By Arturo Mora, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009

Randall Terry wrote here last week comparing his anti-abortion tactics to those of past social movements. He makes some valid points. In the end, however, he fails to recognize that there is another side to the issue, the rights of women to control their own bodies.

Terry compares his tactics and cause to the struggles for civil rights, to end slavery, and for a women’s right to vote.

The comparison fails because in each of those struggles there was only one clear and unequivocally wronged party. Slaves were denied their liberty, but no one sought to put slaveowners in shackles. Blacks and women deserved civil and voting rights, but no one suggested those be taken away from whites and men.

The difference in the abortion debate is that there are two equally compelling and competing interests. To put it starkly, there is the interest of the fetus set against the interest of the woman.

Abortion is perhaps our most unbridgeable of issues. It’s not as clear-cut, morally, legally or spiritually, as Terry makes it out to be. Because of that, parallels with the civil rights, slavery, and suffragette struggles are invalid. Neither side can claim the unquestioned moral high ground of a Martin Luther King.

I can understand the reactions of those who say it is just awful to an end a fetus’ life before birth. Seen only from that viewpoint, it’s abhorrent. There’s no way to sugarcoat this procedure.

To a woman, it would be just as violent a violation of her womb if there were legally forced pregnancies. There is no sugarcoating that procedure either.

If you accept Terry’s often stated premise, that all abortions are without a doubt murders of living human beings—he uses the term “child-killing” in his column, and has frequently called abortion providers “murderers”—then I can see where you have a moral obligation to fight them at all costs.

The inconvenient truth for Terry is that the majority of Americans, especially women who value their womb rights, do not accept that premise. They do not see black and white, but the gray that it is, and the very personal decision that it is. A decision government should stay out of.

Abortion is an emotional issue that has torn this country apart for far too long. Reasonable people are working to bridge the divide by ignoring the inflammatory rhetoric and tactics of people like Terry. Instead, they seek to work together against unwanted pregnancies, which is the core of the problem. Less unwanted pregnancies = less abortions. It’s simple math everyone should be able to agree on.

I don’t agree with all the restrictions some seek to place on abortions and providers. But I respect that many Americans are uncomfortable with unlimited, unrestricted abortion. A civil political debate can help bring us to a consensus that will not fully satisfy me or those opposed to abortion rights. That’s the way politics works.

What also troubles me about Terry’s column is that he is here a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He presents himself as a blameless, valiant fighter for a legitimate social cause. Terry and Operation Rescue, however, are anything but blameless.

They seek to incite violence in others, a cowardly tactic that leaves them supposedly without responsibility, while others such as George Tiller murderer Scott Roeder do the dirty work.

Operation Rescue had a “Tiller Watch” on its website until the murder was committed. They had posted all his personal information and used inflammatory language to make it clear how evil Tiller was, as they saw it. What result did they expect?

Terry himself was unapologetic in “condemning” the Tiller murder: Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God.

Before we allow him to claim how civil or tolerant he is, let’s recall quotes like this, from a 1993 newspaper interview, a stance he has never renounced:

“Our goal is a Christian nation. ... We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism. ... Theocracy means God rules. I've got a hot flash. God rules."