Murder is Not Pro-life

by Lauren Pope

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There’s an image from my childhood that is forever embedded in my brain: a teenage girl, covered in blood, being carted away from the Olympic Park Bombing. That girl was my babysitter, Sadie Lowe. My mother was her peer-counseling advisor and volleyball coach. Sadie, along with three other girls from our high school, had traveled to Atlanta as their senior trip. They were seated on a bench five feet from where Alice Hawthorne was killed. 

Speaking to The Steamboat Pilot in the aftermath, Sadie explained: "There was this really loud noise and we couldn't hear for a while [...] Then I looked at my knees and they were bleeding. I had to lay down on the grass. I thought somebody shot me in the knees."

When the news started showing the first videos from the aftermath, I remember sitting in my living room and screaming, “That’s Sadie! Mom, that’s Sadie!” We couldn’t believe it, but there she was. I was ten. I didn’t understand anything about the politics of the situation for years afterwards. I just knew that someone set a bomb in the middle of the Olympics, and they’d hurt one of the sweetest, kindest people that I knew. Sadie took me on walks to get ice cream and never seemed to get bored at the park. She gossiped with me about JTT and made stovetop popcorn. Who could possibly want to hurt her?

Eventually, it came out that the bomber was a man named Eric Rudolph, and he’d set the bomb, in part, because of his opposition to abortion. This confused me even more. What did Sadie have to do with that? Furthermore, what did setting a bomb in the middle of a park have to do with stopping abortion? 

Rudolph stated, "Because I believe that abortion is murder, I also believe that force is justified [...] in an attempt to stop it whether these agents of the government are armed or otherwise they are legitimate targets in the war to end this holocaust."

He offered a half-hearted apology to the non-governmental citizens harmed by his actions, which made very little sense given the fact that he explicitly targeted them. In his mind, the ends justified the means. Violence, he decided, was an acceptable method for furthering his political goals.

Unfortunately, that’s a view shared by many across the political spectrum. Someone decides that this cause is worth killing for, and off they go with their guns and their bombs. It’s particularly galling when it comes from someone who professes to protect life. Such appears to be the case in the recent targeted attacks on lawmakers in Minnesota, where Mother Jones reports:

“Multiple news outlets, including CNN, ABC, and the Minnesota Star Tribune, have reported that the alleged shooter—57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter—left a list of names behind in his car that included abortion providers and advocates and figures with ties to Planned Parenthood, along with Democratic politicians. Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), told the Star Tribune that she was on the shooter’s list and that local law enforcement told her to shelter in place on Saturday; a spokesperson for Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) told the New York Times the senator was also on the list.”

Boelter would, no doubt, agree with Rudolph’s manifesto and actions. 30 years later, people who profess to be pro-life are still justifying their own violent acts. This is why our vision at Rehumanize International is still so important: “We are dedicated to creating a culture of peace and life, and in so doing, we seek to bring an end to all aggressive violence against humans through education, discourse, and action. “

Placing bombs in the middle of an olympic park or shooting democratically elected representatives at their homes are acts of aggressive violence. We must stand against them as loudly and as firmly as we stand against abortion or euthanasia. A culture of life can not be built on the foundation of death. 

No one has ever become more pro-life by seeing someone who they care about harmed by a terrorist. Murder is not pro-life.