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Denouncing the Violence
By Fr. Frank Pavone
HERALD Columnist
Priests for Life denounces the incidents of violence that have occurred against abortion providers. Echoing Pope John Paul II, we declare that "not even a murderer loses his personal dignity"(EV #9).
We also denounce the efforts continuously made
by abortion advocates to
blame pro-life groups for that violence. If
anything, the violence done against abortionists is encouraged by the mentality
and actions of those who promote abortion. Briefly, here's why.
First of all, for over 25 years, the so-called "pro-choice" mentality has been telling us that sometimes it's OK to choose to end a life to solve a problem. Though some try to defend abortion by saying "It's not a human life," more and more -- both on the streets and in leadership -- are abandoning that line of reasoning and admitting that abortion takes a human life. Naomi Wolfe wrote along these lines in her New Republic article Our Bodies, Our Souls, and the same thinking was conveyed to me on the street by a man supporting abortion rights by holding a sign saying "Keep Baby-Killing Legal."
Besides the dangerous pro-choice rhetoric,
the constant efforts of abortion supporters to suppress peaceful pro-life
activity contributes to a
"pressure-cooker" effect in society that can
lead to violence. The FACE law (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances)
signed by President Clinton in 1994, for example, does not simply punish
violent activity. It also punishes the perfectly peaceful activity of blockading
a doorway into which another human being is going to be brought to be killed.
Whether one agrees with the strategy or not is beside the point. The point
is that what the person does in that instance is peaceful. The law now
treats it as criminal.
President John F. Kennedy once said that if
you make peaceful protest
impossible, you make violent protest inevitable.
I found it interesting, for
example, to read the story of Richard Andrews,
who admitted to setting fire to seven abortion facilities. In the 1980's,
this man peacefully and prayerfully blockaded the entrances to these facilities.
His violent activity did not start until after something changed in the
early 1990's -- namely, a group of Washington facilities successfully sued
to stop the blockades. This, of course, does not prove anything. But it
would be shortsighted not to include this dynamic in our evaluation of
the causes of violence against abortion providers.
All violence must be opposed, whatever one's beliefs about social issues. The government and the abortion supporters will agree with these words. Bill Lann Lee, for instance, as acting attorney general for civil rights stated, "Even those who disagree [with abortion rights] must agree that the violent destruction of property has no place in our society." Dr. Garson Romalis, himself wounded in an attack, said, "No matter what people's beliefs are with regard to the abortion issue, the shooting of a doctor is a violent act. It's a terrorist act."
We agree. But then we also wonder why, at the same time, one's "belief" that abortion is justifiable takes precedence over that fact that it, too, is a violent act.
Father Pavone is the International Director of Priests for Life
and an official at the Vatican’s Council for the Family.
Contact Priests for Life at P.O. Box 141172, Staten Island, N.Y. 10314, Tel. 888 1PFL-3448, fax 718-980-6515, email pfl@priestsforlife.org, web site http://www.priestsforlife.org/.
Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 51,
dated Dec 24, 1998, on page 5.
.
E-mail:
letters@catholicherald.com
Fax: 703/524-2782;
Editorial: 703/841-2590;
Advertising: 703/841-2594;
Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that Abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is still murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrifying does not justify the other less repugnant methods. We should be sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill." A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs. Please, please, please contact your Senators and Congressman, via letter or phone, to let him/her know how upset you are that Abortions are legal and to pass and support legislation to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible.
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