Operation Rescue: To the Barricades

In response to your editorial of Aug. 10, “Some Friend of the Court”:

The actions of the Justice Department do not serve to prevent the law from being upheld; in fact, the law is being upheld. The protesters are being arrested and the U.S. marshals are following Judge Patrick Kelly’s order. If the Justice Department ordered the marshals not to enforce the order, that would be evidence that they did not stand for upholding the laws.

You also miss the point on the comparison of Operation Rescue with the ‘60s civil-rights protesters. There is a very real class of people being denied protection by our society. You may be able to dismiss them because they are completely unable to defend themselves, but your dismissal of them does nothing to change the fact that unborn human beings are being destroyed with no regard for their personhood and their right to exist.

Where Operation Rescue falls short is in not also campaigning for women to obtain the legitimate rights to equality to which they are already entitled. Where the pro-choice camp falls short is in denying the unborn person’s right to live so that another “class” may maintain the status quo. This is the same kind of oppression that people have always fought by breaking human laws.

The law should be upheld until it is changed and the people who break the law in order to change it are willing to bear the consequences of their actions.

JOSEPH W. LIGHTFOOT, Los Angeles