___________________________________________________________EDITORIAL__________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Out of the Mainstream
A vigorous effort is underway to
depict all pro-life activists as dangerous extremists.
James Kopp is an easy target. In early middle age, the man accused of killing a New York abortionist has no fixed address, no steady job, no professional references. For more than a decade he has been an itinerant by choice, moving from town to town, working at odd jobs just enough to sustain his pro-life activities. He lived on the margins of society, and it has been easy for government officials and media representatives to portray him as a dangerous loner.
If Kopp is guilty of murder, we hope that he will receive a just punishment. But if he is innocent—as we believe him to be—then he deserves better treatment from the American judicial system and the mass media alike.
Eccentricity is not a crime, and the fact that a man holds deep convictions—on a subject that divides American society—does not make him a threat to public safety. There is a danger that Kopp will be tried in the court of public opinion, and found guilty of extremism because his views on abortion are at variance with mainstream opinions. An extremist he may be; certainly he has shown a level of commitment that few people can match. But that does not make him a felon. He deserves an adequate defense: not only against the murder charge, but also against the broader notion that he represents a menace to society.
In our Dossier this month, we report on the campaign begun in California by another pro-life activist whose tactics many readers will find distasteful. Again, it is beyond dispute that Gregg Cunningham is far removed from the American mainstream—or even the pro-life mainstream, for that matter. But why are more “moderate” pro-lifers so anxious to denounce his campaign? It is one thing to condemn tactics that are objectively immoral. But if an ally’s tactics are merely deemed imprudent, isn’t it enough (after admonishing him privately) to maintain a careful distance, and leave others to issue the ritual condemnations?
Open season
When pro-lifers rush needlessly to denounce their more militant cousins, they
play into the hands of their ideological opponents. For 20 years or more,
proponents of legal abortion have campaigned relentlessly to persuade Americans
that the pro-life movement represents only a lunatic fringe. That propaganda
campaign has had a prodigious effect. The abortion industry is now surrounded by
a unique carapace of legal protection: freedom-of-access laws, bubble zones,
restraining orders, class-action lawsuits—all built upon the presumption that
pro-life violence is widespread.
So thoroughly has the pro-abortion rhetoric been accepted as the prevailing wisdom that when pro-life researchers compile a detailed report on the many criminal activities of abortionists and their allies (another story included in this month’s Dossier), the mass media simply ignore the evidence. After all, the editors tell themselves, we don’t need to worry about pro-abortion violence; it is the pro-lifers who are the danger.
The result of this attitude is a virtual open season on the pro-life movement. Our Dossier also tells how the chief law-enforcement official of New York is using the powers of his office to threaten the very existence of a few crisis-pregnancy centers. No other sort of charitable venture would ever be slated for such a ham-handed investigation. But the pro-life movement in general has been forced toward the margins of society, out of the shelter of protective public opinion.
At a time when the quiet, “mainstream” leaders of the pro-life movement are all too willing to sacrifice the interests of their militant colleagues, it is a scandal that many radical supporters of abortion continue to enjoy the air of respectability—even within the Catholic Church. How is it possible that a public official who votes invariably for the public funding of abortion, the acceptance of euthanasia, and the use of fetal tissue in scientific research, can still be identified as a Roman Catholic?
Abortion is not the only public issue on which authentic Catholic opinion has been characterized as extreme. On a whole spectrum of issues tied up with the “culture of death,” responsible Catholics have been shoved out of the discussion, while self-described Catholics who reject Church teaching gain rich rewards. (See this month’s Interview for one more example.) As long as Catholic leaders denounce their militant allies and tolerate their dissident adversaries, the marginalization of the pro-life movement will continue.
—By Philip F. Lawler
Back to Catholic World Report February 2002 Table of Contents