THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501010100
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Many of us men lack the courage most women summon in deciding to endure the physical ordeal of having a child.
Bound up in it is a sense of awesome responsibility of rearing a child and shaping its character to see it through life in an exceedingly stressful society. So much pain, as well as joy, lies along the way.
It is a wonder women do it. Love must pull them to it and through it.
Even more dreadful for most women would be a choice to have to abort the child. It is difficult to imagine a decision subject to more torment or the circumstances that would demand it. Nevertheless, some must face it.
It is a gnarled decision, tangled and deeply buried in the emotions. And it, too, is one that others should respect. In most cases, one can feel only compassion for those who have to choose abortion.
In this democratic society of laws, that choice is legal, and it is to be upheld and protected as any other right of an individual.
Some women, including mothers, are distressed at television commercials that, showing a child at play, preach the message of ``Life. What a beautiful choice.''
They commiserate with women who, having had abortions, must deal with the feelings the commercials arouse.
Freedom of speech protects anti-abortionists in expressing their abhorrence. And if Madison Avenue's artistry is to be injected into the contest for public opinion, so be it.
Recently, men, miscasting themselves as avenging angels, have made physical assaults on clinics, even attempting murder and, recently, succeeding.
On Saturday, one such terrorist sprayed bullets on the Hillcrest Clinic in Norfolk. Fortunately, no one was hurt; a suspect was captured in flight.
These men must be brought to justice and punished. Leaders of the anti-abortion movement who condone murder must be held in contempt, if not by courts, then certainly by citizens who respect the word of law that divides civilization from barbarism.
In early preaching, anti-abortionists scarcely got a hearing. Most people, especially men, shied from even contemplating the issue.
Pro-lifers have been making headway in challenging the thinking of Americans, but in looking benignly on violence and in some cases apparently fomenting it, the leaders slam the gate on reasoned discussion and set back their cause.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION CLINICS ANTI-ABORTION SHOOTING ARREST by CNB