THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260021
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Regarding ``Follow God's way to end abortion'' (letter, Aug. 20): It sure would be nice to believe that these pro-lifers really are ``non-violent activists . . . revealing the truth. . . .'' when in actuality they are cold-blooded mercenaries who push down women at abortion clinics, screaming threats and biblical madness at women who are exercising their right to have a safe, legal abortion.
I've seen these people at work, because a friend of mine is an administrator of an abortion clinic in Indianapolis. I talk with her weekly about the ``right-to-lifers'' who think it's perfectly OK to kill doctors who perform abortions.
My friend tells me the majority of the protesters are not non-violent - they push and scream and spit at women who enter her clinic. These people are irrational terrorists, pushed over the edge by religious fanaticism.
My friend has been a nurse since the 1950s. She remembers all too well the women who were wheeled into the emergency room at the Indianapolis hospital where she worked - the women who bled to death because of back-street abortionists.
Outlawing abortion will not stop women from obtaining abortions; it will only stop women from obtaining legal and safe abortions.
The Operation Rescue people are not ``non-violent activists who . . . teach and preach to end abortion.'' From within their ranks, killers have emerged. The so-called ``right-to-lifers'' need to acknowledge that they have encouraged murder and mayhem in the name of God. Because of crimes by people from their ranks - their ``non-violent'' ranks - two physicians are dead.
No, I am not a woman who lived in the days of illegal abortion. I'm a 33-year-old male who has escorted women through the ranks of so-called pro-lifers who scream outside of abortion clinics. I escorted them so they could have a safe, legal abortion.
Pro-lifers are anything but non-violent. These are dangerous people. To say that I'm frightened of these people is an understatement. In the name of God, they would kill physicians and feel justified. Now, that is an anti-life campaign if I ever heard of one.
ROBERT J. GRANT
Virginia Beach, Aug. 20, 1994 by CNB