine that.. A non radical pro-lifer.
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