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the other side of the coin…

Posted on Monday 1 June 2009

Is Abortion a Religious issue? It certainly seems to be, considering who supports the forces opposed to legalized abortion – almost 100% religious institutions. Likewise, the arguments are usually backed up by quotations from the Christian Scriptures. But the major thrust of the argument is secular – that Abortion is Murder – universally considered a Crime. In that argument, the fetus is considered a person from conception, ergo Abortion Murders a person.

But the argument seems to go further. The people who argue that Abortion is Murder are  also generally opposed to Birth Control methods – condoms, birth control medication, diaphrams, morning after pills, etc. Apparently, their only solution to unwanted pregnancy or to over-population is Sexual Abstinence. They see Birth Control and Abortion as promoting Promiscuity. If sexual intercourse is separated from procreation, they seem to fear that we’ll all be running around having sex all the time. In that line of thinking, the prohibition against Birth Control is intended to be a preventive measure, designed to stop Sin. Ergo Sex is Sin [unless in the service of having children]. In the biblical account of creation, Sex is, in fact, the Original Sin. The Founders of our country, however, believed we should have separation between church and state. They also said:

Essentially, in this country, the only valid argument against legalized Abortion is that it is a Crime – the Crime of Murder. We’ll throw out the argument against other forms of Birth Control as the imposition of religious views by the state. That is particularly relevant to this last Administration that did put "abstinence only" clauses into government regulated programs. No reasonable argument. No thanks.

And I’m not going to mount an argument against Abortion is the Crime of Murder. It seems an absurd argument to me, but it’s not for me to say. But I would, however, like to mount an argument against the violent part of the pro-life movement. I don’t believe a lot of them are opposing Abortion because of their love of babies. Take Scott Roeder, the alleged Murderer of Dr. Tiller:

Scott Roeder, who is being held in the shooting death of Tiller, a Wichita abortion doctor, is said to be a member of militia groups. He also reportedly discussed violence against abortion providers.

Los Angeles Times
By Nicholas Riccardi

Reporting from Wichita, Kan. — The 51-year-old man authorities are holding today as a suspect in the assassination of prominent abortion doctor George Tiller has long discussed violence against abortion providers and belonged to right-wing "militia" groups, according to reports and acquaintances.

Authorities arrested Scott Roeder in a Kansas City suburb Sunday, hours after Dr. Tiller was gunned down in the foyer of a church in Wichita. Tiller had survived a previous shooting and the bombing of his clinic, and someone with the name of Scott Roeder had posted to antiabortion rights websites, urging people to target the physician’s church.

"I know that he believed in justifiable homicide," antiabortion activist Regina Dinwiddie told the Kansas City Star. "I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones."

Roeder reportedly made a jailhouse visit to the activist who shot Tiller in 1993. Kansas City-area militia members said he was a member of their anti-government groups, and a man by his name was stopped by authorities in 1996 for driving with an improper license plate that read "Sovereign private property"…
Roeder, like Eric Rudolph, comes from the fringes of the anti-abortion movement. The part of the Constitution they claim to revere is something else:
In my opinion, they don’t actually "revere" the Constitution at all. They ally themselves with the Religious Right, the Pro-Life Movement, the N.R.A., the Militia Movement, the Aryan Nation, the people who holed up in Waco Texas, Timothy McVeigh, the K.K.K., the skinheads, etc. They are our anarchists, opposed to government anything – as in "Sovereign private property." I’m not sure what draws people to these groups. I expect that there are a variety of paths. But it’s a pretty sick lot, and I’m sure it’s not love of babies that binds them together

As we learn more about Mr. Roeder, I hope the pro-life supporters will take the high road and actually examine how they are providing a vehicle for some of the sicker elements to flourish. In fact, the whole noisy Right in this country is allowing some of our most destructive societal elements to thrive and grow. The logic of all of these pro-life arguments has little to do with what matters here. It’s not the loftier thoughts of man that count, it’s the other side of the coin…

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