Tiller

Years ago, after a shooter executed five Amish girls at their school in Pennsylvania and then committed suicide, members of the Amish community attended his funeral. I was deeply moved when I read about it.

While I was watching a CNN special on the abortion issue a few nights ago, a thought occurred to me. How powerful would it have been if Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Wanda Franz, Mike Huckabee, and every other well-known figure in the Pro-Life movement had attended Dr. Tiller's funeral Saturday. What an act of grace, love, kindness, and mercy that would have been. What a positive step towards healing and reconciliation between two groups so diametrically opposed could have taken place.

It has been said and it bears repeating: people who commit acts of violence towards those who perform or support abortions make a mockery of the term "Pro-Life."

I have heard and read another sentiment repeated in the news over the last two weeks which in contrast does not hold weight. It's the idea that the Pro-life movement as a whole is disingenuous, because it focuses on the legal issues of abortion with little regard for the women who choose to have them. I have heard presidents Clinton and Obama call for, and sometimes support, abortion prevention - an issue both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice believers can unite behind. There is a perception that organizations like NOW, Democrats for Life, and the policies of certain Pro-Choice legislators are the only things working to prevent abortions. Some believe that Pro-Life supporters care only for the life of an unborn fetus, and nothing for the mother or the child once it is born.

My counter-argument is a personal one. From the 4th to the 8th grade, my best friend Brian Duffy and I were inseparable. I slept at his house, ate at his table, and in a large way grew up with his family. His parents are avid Pro-Life supporters, some would say extreme. His father (a tall, imposing man with a gentle heart) has been to jail for standing outside abortion clinics and preventing women from entering. Brian's family marched, they held signs, they voted, and they fought.

But it didn't stop there. They also ran an organization called Women for Women out of their dining room, which supported mothers who chose to bring their children to term by helping them find a job, find a place to live, and put their child up for adoption if they chose to. One of the women who ran this organization lived in a spare bedroom in Brian's house. When she moved out Brian's parents invited in a young woman whose family had kicked her out of their home when they learned she was pregnant. She stayed with the Duffys for several years, even after she had her baby.

I grew up in a very idealistically rigid environment, some would say extreme. At my private grade school I was taught Pro-Life beliefs alongside Math and English. But that did not mean I was taught to hate women. On the contrary, I saw love for women played out before my eyes every day. I was taught to love women by example.

Obviously this is what all members of both movements must come together to do. Scott Roeder is not the face of the Pro-Life movement. In fact he doesn't represent it in any way - he is what the Crusaders were to Jesus or Osama Bin Laden is to Muhammad. The faces of the movement, in fact the faces of both movements, are millions of young women and children who are scared and helpless. If Roe v. Wade was overturned tomorrow it would be imperative that our society be prepared to care for the millions of women and newborns who would suddenly be at our doorstep.

I believe many in the Pro-Life movement understand and accept this responsibility and the implications of their beliefs, which are simply a call to love, despite disturbed murderers who would gun down a man in his place of worship in the name of life.