Poll Shows Pro-Lifers Believe Paul Hill Hurt the Cause
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 4, 2003
Starke, FL (LifeNews.com) — A poll conducted the by the Cybercast News Service, reveals that an overwhelming majority of people believe Paul Hill hurt the pro-life cause when he shot and killed abortion an abortion practitioner and a bodyguard.
Some 66 percent of respondants believed Hill hurt the pro-life movement with his actions. Eight percent say he helped the pro-life cause and about one-quarter of those polled said his actions will have no effect.
The poll included 769 respondents and was taken over September 3rd and 4th.
"These data are indicative of what we’ve been hearing in the pro-life community," said Cybercast Managing Editor David Thibault. "There are very few people who support Hill, and a vast majority of pro-life conservatives with whom we’ve talked about this agree it hurts their cause."
Some pro-life advocates say the actions of Hill and others who have engaged in abortion violence have turned people off to the pro-life message. As a result, the ultimate goal of making abortion illegal may be further off and millions of unborn children may die as a result.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religions Liberty Commission, compared Hill to John Brown, the 19th-century abolitionist who murdered several people who were pro-slavery.
Hill’s crime has harmed the pro-life cause "in the same way that John Brown damaged the abolitionist cause — by making some people think that [abolitionists] were a radical group that would not abide by the rule of law."
Sheila Hopkins, associate for social concerns at the Florida Catholic Conference, agrees.
"I think he hurts our cause, quite honestly," Hopkins said of Hill. "We are against killing, whether it’s an unborn child or a physician performing abortions."
Florida state Rep. Bev Kilmer (R) said she was offended by Hill’s claims of moral justification for what he did. Kilmer is the sponsor of the Choose Life license plate bill that has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote abortion alternatives in Florida.
"Blatant murder is murder," Kilmer said. "For him to claim he was righteous is an insult and a travesty to the whole movement of people who want to protect the unborn."
