The ethics of pro-"life"rs

You perhaps remember in season three of The Wire, when Stringer tries to have Omar murdered while he's taking his grandmother to church. And you also perhaps remember how angry Avon is at this attempted hit--you are not supposed to attack even your most hated enemies in these circumstances, was the reasoning. It was part of a moral code.

So there you have it: drug kingpin more ethical than pro-"life"rs. Make a note of it.

(Not that this would be less appalling in other circumstances, but the church aspect really adds that extra little ghastly, ironic frisson to the proceedings.)

"Hey," you say. "This was a lone individual. Not all pro-"life" individuals are murderous psychopaths." And on the one hand, yeah, you're right, and on the other hand, oh, bullshit. Sure, not ALL of these people subscribe to the tenets of domestic terrorism groups like Operation Rescue (whose pious, hypocritical denunciation of this murder is truly stomach-turning), but who's fooling whom? When you have this constant drumbeat or "murder, muder, muder" and "genocide, genocide, genocide," it's the height of disingenuousness to claim no responsibility for things like this. "Sure, we kept shrieking about how abortion doctors were worse than Hitler--but we never wanted anyone to actually do anything about it! Heaven forfend!" Uh huh.

If you consider yourself pro-life and you're as horrified by things like this as I am, perhaps you might want to reconsider your rhetoric. If you already avoid loaded terms like "murder," good for you, but you're in the minority, and you might want to go a little further and consider what your fellow travelers are like, and how their logic ineffably leads to things like this.

RIP George Tiller, Hero and Martyr.

UPDATE: Some additional links. I would say "goddamn these people," but there is no conceivable hell that would be hot enough.