Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The nation's largest pro-abortion groups are still largely silent on the recent shooting of pro-life advocate Jim Pouillon of central Michigan. Pouillon was shot last Friday as he held a sign protesting abortion in front of a local high school in Owosso.

While the pro-abortion group NARAL issued a brief politically exploitive remark in response, leading pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, Emily's List, NOW, and others have been silent.

That stands in contrast the aggressive ways in which they attacked pro-life advocates over the shooting death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller and implied that pro-life groups were somehow responsible even though they were not connected with Scott Roeder, who has been accused of killing him.

David Bass, a writer at the American Spectator, noticed the juxtaposition.

"A growing sidebar of the James Pouillon murder (he was gunned down while peacefully protesting outside an abortion clinic in Owosso, Michigan) is the silence of national pro-choice organizations," he writes today.

"I ran a quick search, and none of the biggies ... have issued statements condemning the murder," he says. "President Obama was late to the party, but he did end up issuing a statement on the killing."

"On its home page, the National Abortion Federation gives top billing to mourning the loss of Ted Kennedy and to remembering George Tiller, whom NAF calls 'an American hero,'" he adds.

Bass notes the contrast between the responses from pro-life and pro-abortion organizations.

"In contrast, a number of pro-life groups issued statements the day of Tiller's death condemning acts of violence in the heated abortion debate (National Right to Life and Americans United for Life, to name two)," he said. "Naturally, pro-choice groups put out their own releases. But the non-existent response from abortion advocates over the cold-blooded murder of Pouillon - a man standing up for life and exercising his constitutional rights - should give us pause."

"Could be that one side in this debate does, in fact, value human life more than the other," Bass asks.

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