O'Connor once wrote -- in a comment widely quoted on pro-life blogs after Tiller's murder -- "If anyone has an urge to kill someone at an abortion clinic, they should shoot me. ... It's madness. It discredits the right-to-life movement. Murder is murder...You cannot prevent killing by killing." That clarity did not die when O'Connor passed away in 2000. In response to the Tiller murder, U.S. Catholic bishops have said they will pray for Tiller's family. Evangelical, Wendy Wright, the current president of Concerned Women for America, formerly of Operation Rescue, which is known for its protests outside abortion clinics, said she was "disturbed and saddened." One Catholic priest went even further, calling on readers of his diocesan newspaper to "do acts of penance and reparation to seek in some way to remedy the evil done," including, he wrote, "for the few who are taking quiet or public pleasure in Tiller's death."
Some pro-life activists, of course, don't help things. The sign at St. Patrick's and the work of the Sisters won't make major headlines anytime soon. Instead, quoted all over is Randall Terry, who does not speak for me or most of the pro-life activists I know, saying in the immediate wake of the Tiller shooting: "George Tiller was a mass-murderer. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions."
Abortion is murder. But that was not the press release to send out in response to a man's brutal slaying. I was not "more concerned" about politics, as real and true as the concern may be. Terry is in no way responsible for Tiller's murder, and that he would be overwhelmingly upset by what Tiller did is justified. But he needs to know that his statement is inevitably going to drown out the principled but merciful responses. It's just the way the media frenzy goes. In protecting human life, we must rise above that tempting distraction in order to change -- and save -- lives. We must oppose abortion not out of hate, but out of love, as so many do. You won't read about it in a government report and you won't hear about it on the evening news, but it's right there on 5th Avenue in the Big Apple.