Praise Allah. This man now knoweth how it feeleth to be a very, very late term abortion. Barack Hussein should not be surprised or shocked. This was true Jihad. As a Muslim he should not be surprised. Praise to Allah that this took place in a Christian Church. Since there wasn’t time to cut off his head, he blasted the godless man in the face. As the Quran says, let the blasphemer be punished in an excruitiating manner. This sinner is now in hell.

Thanks, Jen.

Murdering people in cold blood in their place of worship is heinous, unpardonable, and undermines absolutely everything the pro-life movement is trying to accomplish. Very anguishing and frustrating. Vigilanteism is always, ALWAYS wrong, and usually has the opposite of its intended effect.

But, to those condemning the whole pro-life effort, even those of us who are responsible, productive, peace-loving citizens, instead of focusing on rhetoric and anger about women’s rights being violated, please try to understand where we are coming from.

By 12 weeks a fetus has a heartbeat. It is the first reassurance to the mother that all is well.

Fairy tales aside, the FACT of the matter is that at 24 weeks a fetus has fingers, arms, toes, lungs, a heart that has been beating for more than three months, sensitivity to light, sound, and pain, the ability to suck its thumb, and to recognize its mother’s voice. Babies have been known to survive outside the womb this early.

In late term abortions the fetus is flooded with an acid solution until it suffocates and dies, is dismembered in some cases, and the mother is induced to give birth to a dead, burned baby, who was usually otherwise healthy. And rarely, RARELY, is this done to preserve the mother’s life or health. It is mostly about not being able to stomach the idea of the responsibility of a child, for whatever reason.

We do not even treat animals this way. The days of casually culling puppies and kittens are long gone, and cruelty to animals is prosecutable.

But somehow, and by some people, this treatment of fetuses is sanctioned, with some calling this doctor a “hero for women’s rights” and trying to get us to understand that he “did other helpful things besides abortions”.

I don’t think there’s anything crazy about being concerned for for the rights of a fetus, who cannot speak for itself, if you believe it is alive by its own merits, can feel pain, and is essentially tortured by the abortion process. If you don’t believe that, then you don’t. But let’s pretend for a moment and say you did. How could you fault anyone for taking serious issue with the practice of abortion? In fact, doesn’t just the POSSIBILITY that the fetus feels pain give you pause enough to wonder whether it’s morally roght?

Obviously, shooting this doctor was all kinds of wrong, and was hypocritical, cowardly, and sad. But to me, he was no hero, and he is no martyr. Just a sad situation all around.

Where is the outrage or comment on the gunning down of a US soldier in Arkansas??

Sorry, Lula, I was too quick to judge your tone. I balked at the word “movement” — the last thing I want to be a part of is a movement. For some reason, I just don’t like that word. If it were up to me, I’d be living on a farm in the hills, growing my own produce and slaughtering my own meat, and not because I want to be a part of some organic movement but to get away from movements in general! Anyway, I digress. I think that HM’s comment about NARAL’s response above is indicative of a lot of the conflation that goes around, as is mark c’s comment about the mental state of anti-abortionists. I mean, really? Yes, extreme groups that engage in violence should be brought to justice, be they abortionist-killing “pro-lifers” or eco-terrorists. But I wish “the media” or “bloggers” or whoeverr trumpets these reports would conced that in the same way that very few Muslims are plane-crashing terrorists, and very few environmentalists wantonly destroy property, only a very few abortion opponents actually kill or even think that it’s okay to kill anyone, including abortionists.

HM: I would argue instead that shooting Army recruiters is directly linked to the wackness of awarding medals to soldiers who kill well in war while charging murder on those who kill well in civilian life, but whatever pumps your nads.

NARAL is already talking about the chilling ramifications of this as if anti-abortion people are all about this sort of killing. By their logic, we should be blogging right now about about the chilling impact of the shooting in Arkansas where an Army recruiter was killed and another wounded. Obviously those killings were directly linked to to the environment of disdain for the military that pervades the consciousness of our fav, Nancy Pelosi and others like her in Washington.

Amen Maeby!

If it was his mother who had him killed, would this be considered a retroactive abortion by the pro-choice definition?

No, it doesn’t. But the branches of your movement that are engaging in terrorist tactics do need to be identified and prosecuted as such.

A fair point. I’ll make that change shortly. Thank you.
Re: terrorism, some anti-abortion groups were included in a recent Homeland Security report on the subject.

I hope some of those War on Terror policies will be applied in this murder case, as well as to the Watch pages compiled and maintained by various groups. I agree with Knitty – people engaged in malicious and/or violent harassment of healthcare providers are not worthy of the title “activist”. Dr. Tiller may have been murdered by one individual (who may have been unaffiliated and acting alone; I doubt it, but we don’t know yet), but certain branches of this movement def. promote the hate and mentor individuals sick enough to murder a 67yo legally-practicing doctor on his way to usher at church. Not all of them, mind… but the ones that do should be charged with terrorism and tried along with Dr. Tiller’s murderer.

And please don’t call “anti-abortion protesters.” Call this what it is: terrorism.