The term "pro-life" has often seemed this inapt -- Tiller wasn't the first person to die at the hands of anti-abortion zealots. A more apt term would be "pro-forced pregnancy," since their goal is actually to force women to remain pregnant against their will. "Pro-life" is just a PR term -- only lunatics and neocons are "anti-life." And, as we've just seen demonstrated, anti-abortion extremists are often very selective about whose lives they're "pro-" about.
But we were warned about this. We were told that there was a danger of this happening. A Department of Homeland Security report listed right wing extremists -- including those in the anti-abortion movement -- as the greatest domestic terrorism threat facing the country. The right, for their part, were quick to take offense, as they always are. While they like to portray themselves as rugged individualists, heirs to the cowboy myth, they're the whiniest bunch of cowpokes in American history. Quick to point their fingers at everyone else, let someone hold them responsible for their rhetoric and they break down in tears and play the victim card.
Never mind that the report singled out the "far right" -- nazis, religious zealots, survivalist groups, and anti-government militia types -- mainstream Republicans were quick to claim these lunatics as their own. That's the difference between left and right; the right refuses to condemn their own nuts until it's too late. You don't have to look far to find a conservative pundit condemning Roeder's crime, but you'd have one hell of a time finding one willing to condemn the extremes of the anti-abortion movement. Even today, when all the hysterical "he's a murderer!" talk has led to its logical conclusion... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
