Protest Beyond the Pale : Doing violence to the principle of democratic debate

In Newport Beach last month, a bomb went off at a clinic where abortions are performed, shattering glass and fraying nerves. Fortunately, nobody was injured by that terrifying nighttime message, left in a flower bed.

Not all such attacks by anti-abortion extremists around the nation have ended without death or injury. Indeed, as a Column One article in The Times last week illustrated, the highly charged abortion debate has produced its own emboldened breed of zealots, who wear their violent methods as a badge of honor. They are relentless, constructing justifications even for the absurdity of taking a life to preserve one not yet born.

At times in recent years, to listen to the debate over abortion has been to listen to the sound of the country tearing apart at the seams. But for the most part, the arguments have been pressed by reasonable people who hold deeply felt positions arising from their basic value systems. However vehement their words, they have remained within the basic contours of democracy; they have demonstrated, brought cases before the courts, championed political candidates and mobilized constituencies in political lobbying efforts. Many have reached black or white conclusions on an issue consisting of shades of gray, even as scientists, ethicists, clergy and jurists probe for a satisfactory definition of when human life begins.

However, the violence of the extremists is something entirely different, something that threatens our basic civility as a nation.

We have come to this point after our political systems for resolving disputes have been severely strained and tested in legislative bodies and in courts. Congress agonized yet again last week, when the Senate, alas, upheld the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal payments for most abortions under Medicaid.

Wherever Americans stand on abortion as individuals, only civilized discourse can answer the complex moral and public policy questions that make up this issue. We can disagree on this matter and all its nuances, but we must agree on the need to repudiate the violence.