So-Called Pro-Life

I was distracted by Dr. George Tiller’s eyeglasses when I saw his video clips on the news, after an anti-abortion zealot in Wichita gunned him down. Coke-bottle glasses, I think they’re called. As thick as the glass in any major aquarium.

It occurred to me that a man with poor vision would learn to use his other senses, as a way to compensate for his failing eyesight. Aural perception would self-correct to enhance sound, and the capacity to listen would become a vital necessity. Our ability to hear is the last sense to go, and is perhaps one of our strongest physiological allies. I have no doubt that Dr. Tiller learned how to distinguish noise from information in his daily life.

Dr. Tiller provided abortions - late-term abortions - to women who needed them. I have never needed one, and I don’t know why Dr. Tiller’s patients needed late-term abortions because it is none of my business. What I know is that Dr. Tiller performed a lawful procedure that often saves lives. For this a madman who, ironically enough, claimed to be “pro-life” shot him to death.

The pro-life movement in the US has a history of providing safe haven to violent extremists for years. While these personality types are not a rule within the pro-life movement, they are no exception. When the pro-life movement condemns the acts of brutal activists within their group, they do so with fingers crossed behind their backs. They forget that God is watching them, too.