By Peter J. Smith
PHOENIX, Arizona, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Offering brochures on pro-life alternatives to abortion may appear a safe enough act, but for one Arizona sidewalk counselor, the message of “no thanks” instead came through a drawn handgun allegedly held by a man determined that his girlfriend would get an abortion.
Local Phoenix station 3TV reported that a pro-life woman was offering literature on abortion alternatives to a man who had taken his girlfriend to the Planned Parenthood facility near Seventh and Campbell avenues, when suddenly the man pulled out a pistol, pointed the weapon at the woman for a few moments, and then drove away.
Lt. Larry T. Jacobs stated that Phoenix police were able to track the man down through the license plate number written down by the side-walk counselor, and arrest him.
The incident follows just a week after a man in Chico, California, had been arrested for allegedly attempting to run down an abortion protestor with his SUV near the local Planned Parenthood facility. The Chico Enterprise Record reports that Matthew Haver, 40, had become enraged with veteran pro-life advocate James Cantfield, 69, after Haver's two children sitting in the back of the vehicle pointed at Cantfield's sign and asked their father to explain the sign's prominent image of an aborted baby.
Police later arrested Haver at his home; he was later admitted to the hospital for an unexplained medical condition. As of Friday authorities had not decided whether to charge Haver with a crime.
However the minimal attention given to the acts of violence in the mainstream media has prompted pro-life advocates to point out the disparity in coverage of pro-abortion and anti-abortion violence.
“I think this proves all pro-aborts entering [Planned Parenthoods] are prone to violence against postborns as well as preborns and should be placed on Janet Napolitano's domestic terrorist watch list,” stated pro-life advocate Jill Stanek on her blog, dryly noting the double standard applied to pro-life advocates.
Stanek was recently accused on national television of inciting the murder of abortionists by MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and subsequently received death threats.
Stanek also pointed out that the lackluster coverage of the incident omitted important information, such as that this particular Planned Parenthood had been exposed along with another Phoenix Planned Parenthood about four months ago as willing to cover up statutory rape by undercover pro-life journalist Lila Rose.
Rose's documented exposé on the abortion clinic's willingness to violate mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse of minors and provide clandestine abortions provoked the state attorney general to order an investigation.