Abortion supporters are quick to defend their “right to abortion” and their “freedom of choice.” Any action by Pro-Life citizens that creates even the slightest inconvenience in obtaining an abortion is deemed to be a threat to “abortion rights.” For example, when a well-attended prayer vigil took place in front of Planned Parenthood at 1200 N. LaSalle in Chicago on April 12, 2003, Planned Parenthood arranged a press conference of “pro-choice” ministers who called this prayer vigil an “act of intimidation.”

On the other hand, if Pro-Life citizens attempt to express their values to the public, abortion supporters seem to have no qualms about destroying property or even attacking the messengers. A March 21st news item described the repeated vandalism that continues to occur, defacing a bus stop bench containing a Pro-Life message in Rockford, IL. So far this Pro-Life message has been vandalized 10 times.

A March 15th news report indicated that pro-abortion students at Harvard University ripped down posters that showed ultrasound pictures of babies in utero. A March 11th report covered vandalism on the campus of Baylor University. A display of 3500 pink and blue flags to represent the babies lost to abortion each day was stolen from the campus field where they were displayed.

In South Dakota, the woman who was considered a prime mover behind the recent law enacted to ban abortion in that state has experienced acts of vandalism at her home and threatening phone calls. A woman in Idaho who was holding a picture of an aborted baby while standing along the road in front of Planned Parenthood was almost run over by a driver who wanted to take action to remove these pictures. These acts of pro-abortion violence occurred in less than a month. Have any organizations that support abortion condemned such violence? Not that I am aware of! Whenever some extremist, almost never affiliated with any legitimate Pro-Life organization, commits an act of violence, abortion supporters demand that such actions be condemned by Pro-Life organizations. If such condemnations do not occur immediately, abortion supporters start accusing Pro-Life organizations of supporting and encouraging the violence.

The double standard and hypocrisy demonstrated by these examples is obvious. Both the criteria for judging what constitutes violence and the requirement for responding to such violence is like night and day depending on who is the victim of the violence. In August 2005 a California affiliate of Planned Parenthood even released an online cartoon video that actually encouraged violence against Pro-Life advocates. Complaints from major Pro-Life organizations did not generate any apology from Planned Parenthood, but they did pull the cartoon from their web site.

Bill Beckman