Don't shoot abortionists

Shooting abortionists is wrong because God says, “You shall not murder.” Secondarily, it’s wrong pragmatically: Even a whiff of pro-life violence leads to more support for abortion.

Latest bit of evidence: an Associated Press-GfK poll showing 58 percent of Americans—questioned right after last month’s shooting at a Planned Parenthood business in Colorado—saying abortion should be legal in most or all situations, up from 51 percent who said so at the beginning of the year.

I’m skeptical of such polling because I don’t know how the questions were asked—and small changes in wording can mean large differences in results. AP continued its practice of saying things like “the Republican candidates say they favor restricting abortion rights” instead of “the Republican candidates say they favor protecting unborn children.” And when poll questions reflect that practice, results reflect such wording.

Still, if the same questions were asked each time, the change probably represents a jump. (Margin of error: 3.4 percent.) That’s so even though the inarticulate shooter was not shooting at abortionists and may have mumbled something about “baby parts,” or may not have.

We also don’t know the effect on public opinion of the videos that show Planned Parenthood officials dickering over prices of dead baby body parts as they eat, drink, and are merry. The pollsters said 45 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood, 30 percent have an unfavorable opinion, and 25 percent said they didn’t know enough to say.

I tend to believe those figures. The organization retains a residue of support because its public relations folks are effective in feeding lines to reporters ideologically and sometimes personally supportive of abortion.

WORLD’s annual Roe v. Wade issue next month will include an article about reactions to the Planned Parenthood videos.