‘Killing for life’ is
senseless
By Warren Hern
The
What kind of person is driven to kill another hu=
man
being in the name of “life?”&n=
bsp;
That doesn’t make sense. What makes some people in our
society absolutely determined to control the most personal, intimate and
private aspects of the lives and bodies of fellow citizens whom they do not
even know? That doesn’t=
make
sense, either.
What brings memb=
ers of
the anti-abortion movement to the belief that they have the right to use the
coercive power of the state to force others to behave according to their
peculiar moral principles: which supposedly include Christian love and
forgiveness? Why does the rel=
igion
with a message of peace provoke violent attacks on the property and lives of
those who disagree?
How can anti-abo=
rtion
fanatics justify using freedom of speech and religious expression to urge t=
he
murder of others?
There is an answ=
er to
these questions, but the first step in finding it is to recognize that the
agonizingly painful conflict about abortion is not about facts, reason or
persuasion: it is about power.
People who think=
that
the abortion controversy doesn’t affect them should look again. It affects election results, Supre=
me
Court and surgeon general nominations, control of Congress, foreign policy,=
the
national budget, and the ability of Congress to conduct the nation’s =
business. Anti-abortion terrorism is diminis=
hing the
availability of an essential component of health care used by millions of
women.
The most insidio=
us
thing about the anti-abortion movement, however, is its militant attack on
things that Americans cherish most – privacy and free speech.
A woman approach=
ing a
doctor’s office or abortion clinic, whether she is alone or accompani=
ed
by her partner or family member, is there to seek a private medial service =
that
has been stigmatized for centuries.
Her condition is=
the
result of her most private, intimate needs and actions and her most importa=
nt
private relationship. It is n=
ot
only inappropriate, it is insane behavior for anti-abortion fanatics to att=
empt
to give her unwelcome moral messages at that point. It is, in fact, a form of psycholo=
gical
rape. It is an assault. The purpose of anti-abortion
demonstrations is not to express an opinion or to convince but to inflict p=
ain,
guilt, shame, terror – and now, death. It is intolerable behavior, not fr=
ee
speech.
The assault on f=
ree
speech by the anti-abortion fanatics produces an even graver danger, which =
is
that their activities will, if unchecked, lead inevitably to a loss of free=
dom
for all of us.
Partly because o=
f the
Jan. 22 announcement of the American Coalition of Life Activists of a hit l=
ist
of doctors it wants eliminated (including me), I am now under the 24-hour
protection of armed federal marshals for the third time in two months. That announcement has seriously
diminished my freedom. On sev=
eral
occasions, Denver-based anti-abortion TV talk show host Bob Enyart has
viciously attacked me over 750 cable channels. Viewers report their concern that =
he is
inciting someone – anyone – to kill me. He even did this on Dec. 30, the e=
vening
of the
Randall Terry, t=
he
Christian minister who leads Operation Rescue, has publicly prayed for my d=
eath
(Oct 7, 1990). During his Aug=
. 13,
1993, live program on the Christian Broadcasting network, quoting the Bible=
, he
invited his radio listeners to assassinate me.
What is more at stake than t=
he
lives of a few doctors is the issue of whether Americans now accept the lev=
el
of violence and terrorism embraced by the anti-abortion movement as a means=
of
political expression. When the
anti-abortion movement gets through with us, who’s next? Supreme Court Justices? Yes, says Roy McMillan.
Neither the
anti-abortion demagogues nor those they hope to inspire care bout me as a
person nor about the women whose lives I save as a physician. What they care about is power. So does the Republican Party, whic=
h has
been the chief beneficiary of the 20 years of anti-abortion rhetoric that h=
as
led to this terrorism.
Republican leade=
rs
have encouraged and used anti-abortion activists to win many important elec=
tions
since 1980. Bob Dole and three
other Republican presidential candidates (including George Bush) accepted
invitations to the 1986 National Right to Life Committee annual meeting in =
Now, the Republi=
cans
are impaled on this ideology, and the rest of us are impaled on anti-aborti=
on
violence.
Warren M. Hern, a physician, is dir= ector of the Boulder Abortion Clinic
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