Operation Rescue President Troy Newman had an editorial published today, (Wednesday, June 3, 2009), in the USA Today. We are reprinting it below for your convenience, or you may view it on the USA Today website by clicking here.
We abhor vigilantism
Operation Rescue uses all legal tools to expose abortion’s brutality.
By Troy Newman
The fundamental tenet of the pro-life movement is that human life has intrinsic value and is deserving of protection from the moment the seed and egg unite, until natural death. To take a life without due process devalues all life.
We at Operation Rescue were shocked to hear of the killing of late-term abortionist George Tiller and were among the first groups to denounce the cowardly act that took Tiller’s life. It was not justice, but vigilantism, which must be abhorred by a society that embraces the rule of law over anarchy.
Social justice begins in the womb or it does not exist at all. The spark of life is so precious that the matter of abortion demands we expose it for what it is: the brutal and immoral destruction of a unique human being.
Operation Rescue uses legal tools at our disposal, including the justice system, law enforcement, the legislative system, regulatory boards, health departments — even our ironclad First Amendment rights to display pictures of aborted babies brutally killed through the euphemism of “choice” — to expose the violence of abortion and provide as much protection as possible for women and their pre-born babies.
Outspoken opposition to abortion has had positive results. For the first time in decades, polling data show that the majority of the American people, 51%, identify themselves as “pro-life,” while the numbers of those who say they are “pro-choice” have slipped eight points to a low of 42%. Abortion rates are dropping nationwide.
Our “pro-choice” opposition fears what will happen if the truth about abortion becomes known. We fear what will happen if the truth is not told.
America must not be afraid of where showing the truth will bring us, whether it is to the brutal death of a baby in the womb, the state-sanctioned starvation death of Terri Schiavo, or dehumanizing war crimes committed at Abu Ghraib.
Tiller’s homicide must be denounced, but so should the killing of over 45 million innocent babies through abortion, because when even one life is wrongfully taken, it devalues us all.
