THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9501040011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
A hero? A hero?
John Salvi may turn out to be many things: the murderer of two receptionists in an abortion clinic in Massachusetts, the gunman who let fly at the Hillcrest Clinic here in Norfolk, the unhappy son of now-distraught parents, a sad cipher in the increasing violence of anti-abortion fanaticism. But is the man arraigned in Norfolk yesterday and await-ing extradition to Boston the ``hero'' that local abortion opponent Donald Spitz called him?
No. Only that very vocal minority of abortion opponents who consider taking life a supportable expression of pro-life sentiment can condone such acts.
Unfortunately, South Hampton Roads has more than its share of that minority, and a formal conspiracy of the sort federal authorities will, and should, investigate isn't necessary for that word to get around. A man looking to fire the second salvo of his personal war on abortion might also come looking for the dismaying sliver of sympathetic reaction John Salvi and, before him, anti-abortionist and convicted murderer Paul Hill have found here.
Fortunately, most abortion opponents in South Hampton Roads are as unsympathetic to violent protest as they are to abortion. ``There are millions of Americans who deplore the senseless slaughter of unborn children,'' religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Monday in Virginia Beach. ``But they do not, and I do not, believe the answer is to go and murder abortionists. The taking of life is hardly pro-life.''
Fortunately, too, South Hampton Roads has its share of women and men who are determined to protect both women's legal right to abortion and the access without which that right is meaningless. Those clinicians and the women who come to them - and the protesters who would deny them - should know that hundreds of thousands who live here, whatever their personal decisions, would not presume to decide for others.
Along with expression of support must come better security. Hillcrest Clinic is routinely a target of protesters, some peaceful, some not. The Clinton administration is studying a further federal role in that security, and properly so: No citizen's right to protest includes the right to deny another a constitutional right - and to have the federal government stand aside.
What you believe about abortion is one thing. How you behave about it is another. From verbal assault to blockades to arson to murder, violence is unacceptable. A country whose majority believes that must make violence ineffective as well. That means expediting the availability of RU-486, a pill that is now in clinical trials (though already used extensively in Europe) and will offer women and their doctors more privacy for their decisions.
Ideally, though, it means fighting less to outlaw abortion and more for the self-control and birth control that make abortion unnecessary. by CNB