Friday, October 27, 2006

Thank God they caught this guy in time!

Man Pleads Guilty In Attempted Abortion Clinic Bombing

I'm not sure how they figured out what this guy was planning to do, but he turned himself in. And from FBI comments, it was people close to him that were alarmed at what he was going to do and called the cops. Good job! Kudos!

The bomb detonated while a technician was trying to defuse it, but since they don't say that the technician was injured, I'm assuming he or she is okay. Again, thank God.

They say nothing about the guy's motives. Was he a disgruntled father whose baby was aborted? Ticked off because a loved one had been injured at an abortion facility? An attention hog who figured going after an abortion facility would do the trick? Some deluded anti-abortionist who thought that this would somehow be a positive accomplishment?

One big beef I do have:
He faces a maximum of one year in prison on the charge of attempting to destroy or damage an abortion clinic.

There ought not to be some separate law that makes it especially bad to blow up a place of killing. If we're going to treat abortion facilities differently, the fact that they're abortion facilities ought to be a mitigating factor, because it's perfectly understandable that one would want such a loathsome place shut down. It's just not understandable to use violence to accomplish this. Buy the building and evict the practice. Pray outside it until it shuts down. Set up a CPC and sidewalk counselors until it shrivels up and blows away for lack of business. Lobby until your town changes zoning so that you can't kill fetuses within city limits. Learn about any violations the place or its people are guilty of, and report them to the proper authorities. There are many, many, many legitimate ways to get rid of an abortion facility. Blowing it up, burning it down, and shooting the staff are capitulating to the whole idea that violence is the answer.

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