Clinic bombings should be taken seriously

This time is different than the previous anti-abortion violence, since no one was maimed or killed in the blast. But it is still petrifying to think that this is actually happening, that people are actually losing their limbs and their lives in this civil war. It may be fought in quiet hospitals and sterile clinics instead of on a battlefield, but it's still a war - with blood, fire and a growing body count.

And what's even more petrifying is that we know who the enemy is. The ones who would commit these acts of murder are not faceless, anonymous assassins - they are a loud, vehement organization of people who devote their lives to limiting through force the choices available to women.

They don't go about their business quietly, trying to change the law through legislative channels. They don't work to set up public and cheap facilities so that single mothers can find food and clothing and housing for themselves and their children. They don't set up more shelters for battered women running from abusive husbands, boyfriends or fathers. Essentially, they don't make it any easier to be a pregnant woman who is scared about what an unwanted pregnancy would do to her life or the life of a child. Instead, they kill doctors, nurses and security guards and pregnant women, as well as, of course, the fetuses in their wombs.

If this sort of systemic terror was being directed at the Christian Coalition or NRA members or tobacco lobbyists, the American government would do everything within its power to stop it. The CIA and FBI and NSA and every other powerful acronym in the country would work tirelessly until the bad guys were caught and peace was restored. But somehow, abortion providers and the women who seek their services are not offered this same protection.

It's not as if the potential killers in the anti-abortion crowd are keeping a low profile or keeping their opinions to themselves. If threats against abortion providers were treated with the same seriousness as, say, threats against celebrities or politicians, the people who would consider threatening clinics with anthrax-filled envelopes would think twice before carrying that threat out. Would Eric Rudolph really still be loose if he had bombed, say, four Catholic churches instead of four abortion clinics?

Until the American government and law enforcement agencies stop thinking about abortion as an issue of religious and political contention and start thinking about it as a legal right that deserves to be protected to the fullest extent of the law, these and other acts of violence will continue.

There are sure to be more casualties before this war is over.

- This editorial appeared Friday in the Brown Daily Herald, Brown University's student newspaper.

03-17-99