For the record, James Fitzpatrick does not advocate killing abortionists. Nor do I. His question has to do with the difference between what we often say about abortion abortion is murder and what we are prepared to do as a result. Fitzpatrick answers that while we may indeed regard abortion as murder and even regard many abortionists as murderers, we also sense, indeed we know, that not everyone involved in the abortion industry doctors who perform abortions, nurses who attend, pregnant women who hire them is heinous, or even criminal. In his book Uncommon Decency, Richard Mouw uses the abortion is murder rhetoric to illustrate what he calls uncivil language. Such language creates unnecessary divisions by ignoring necessary distinctions.
Abortion is certainly the taking of innocent human life.
And to be sure, abortion is a horrifying cultural plague. But a nurse in the abortion clinic is not the same as a gunman in the school cafeteria. And we will not end the plague by claiming that they are.