Pro-Life IS NEVER Pro-Murder

Pro-Life Leader Responds to National Post Article Blaming Pro-Life Movement for Tiller Murder

By Stephanie Gray, Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform
June 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Editor’s Note: On June 2, Colby Cosh of the National Post published this article, in which Cosh blamed the pro-life movement for the murder of Kansas late-term abortionist George tiller. What follows is the response of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, the Canadian affiliate of the organization that was specifically named by Mr. Cosh in his piece, "Who’s to blame for George Tiller’s Murder."

Colby Cosh is completely wrong when he says, "If you believe that abortion is tantamount to murder... then you should be willing to stand up and celebrate the murder of Dr. George Tiller."

Perhaps those who support violence (through abortion) in the face of difficult life circumstances don't comprehend when other people don't resort to violence in the face of difficult life circumstances (a society where abortion is legal). But nonetheless, that's our point. Take a message from the pro-life textbook, Mr. Cosh: killing people isn't the way to deal with problems. It’s the reason why we are more than just "anti-abortion."

Furthermore, abortionists could be offering their "services" on every street corner, but whether they kill unborn human beings is dependent on one person: the woman. While not overlooking the fact that some women are pressured to abort, or are not fully informed, nonetheless, the abortionist will do nothing without a woman laying her body down to be vilely entered in order to dismember, decapitate, and disembowel her child's body. As a result of this fact, analogies about intervening in other acts of violence break down.

A toddler may be taken away from a mother who may drown that child in the bathtub, but the unborn cannot be separated from their mothers. And so one must intervene by appealing to the heart and mind of the woman and those in society who influence her: educating about who the baby is, showing what abortion will do to the baby, informing her what abortion will do to her, and offering her loving support throughout the pregnancy and after birth.

With Cosh's rhetoric, I am reminded of the clergymen who were critical of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s controversial approach. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, King responded by saying, "In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? ...We must come to see that ... it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber."

But since Mr. Cosh doesn't seem to support that philosophy, I wonder if he’s willing to take responsibility for the consequence of his comments. Given that he's named Jim Hughes and my organization's parent affiliate, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), and implied that we were at least in part responsible for violence against Tiller, will he take responsibility for his rhetoric if advocates of legal abortion take it upon themselves and direct violence towards us?

Click here to hear an interview with Stephanie Gray, Executive Director, CCBR on World Tonight June 3, 2009 in regard to the Tiller murder.