Demonizing Tiller

In the wake of the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, pro-lifers are getting too defensive. Rod Dreher defends pro-lifers’ embrace of prudence. Robert George defends pro-lifers’ principle of non-violence. A guest blogger at Dawn Eden’s site defends pro-lifers’ history of non-violence and care of women considering abortion.

Defending themselves against unwarranted attacks is entirely understandable and proper. But surely less defensiveness and more soul-searching on the part of pro-lifers is in order; this should be a time partly of repentance and forgiveness, not just of apologetics. While pro-lifers have defended the movement’s principles, actions, and principles, they have been silent about its tactics. Or rather one indefensible tactic of Operation Rescue, the movement’s action wing: demonizing (notorious) abortion providers.

As The Washington Post and numerous pro-choice blogs note, Operation Rescue had targeted Tiller for decades. They targeted him and his clinic for their Summer of Mercy campaign in 1991. They targeted him ten years later. And they targeted him on their website, putting out a “Tiller Watch,” which has been shut down.

Is it any wonder that Tiller was killed? Operation Rescue’s tactics of targeting Tiller, it seems to me, begat a culture of violence. His clinic was bombed in 1986; he was shot, in both arms, in 1993; and he was gunned down yesterday, at church no less. All this violence against Tiller is surely not accidental. It was the rotten fruit of Operation’s Tactics, as the Weather Underground’s violence was the rotten fruit of Students for a Democratic Society’s refusal to disavow revolutionary violence.

In a social movement such as the pro-life cause, demonizing individuals is not only wrong; it’s also dumb. It singles out one person for the sins of millions. Every social evil is bigger than one individual; it’s the product of religion, culture, and politics. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this truth. It’s why he didn’t inveigh against Bull Connor or George Wallace.

Operation Rescue has done great good in saving many babies and their mothers from a violent fate. But, I think, it has also fostered a culture of violence that is the antithesis of the movement it represents.