On the Abortion Doctor's Murder

Following the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, Patterico asked a couple good questions.

1) Do you believe killing an abortion doctor is morally justified?

2) If you had an al Qaeda terrorist in the sights of your gun, would you pull the trigger? If you were the President and you were told one of our snipers had Osama in his sights, would you give the order to kill him?

I do not happen to believe that abortion is murder, although I believe it is wrong — and becomes more morally objectionable as we get closer to the moment of birth.

But some do believe abortion is murder, no different from murder of a fully formed human. It is those people to whom I put the question.

I made two posts responding to those questions, and to those who blame religion for this murder, which I excerpt below:

Christianity in no way Responsible for Murder of Abortion Doctor

But the left is right about one thing. This is an occasion to look at the bigger picture. As far as dangerous political groups go however, abortion opponents and their ideas don't kill anywhere near the number of people that, say, enviro-wackos do. See malaria deaths in Africa thanks to criminalizing the use of DDT

for just one example that has killed millions of people.

Likewise, the people who think it's a good idea to promote single motherhood are responsible for far more deaths than anti-abortion activists. So are the people who want to legalize heroin. Trade unions (particularly their bosses) kill more people, as do those who oppose capitalism, like Lenin... Perhaps you get the point.

Once every year or so one of our loons kills someone or a group of someones over abortion. But anti-abortion is not an ideology founded in death, as the other side's is.

Does the Supreme Court bear some responsibility for abortion doctor's murder?

The difference ought to be clear. The abortion doctor is doing his job, work that has been declared legal by our democratic process (or so it appears). We are not at war with abortion doctors, nor are they actively trying to kill me (so self-defense wouldn't be a consideration.)

Many people think that what our military is doing in Iraq is murder. Apparently these people still manage to ride the same logic train and refrain from killing our servicemen upon return. Either that or they actually are the impotent wussies that I have always suspected they are.

So there are two possible explanations for why abortion doctors get killed, for ideological reasons, more often than returning servicemen. The first is that our military members tend to be good fighters, while pacifist pansies don't. It fits. But I don't think it is the real cause.

The real reason is that abortion doctoring has never been declared legal by the democratic process. The Supreme Court usurped the people of the United States, preventing them from deciding this issue in their states, as the 10th Amendment to the Constitution requires

Two can play the blame game.