Two stories have been covered extensively in the news regarding abortion over the past few weeks: the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad and the trial of the man who shot George Tiller.  For those who don’t know, George Tiller was the nation’s premier abortion doctor, known for performing late term abortions.

Most of the coverage has been because of the tangible controversy of both events and most of the national media coverage has been because of the rich opportunity to paint a picture of the pro-life movement and position as extreme and radical.

That’s a judgement call but an accurate one.  Very rarely will we see national coverage on controversial events such as the fact that a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Alabama was recently put on probation for providing abortions for minors ranging from ages 13-15 against state laws and regulations.  Well, FOX news covered the story, and they are the largest of them all, but they are constantly accused, by even the President of the United States himself, as being a bastion for radical right wing extremism.

This is not right, but rather than to simply decry the slanted coverage, it might serve to engage the culture about this event.  The pro-life movement is being painted as an extremist movement, unstable and violent.  And the pro-life movement should not allow this to be the case.

The pro-life movement should begin here: Shooting abortion doctors is never okay.  And some prominent figures have said as much but few have articulated good reasons why it’s never okay to shoot abortion doctors.  So, let’s discuss a few, good reasons why.

The first is this, Abortion is a multi billion dollar industry.  The Doctors are like hired hit men.  Kill them and there will be more to take their place so long as the abortion industry is around.  Some idiotic pro-lifers and some raging pro-aborts have actually sought to convince us that violence against abortion doctors will actually dry out the industry.  In reality, doing violence against the abortion doctors has caused them to be viewed in a heroic light by the pro-abortion movement.  The doctors are hired by pregnant mothers who pay them!  Dare we act out in violence on these women?  Never.  Doing so would be the opposite of compassion, Christ-likeness, love, and doing so would harm the little girls and boys we seek to protect and preserve.  We must aim to convince these dear women of the truth!  The pro-life movement is pro woman!  It is this nation’s last hope for women.  The pro-life movement has sacrificed more for women, truly, than any other movement in our nation’s history, why would we act in violence against women?  The pro-aborts claim to be pro-women, but saying it and then advocating violent acts against women such as abortion, paints a clear picture of the manner in which they deceive.  For Christians especially, we are called to be Christ-like.

Second,  violence against abortion doctors is extremely counter-productive to our cause.  Like it or not, there are consequences when a man who marches at the march for life ends up shooting an abortion doctor to death.  Most of the hundreds of thousands who march would never do such a thing.  But there are the fringe few who truly believe their violence is justified and they seek to identify themselves with us.  Though we reject them, when they do these things the opposition will seize this as a chance to lump us together.  Therefore, we must clearly state why we will never be like them and why we do not support them.   If you’re a pro-lifer and you’ve supported this violence, get out of our movement.

Third, we live in a free nation, at least for now.  We have the constitutional right to peacefully protest and shooting abortion doctors is like burning the constitution.  I don’t think the insane few who shoot abortion doctors realize that they are advocating for tyranny when they kill.  There may be a time when a nation needs to rise up against tyranny, I am not a wholesale pacifist, but those cases come when a nation has no other recourse.  We still have a better path for stopping abortion in the United States of America and this peaceful battle is not over.  I believe we will win, peacefully.

Four, shooting abortion doctors is counter productive because it doesn’t change any one’s heart or mind regarding the evil of abortion.  We must change hearts and minds the way that ultrasound pictures of the precious children changes hearts and minds, by clear, compelling, beautiful, forceful truth, backed by sacrificial deeds of love towards the mother. Martin Luther King Jr. said this about non-violent protest:

“…it so stirs the conscience of the opponent that reconciliation becomes reality.”

Fifth, shooting abortion doctors does not and will not produce the legislative change that we need.  No congressman or woman will look upon these violent acts and come to the conclusion that abortion should be made illegal in the United States and that the pre-born children conceived here should be protected by the constitution.

Lastly (though I will come up with more), what it does for us as a movement and as people is a benefit as well (in the words of King Jr):

“The nonviolent approach does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it.  It gives them new self-respect.  It calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had.”

I said this before but it needs to be said again, if you are calling yourself pro-life and you support this kind of violence, get out of our movement.  And this needs to be said again too, we can win peacefully on behalf of pre-born girls and boys, and I believe we will win.

Fancy this pro-lifers, God is on our side, therefore, we don’t need guns.

-King Jr. quotes taken from “Strength to Love” 1968 printing, pg. 170