Letters to the Editor

Sidewalk counselors blocking abortion clinics: Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?" although escorts often use physical force.

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Letter Number: 229 Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?" Let's look at who these people are that abortion enthusiasts find fault with. They aren't the kind of folks you see on Cops or America's Most Wanted. They're on the PTA, they pay their taxes, they make their kids do their homework. These are not people with long "rap sheets." They're ordinary, law-abiding citizens. The question is, how far do you carry respect for the law? Martin Luther King, Jr., who was arrested 133 times for civil disobedience, once said, "An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." History has shown that the law is sometimes wrong. In those cases, citizens don't have a right to act, they have a responsibility to do so. America's Founding Fathers were each breaking a law that was punishable by death--treason. The people who operated the Underground Railroad, sneaking slaves out of the South to freedom in the North, were also breaking the law. Remember, at that point white Americans had a constitutional right to own slaves. Whether you agree or disagree with those moms and dads and kids outside the abortion mills, you have to respect them: they are putting everything they have on the line. And they're doing it not for themselves, but for unborn children scheduled to die, and for women they don't even know who are at risk of being maimed, killed, or raped inside an abortion clinic. I suggest that before you judge these people, you look at what's motivating them to do what they're doing.
Letter Number: 230 Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?" Pro-choicers are correct in that currently abortion is legal, and what goes on outside abortion facilities is sometimes illegal. Well, when Hitler and his thugs tortured and executed millions in Nazi Germany, they were breaking no law. In fact, people like Corrie ten Boom and Oskar Schindler, who saved Jews from death, were the ones breaking the law. In America today, we have people torturing and killing millions without breaking the law. And we have people who risk their reputations, their freedom, and everything they own, breaking the law to protect the lives of women and children they don't even know. Today, everyone has "20/20 hindsight" about the Nazi holocaust. And in our moral superiority, we all look back and assert that we would have been on the right side. But it's always easier to be on the wrong side, and very few have the wisdom and the courage to do the right thing in terrible times. The majority will either choose the wrong side, or sit silently on the sidelines and let the evil go on unchallenged. It may well be that those grandmas and grandpas in front of the abortion mills will some day be recognized as heroes--the only people who stood up and did the right thing, regardless of the cost.
Letter Number: 231 Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?" Now, for those of you who are truly undecided about this issue, I have a challenge. Before you make up your mind about those people who get arrested trying to stop abortion, you should carefully examine exactly what the activity is that can make honest, law abiding Americans feel they have not a right, but a responsibility to break the law. Try reading In Necessity and Sorrow by Magda Denes. It's a pro-abortion author's reflections on "life and death in an abortion hospital." Or read Abortion Practice by Warren Hern. It's a how-to book by the most skilled abortionist in America. Or better yet, read Lime 5: Exploited by Choice by Mark Crutcher. It looks at what happens to women and medical staff in abortion clinics. It's good for those who don't care about fetuses at all. Once you have educated yourself and learned what goes on behind the doors of America's abortion mills, look again at those ordinary grandmas and grandpas getting arrested outside those doors. Only then have you earned the right to judge their actions.
Letter Number: 235 Yesterday's blockade of the local abortion clinic elicited some interesting commentary. A pro-abortion spokeswoman said, "We will do whatever it takes to get women into abortion clinics, even if it takes physical force." As someone who has picketed outside these places, I can vouch for her. Women who try to approach the pro-lifers for help are herded in like cattle by the self-appointed guardians of "choice." I have seen "escorts" grab crying women by the arms and drag them into the building. The goal is not to give her a choice, but to make sure she goes through with the abortion, no matter what. So much for free choice. It's about time one of these abortion fanatics admitted it.

Letter Number: 229

Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?"

Let's look at who these people are that abortion enthusiasts find fault with. They aren't the kind of folks you see on Cops or America's Most Wanted. They're on the PTA, they pay their taxes, they make their kids do their homework. These are not people with long "rap sheets." They're ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

The question is, how far do you carry respect for the law? Martin Luther King, Jr., who was arrested 133 times for civil disobedience, once said, "An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

History has shown that the law is sometimes wrong. In those cases, citizens don't have a right to act, they have a responsibility to do so. America's Founding Fathers were each breaking a law that was punishable by death--treason. The people who operated the Underground Railroad, sneaking slaves out of the South to freedom in the North, were also breaking the law. Remember, at that point white Americans had a constitutional right to own slaves.

Whether you agree or disagree with those moms and dads and kids outside the abortion mills, you have to respect them: they are putting everything they have on the line. And they're doing it not for themselves, but for unborn children scheduled to die, and for women they don't even know who are at risk of being maimed, killed, or raped inside an abortion clinic. I suggest that before you judge these people, you look at what's motivating them to do what they're doing.

Letter Number: 230

Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?"

Pro-choicers are correct in that currently abortion is legal, and what goes on outside abortion facilities is sometimes illegal.

Well, when Hitler and his thugs tortured and executed millions in Nazi Germany, they were breaking no law. In fact, people like Corrie ten Boom and Oskar Schindler, who saved Jews from death, were the ones breaking the law. In America today, we have people torturing and killing millions without breaking the law. And we have people who risk their reputations, their freedom, and everything they own, breaking the law to protect the lives of women and children they don't even know.

Today, everyone has "20/20 hindsight" about the Nazi holocaust. And in our moral superiority, we all look back and assert that we would have been on the right side. But it's always easier to be on the wrong side, and very few have the wisdom and the courage to do the right thing in terrible times. The majority will either choose the wrong side, or sit silently on the sidelines and let the evil go on unchallenged.

It may well be that those grandmas and grandpas in front of the abortion mills will some day be recognized as heroes--the only people who stood up and did the right thing, regardless of the cost.

Letter Number: 231

Pro-abortion fanatics sometimes say, "What gives these anti-choicers the right to deny women their constitutional rights by illegally blocking clinics?"

Now, for those of you who are truly undecided about this issue, I have a challenge. Before you make up your mind about those people who get arrested trying to stop abortion, you should carefully examine exactly what the activity is that can make honest, law abiding Americans feel they have not a right, but a responsibility to break the law.

Try reading In Necessity and Sorrow by Magda Denes. It's a pro-abortion author's reflections on "life and death in an abortion hospital." Or read Abortion Practice by Warren Hern. It's a how-to book by the most skilled abortionist in America. Or better yet, read Lime 5: Exploited by Choice by Mark Crutcher. It looks at what happens to women and medical staff in abortion clinics. It's good for those who don't care about fetuses at all.

Once you have educated yourself and learned what goes on behind the doors of America's abortion mills, look again at those ordinary grandmas and grandpas getting arrested outside those doors. Only then have you earned the right to judge their actions.

Letter Number: 235

Yesterday's blockade of the local abortion clinic elicited some interesting commentary. A pro-abortion spokeswoman said, "We will do whatever it takes to get women into abortion clinics, even if it takes physical force."

As someone who has picketed outside these places, I can vouch for her. Women who try to approach the pro-lifers for help are herded in like cattle by the self-appointed guardians of "choice." I have seen "escorts" grab crying women by the arms and drag them into the building. The goal is not to give her a choice, but to make sure she goes through with the abortion, no matter what.

So much for free choice. It's about time one of these abortion fanatics admitted it.