Abortion and Morals

John has the following interesting view on abortion:

Taking a comparative approach to abortion, I think it becomes obvious that the view that abortion is murder has implications that hardly any Pro-Lifer would be willing to accept. Millions of fetuses are aborted every year. If fetuses have a right to life, this would be a greater tragedy than the Holocaust. If they were consistent, Pro-Lifers would be much more outraged and be willing to take much more drastic measures than they currently do. Bombing of abortion clinics would be unquestionably justified. Of what value is a building compared to the value of millions of lives? I think it is obvious that any destruction of property is justifiable in order to prevent the violation of a right to life provided that property is not necessary to sustain other lives. Why is there such opposition from Pro-Lifers to bombing abortion clinics? Why do they distance themselves as much as possible from such "extremists?" I think the answer is clear: they don't really believe abortion is murder.

I don't think extremism is a viable solution to any problem. Even if the killing of Nazis who shipped people off to concentration camps is justified, such extremism is not as effective as the more subtle ways of protecting those people (see Oskar Schindler). On one hand, it's obvious that "abortion is murder" is simple a piece of rhetoric used by a the Republican propaganda machine. On the other hand, it's really easy to convince yourself of the truth of that statement and do nothing about it. Example: the tsunami killed thousands, yet relatively few Americans are rushing to help the victims. John ends his analysis with the following comment:

On a final note, one of my friends who is very much interested in politics tells me that if three particular supreme court justices were to be killed, Bush would be able to appoint enough Pro-Life Justices to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Kill three people; save millions. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.