Tag: Anti-abortion violence

Last week, police in Madison, Wisconsin arrested Ralph Lang after he accidentally discharged a firearm in his hotel room.

Lang told police that he planned to go to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic the following morning to find the doctor who was doing the abortions and shoot him in the head, the complaint said.

[…]

A nurse at Planned Parenthood in Madison said she is familiar with Lang, and that she saw him outside the facility last week, according to the complaint. Lang was arrested in 2007 outside Planned Parenthood, telling an officer at the time that the "Bible states that anyone involved in abortion should be executed."

In Lang's motel room, officers found a U.S. map with dots in each state and handwritten words above the northern U.S. border that said "some abortion centers," the complaint said. Also written on the map were the words "Blessed Virgin Mary says Hell awaits any woman having an abortion. Nurse or doctor who helps will one (sic)."

All Our Lives wholly rejects the use of violence against abortion providers, and we are relieved that Mr. Lang was discovered and arrested before he could harm anyone.

South Dakota's House Bill 1171 has been shelved due to concerns that, as worded, it could provide a defense for killers such as Scott Roeder.

The phrasing caused concern and disbelief on both sides of the abortion debate, with activists in the abortion rights and anti-abortion movements calling the language poorly conceived at best, and perhaps an incitement to violence. The bill was cheered, though, by those anti-abortion activists who argue that the use of violence is justified to stop doctors from carrying out abortions.

It's refreshing to see a reporter make the distinction between those abortion opponents who favor violence and the rest of the movement. I think it's important to remind everyone, especially the "justifiable homicide" crowd, that their advocacy of murder is unacceptable to the rest of us.

I believe that the bill's sponsor, Phil Jensen, absolutely did not intend it as license to kill abortion providers. Remember, as he introduced it, the bill specified that a woman could legally use lethal force "to protect herself against the unlawful force or unlawful deadly force she reasonably believes to be threatening her unborn child."

When the bill was amended, the language about "unlawful force" was removed. I'd love to know who removed the "unlawful force" provision and why. Unfortunately, the South Dakota Legislature web site doesn't give the name of the person who amended it (or any other bill, for that matter), and their audio of the session doesn't seem to work. I'll keep looking.

I posted on the All Our Lives Facebook wall earlier today about a Mother Jones article entitled, "South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers."  They keep updating and removing information from that article, which made it very confusing to try to figure out what was going on, so I went directly to the South Dakota Legislature's web site for more information. As introduced, the bill would have provided a pregnant woman an affirmative defense against homicide or assault charges if she used force to protect her unborn child against an unlawful assault. So far, so good.

The bill as amended and passed out of committee on February 9 contains very different language:

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to expand the definition of justifiable homicide to provide for the protection of certain unborn children.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
    Section 1. That § 22-16-34 be amended to read as follows:
    22-16-34. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree likely to result in the death of the unborn child, or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person is.
    Section 2. That § 22-16-35 be amended to read as follows:
    22-16-35. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.

This link should clarify the order of events.

I apologize for the confusion in the Facebook post.

Now that we know what's in the bill, let's talk about it. I don't see anything in Section 2 of this bill or in Chapter 22-16 of the South Dakota code that would limit this definition of "justifiable homicide" to instances when the unborn child is threatened by an unlawful assault. In other words, I am not a lawyer, but I don't see how this wouldn't give Scott Roeder a defense if George Tiller had: a) been in South Dakota and b) scheduled to perform an abortion on Roeder's wife (or mother, daughter, mistress, or servant (!)). If that's the case, it's a huge problem, for reasons I've discussed before. Maybe the "lawful defense" clause makes the difference; lawyers, please feel free to weigh in.

Scott Roeder, the man who shot and killed abortion provider George Tiller, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. We at All Our Lives agree that this was the correct decision, and reject the argument that Tiller's murder was justified because he performed abortions. We are pro-every-life, and have committed ourselves to nonviolent, peaceful action to address injustice against women and our children.