dove About NCLP | Sign the NCLP pledge | Groups Opposed to Violence | Pro-life People Are Non-Violent | Pro-life People Must Address Violence |
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The pro-life movement supports nonviolence.

  • "As pro-lifers, we totally reject the notion that people may kill other human beings in order to promote a cause. A man who shoots at people in an abortion clinic does not respect human life, and is therefore not a true pro-lifer." Dr. Wanda Franz, president of the National Right to Life Committee.

  • Pat Buchanan: Commentator and former Presidential candidate: "The people who pull the triggers on abortions doctors, whether in Boston or in the south are guilty of are guilty of cold-blooded murder, and they ought to be treated as such. The right to life movement is about the preservation of human life." Buchanan on "Meet the Press," 7.16.95.

  • Mark Zimmerman, in the Catholic Standard: "Our communities and our nation must know that pro-life is not merely a label, that we truly value the lives of all those who are helpless, and we likewise value the lives of those with whom we disagree."

  • Dr. Jean Garton, president of Lutherans for Life: "The argument used by Paul Hill rationalized the exchange of force for persuasion. what he cannot achieve by reason he feels entitled to take by force, and in so doing demonstrates that it is possible to be anti-abortion but not pro-life."

  • Michael Andreola, Director of Organizational Development for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation: "We believe in the right to life for everyone, and we mourn the deaths of anyone unjustly denied that right, abortion clinic workers as well as unborn children."

  • "After 21 years of activism on a hotly emotional issue, right-to-lifers probably have the best record of nonviolence of any political movement in history.... The deranged act of an individual is [being] used to assasinate a [peaceful] movement." Don Feder, Syndicated Columnist (in the Boston Herald).

  • Paige Comstock Cunningham, president of Americans United for Life: "we emphatically condemn all forms of violence at abortion clinics. Violence is not a solution to the abortion tragedy of 1.5 million deaths per year."

  • "The pro-life ethic is positive and life-affirming - there is no room for violence." Shirley Geoghan, president of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.

  • "We must never tolerate terrorism inthe pro-life movement. Bombers and assasins are not part of our movement. Two wrongs don't make a right. We are lovers of life and don't countenance terrorism of any kind." Bob Dornan, former california Congressman in The New World News, 1.27.95.

  • Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities: ``Our bishops' conference and all its members have repeatedly, exhaustively and publicly denounced violence as a growing cancer in our society.'' "On behalf of all the Catholic bishops in the United States, I strongly denounce senseless violence,'' he added. ``Such violence is the opposite of everything we stand for.''

  • Mary Boyert, executive director of Georgia Right to Life, said, ``We are deeply saddened and concerned about [such actions]. None of these -- violence, bombing, terrorism -- are ever pro-life, and they are never the solution to social problems.''

  • ``We are appalled and saddened at this affront to life,'' Archbishop John F. Donoghue of Atlanta: "We deplore and condemn the cowardly and pointless act of violence at [abortion clinics], regardless of who bears responsibility."

  • "Murder, or attempted murder, is never acceptable,'' Carmen Pate, vice president of Concerned Women for America.

  • David N. O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, said, ``NRLC strongly opposes any use of violence as a means of stopping the violence that has killed more than 35 million unborn children since 1973. The goal of National Right to Life is to break the cycle of violence which includes abortion, not perpetuate it."

  • Brian Johnston, executive director of the California ProLife Council: ``Just as the Unabomber is not representative of environmentalists, the perpetrators of these act in no way represent the sentiments of pro-life citizens or the purposes of the pro-life movement."

  • ``Violence is not an answer to violence. That is especially clear on the eve of the nation's observance of Martin Luther King Day,'' Gary L. Bauer, president of the Family Research Council.

  • National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Helen Alvare: "Killing in the name of pro-life is fundamentally incompatible with the whole pro-life movement. Even if those tactics work, they are not good in and of themselves." ("Nightline" 12/8/93)

  • Columnist Mona Charen: "It is clearly an outrage that another nut has taken a shot at a doctor who performs abortions. But it's equally outrageous that pro-choice leaders insist upon blaming the entire pro-life movement for two insane acts by zealots. Just believing that abortion is morally wrong, they argue, gives encouragement to the shooters. That is not an argument -- that is defamation" ("Capital Gang," CNN, 8/21/93).

  • Bishop William G. Curlin of Charlotte: "The Catholic Church is committed to nonviolent and only nonviolent actions to promote the respect and dignity of all human life. Those who see terrorist bomging and other violent acts as justifiable in the pro-life movement are contradicting the Gospel message. Inasmuch as Catholics abhor the violence of abortion said, we must also condemn the use of violence against abortion clinics and workers. The problem is violence. It can never be part of the solution."

  • "We strongly condemn all violent action aimed at abortion clinics. Peaceful pursuasion, not violence, is the solution to the tradgedy of abortion." -- Bill Price, President, Texans United for Life