A friend of mine, a pro-choice liberal from my old Park Slope days, asked me to denounce the Planned Parenthood killings. Someone has to, she said, since it’s dividing the country.
I was surprised she hadn’t seen all the denunciations I have seen. But let me add my voice to that chorus.
The real face of the pro-life movement was uncovered in the Planned Parenthood killing. No, I do not mean by the killer (whose name I refuse to mention, consistent with my practice of treating lonely losers who seek a moment of glory by giving in to pure evil).
The Planned Parenthood killer is not pro-life in any sense. He is not a pro-life hero. He is a murderer, a destroyer of the sanctity of human life. He is also a deranged loser (did I mention that?), pathetically imagining he can restore his lost sense of worth with a gun through the hearts of his neighbors. If only the killer had known his real bedrock of worth, as a child of God, he might not have sought refuge in the momentary delusion of power wrought by horror and evil and killing.
I thought that this denunciation goes without saying, but if one of my friends, neighbors, or fellow citizens who believe abortion is right need to hear it from me, I offer it freely, unreservedly, with no need to descend into the tit for tat, the why don’t liberals condemn the Black Lives Matter movement, or radical Islam, or the Southern Poverty Law Center or whatever when violence erupts in their name.
Hypocrisy is not the issue; our deep commitment to the value of every human life is: the killer’s face is not the face of the pro-life movement.
Planned Parenthood cannot and should not evade criticism. The taxpayer financing of late-term abortions and the sale of those baby parts is not an issue that can just go away. To you for whom it is justifiable, do your best to justify it. I will not cease to fight for the value of every human life, against everyone who threatens it, including the killer who tried to play God last week in Colorado Springs.
Because the real face of a pro-life hero was revealed last week in Colorado Springs, the face of Officer Garrett Swasey, co-pastor of Hope Chapel, whose fellow pastor Scott Dontanville noted he ran towards danger to protect the people at Planned Parenthood even though “he wouldn’t agree with the abortion industry.”
There is video of the last few moments of a good man’s life:
Garrett Swasey was a husband, a father, a pastor, a cop, and a champion figure skater who skated with Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan. He leaves behind a wife and two children and a host of people whose lives he touched for the better.
My condolences to each and every family who faced harm or loss in Colorado. As Americans we can come together over the wrong that was done there and we should. We should not play politics with human lives.
When heroes for life emerge, we should celebrate them. Garrett Swasey and all the heroes who emerged last week: God be with you. And thank you.
Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project.
