Ethical abortion foes should protest extremism

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The murder of George Tiller was appalling on its own. But now Dennis Roeder, the man accused of shooting the physician point-blank in his church, is being embraced by a phalanx of fellow extremists.

As a Kansas City Star story revealed Sunday, supporters are organizing a fundraiser to help with Roeder’s legal defense.

The malevolent plan is to auction memorabilia from the movement’s extremist fringe. An autographed copy of “A Time to Kill,” a memoir of a man who served time for firebombing abortion clinics, is one of the likely offerings. So is a manual from the “Army of God,” which advised people on ways to close clinics, including by bombing.

Abortion-rights supporters are asking eBay to bar the event from its network. The Web service said it declines listings that are judged to promote or glorify “violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance” or items that promote illegal activity.

Some of the proposed auction items appear to run afoul of those guidelines, which eBay should be vigilant about enforcing.

But the onus for stopping extremism shouldn’t rest with an Internet service.

The people hatching this plan make up a small but destructive fringe of the anti-abortion movement. This is the time for ethical opponents of abortion, including churches, to loudly denounce violence as a means of achieving an end.

Posted on Mon, Oct. 26, 2009 10:15 PM

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