Operation Rescue and Poll on Abortion
Your story on Randy Terry of Operation Rescue contained the inevitable quote from a civil rights leader from the 1960s, in this case Julian Bond, belittling comparisons made between Operations Rescue and the desegregation demonstrations of that era. The demurrers of these leaders in general, and Bond in particular, cannot be sustained.
In general, the civil rights leaders who object to the comparisons with their movement both fail to appreciate this country’s long history of civil disobedience for various causes and, at the same time, manifest a rather condescending attitude. Their attitude implies that the rights that they sought to uphold were superior to the rights sought by every other group engaged in civil disobedience. Not only is this parochial, it is clearly wrong when applied to the right to life itself.
Bond claimed that “civil rights tried to expand life for everyone. These people want to restrict life for women.” To assert Bond’s position is to rebut it. Even the most strident pro-choice advocate must admit that life itself is a basic right, if not the pre-eminent right. The right is listed first in the triad of rights guaranteed in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The goal of those who oppose abortion, whether by the means of demonstrating with Operation Rescue or through conventional lobbying, is to expand the natural and constitutional right to life for everyone, including unborn children.
Surely, the right to live is more deserving of legal protection than the right to eat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter.
MICHAEL A. OSWALD
El Toro
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