Don’t Stop Speaking Out Against Abortion because of the Planned Parenthood Shooting

Last updated on: November 29, 2015 at 4:07 pm by Nancy French

Don’t Stop Speaking Out Against Abortion because of the Planned Parenthood Shooting 2015-11-29T16:07:48-05:00 Nancy French

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I agreed with President Obama on one simple point: we can’t let shootings like the one that happened at the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs become “regular.” But after that, he veered toward political opportunism, saying we can’t offer prayers in good conscience if we don’t support his policies which infringe on the 2nd amendment. Soon enough, liberals began pointing fingers at conservatives who speak out against Planned Parenthood… saying we somehow caused these murders.

Check out this e-mail from Richard Greenleaf, a sociology and criminal justice professor at Elmhurst College, to outspoken Christian professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Mike Adams. He accused Dr. Adams of inciting the shooting because of his pro-life advocacy:

Screen-Shot-2015-11-29-at-11.5

And this sort of intellectual overreach is not limited to unknown liberal professors. (By the way, parents — if you send your kids to Elmhurst College to learn criminology, you might want to get some sort of refund.) Leading pro-abortion advocates now say pro-life advocacy is what’s causing the violence. They say the “hateful rhetoric” against the organization “breeds acts of violence.”

Free speech advocate David French disagrees:

If angry political rhetoric bred violence, America would look something like Syria — awash in genocidal conflict. For sheer viciousness the robust debates between politicians and activists often pale in comparison to the “flame wars” on Twitter and Facebook, where arguments quickly become deeply personal. America’s political culture is thoughtful in parts, but it’s also a shouting culture, and anyone who’s looking for angry or extremist rhetoric can find it. It’s everywhere. And yes, there are some small number of people who are already so vicious, so twisted, and so evil that they will seize on virtually anything to provide the pretext to kill. But the key word here is pretext. People kill because they are evil, not because a television broadcast was provocative, a website used an over-the-top headline, or because a YouTube made them mad. To clamp down on speech (or even self-censor) for fear of bitter hermits and angry lunatics is absurd.

All Americans used to believe this. He goes on to write:

Free speech saves lives. Violent civil strife often occurs when masses of people feel that the political system has utterly failed, that they have no hope of achieving political change absent recourse to violence. But a society that respects and cherishes free speech gives its citizens hope. It gives them a chance to build a movement, to topple existing political powers, and to make fundamental reforms. While civility has its place, it’s also true that angry speech can be the most potent — both persuasive and repulsive.

The shooter, who had no ties to any political party or terrorist cell, didn’t do it because of Mike Adams or Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or anyone else for that matter.

We can’t let a lone assassin shut down free speech and our robust and passionate exchange of ideas.

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a sociology and criminal justice professor at Elmhurst College

Dr. Mike Adams

Richard Greenleaf

University of North Carolina Wilmington

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