The recent shooting at the Planned Parenthood office in Colorado Springs immediately had abortion forces running to the media with claims that the recent videos by The Center for Medical Progress were to blame for the horrendous acts of a madman.
The fact that the alleged shooter, Robert Dear, regularly lived without electricity or running water did not deter the abortion lobby from claiming he had been influenced by internet videos. I don’t claim genius status, but my guess is that electricity and access to the worldwide web are somehow connected.
But what happened as a result of these claims is what got me thinking. As always happens in these situations, well-known pro-life groups were immediately bombarded with requests for comment on the shooter.
While I was an executive director of a pregnancy help medical clinic in the 1990s, there were five incidents where abortion clinic personnel or security guards were shot to death. Each time, I got a phone call from my community’s local paper, asking for my reaction.
Our local media wasn’t particularly hostile to our work, but with each shooting, some just-out-of-journalism-school reporter would hop on the phone, dial me up and want to know what I thought of such a thing.
(By the way, take note that I responded to five of these events from 1993-1998. Since then, we have seen only two such events, even if we include the Colorado Springs shooting, where the motive is still in question. The next time we are asked if “abortion clinic violence is on the rise,” keep this in mind.)
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But the reporter wanted to know, what did I think? My first thought was, “Why ask me?” After all, I’m pro-life. I believe in the sanctity of human life, not in taking human life where I deem myself as judge and jury of someone else.
But I took the calls anyway. My responses were always nearly the same. “This shooter may claim to be pro-life, but he is tossing aside every principle of what it means to be pro-life,” I would say. “This has nothing to do with how the pro-life community conducts itself.”
I would then use the rest of the conversation pointing out the benefits of our ministry; sharing what pro-life individuals were accomplishing in our community through our work.
The Colorado Springs shooting brought all of this back; this constant effort by the media to get us—those who truly believe in celebrating life—to somehow say we are sorry that “one of our own” cracked and went on a shooting spree.
For its own reasons, the media paints us with the same brush as a man who unfortunately needs some serious help. In a sense, we are being asked to apologize for what we believe, because the media can’t seem to notice the difference between what it means to protect life and those who think nothing of ending lives.
Tweet This: #PlannedParenthood shooter may claim to be #prolife, but he has nothing to do with us. @KirkWalden
Apparently, the press wants one of us to say, “Goodness, we’re sorry that a pro-life individual did such a thing. We need to rethink our every action, our every thought.”
No. I’m not going to apologize. Not once.
This attempt to link Robert Dear, or anyone who has ever committed a violent act at an abortion clinic, to the pro-life community is dead wrong. The media can try this game if they’d like, but I’m not playing. Not for a second.
Go through the list of these killers and you aren’t going to find anyone who was teaching Sunday school or active in a local church or parish. You won’t find anyone who has poured his heart into the pregnancy help movement. Nope. Instead, you’re going to find loners, psychopaths, conspiracy theorists and previous arrest records.
These are angry, hateful people.
And the media wants me to somehow link us to them? Not happening, not on my watch.
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No, I will not apologize for the thousands of us who reach out to moms and dads, giving them hope and offering them the opportunity to choose life in the midst of a challenging situation.
I will not apologize for telling the truth about Planned Parenthood, a corrupt institution that robs taxpayers in order to take the life of human beings who deserve a first smile, a first step, a first birthday and a first day of school.
I will not apologize for believing that this will be a better world when our society once again embraces the joy and the wonder of every new life, waiting to be born.
No sir, no apologies here.
I could, but I will not draw parallels between senseless killings at abortion clinics and what goes on inside of those clinics. Not this week.
But, I will point out that at pregnancy help centers across this country and around this world, life is lifted up every single day. Hurting people are encouraged at pregnancy help centers. Every life, of every color, of every ethnicity—and from every stage of development—matters at a pregnancy help center.
Tweet This: Every life, of every color and at every stage of development matters. @KirkWalden #prolife
At pregnancy help centers, the fruit of our work is joyful moms and dads, cooing (okay, and crying) babies, and hope.
The fruit of our work includes words such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are words we live by.
So if anyone wants me to apologize for the actions of crazed individuals who know nothing of who we are and what we believe, I will be swift to condemn those actions.
But we know who we are. We know what we believe. And we are changing a culture through love.
We plan to keep up the good work. With no apologies.
Kirk Walden is a senior writer with Pregnancy Help News, an Advancement Specialist with Heartbeat International and author of The Wall. For banquet speaking engagements,
