The National Abortion Federation (NAF) keeps a running tally of "anti-choice violence and disruption" on its Web site at http://www.prochoice.org/. Many news outlets rely on the NAF's numbers and accept them uncritically.
Anyone who takes the time to examine the NAF's statistics will find that they are grossly bloated and exaggerated.
As of June 16, 2003, the NAF shows a very impressive 81,973 incidents of "violence and disruption" during the time period 1977-2003, and the media often parrot this number, giving the impression that thousands of pro-abortionists have been killed or injured in the noble performance of their duties.[14]
But let us take a closer look at the NAF's statistics;

•
67,472 (82%) of the NAF's incidents of "violence and disruption" were picketing. Perhaps we should not be surprised that pro-abortionists lump picketing in with violent acts, since they believe that the `right' to abortion is so sacrosanct that it may not even be violated by people exercising their First Amendment rights. For example, the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) says that classic American means of public dissent are violent -- but only if they are done by pro-lifers. The FMF classifies "home picketing" and "clinic blockades" [rescue missions] as "incidents of extreme violence." The FMF's Web site also identifies picketing and leafletting of abortionist's neighborhoods as incidents of "violence."[15]
•
9,803 (12%) of NAF's listed incidents were "hate mail & harassing phone calls" or "e-mail/Internet harassment." Many of these incidents are trivial indeed, because pro-abortionists are extremely paranoid and see any attempt to dissuade them from their deadly activities as violence. Some of the activities NAF undoubtedly includes in this category are Christmas cards from pro-lifers.[16]
•
Other categories that rational people would not consider violence include "invasions" and trespassing (958); vandalism (1,042); and butyric acid (stink-bomb) attacks (100), for a total of 2,100 incidents.
This means that a total of 79,375 incidents listed by the National Abortion Federation, or 96.8 percent, are not violence at all.
But what about the other 3 percent of the incidents committed by pro-lifers? The NAF lists the following;

•
7 murders, which we are all familiar with;
•
17 attempted murders;
•
3 cases of kidnapping;
•
207 arsons and bombings of abortion mills. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF), there have been 169 arsons and bombings of abortion mills since 1982, and only 77 of these have been solved.[17] This strongly implies that many of the acts of violence committed against abortuaries are "inside jobs."
BATF statistics show that a total of $1,009,050 in damage was done to abortion mills by bombers during the five-year period 1993-1997, and seven people were injured. By comparison, during the same period, more than a thousand bombings killed 47 people, injured 1,224, and caused more than half a billion dollars of damage at commercial enterprises. At schools, bombings injured 127 people. Mailbox bombs killed forty people. Thirteen people were killed and 74 more injured when they were bombed in their cars.[18]
So why do we only hear about the bombings of abortion mills in the media?
It seems the media and liberals care much more about abortion mills than they care about synagogues and churches. The National Church Arson Task Force (NCATF) of the BATF and the FBI has documented 827 actual and attempted arsons and bombings of churches and synagogues during the period January 1, 1995 to October 5, 1999.[19] Compare this to the NAF's number of 61 actual and attempted arsons and bombings at abortion mills during the same period.[20] In other words, for every abortion mill that is torched, fourteen churches and synagogues burn. And what do we hear the most about? That's right. The abortion mills.
Pro-abortionists attempt to implicate the entire pro-life movement when an abortuary burns, and shout endlessly about some vast, organized "anti-choice" conspiracy, but an expert from the BATF has said that "Overwhelmingly, the fires tend to be the work of a loner. A lot of these people convicted have never had any visible or traceable connection to anti-abortion activity ... [Investigators have uncovered] no sign of support from anti-abortion organizations for this kind of activity. Many of the bombers rejected the organization. They thought of it as weak, impotent, not serious-minded. These are the kinds of things you hear when you talk to them."[21]
•
82 attempted bombings and arsons (the vast majority of which are unsolved, but attributed to pro-lifers anyway);
•
654 anthrax threats, the huge majority of which were committed by a single individual, Clayton Lee Waagner;
•
125 cases of assault and battery, which is dubious at best (does any pro-lifer know one of his friends who has been convicted of an actual assault?);
•
973 death and bomb threats; and
•
455 cases of stalking (the definition the NAF gives for "stalking" is the "persistent following, threatening and harassing of an abortion provider, staff member, or patient away from the clinic." Once again, the definition is very vague, and there have been only a handful of pro-lifers actually convicted of this offense).
To continue reading, click here.
This document was updated on April 5, 2004.
© 2003 Abortion Violence