A sign at a vigil after the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered by a "pro-life" terrorist

A sign at a vigil after the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered by a "pro-life" terrorist

Ah, January in Washington D.C. Bare trees, icy sidewalks, inauguration plans underway—and terrorists dressed up like sweet little grandmothers bussing to the nation's capital, ready for their annual celebration of restricting women's access to health care.

That's right, it's time for Fetuspalooza 2013!

Ever since the Supreme Court held in 1973 that yes, women have the right to decide whether and when they want to have children—a right that has been redefined, restricted and outright denied ever since—the fetus fetishists have gathered for the "March for Life" to either celebrate or mourn, depending on just how successful their war on women and doctors has been in the preceding year. In 2012, 19 states passed 43 new laws restricting reproductive rights, so you figure there will be an awful lot of celebrating at this year's march.

Sarah Kliff at the Washington Post writes about one such fetus fetishist who has devoted her life to terrorizing the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center in Pennsylvania and is very excited about her upcoming four-hour bus trip to "to spend the day with 100,000 other people who feel the same way that I do"—meaning, of course, a big group hug with thousands of other like-minded terrorists.

Helen Cindrich got her start in 1972, when "she saw a woman on a television talk show describing her pregnancy as a 'parasite.'" Cindrich turned to her local Catholic diocese to find out what she could do to stop women from having non-Cindrich-approved feelings about their pregnancies. Naturally, her diocese was only too happy to help her get involved in the movement because Jesus was all about preventing women from accessing health care, even when it means they're going to die, because that's so lifey.

From there, Cindrich started harassing people in shopping malls, which eventually led to the position of executive director of the anti-women's group People Concerned for the Unborn Child, a position that apparently involved getting carted off to jail regularly for terrorizing patients outside the health clinic she'd targeted. This health clinic:



The violence escalated at the clinic’s new location. A firebomb caused $5,000 in damage. Several hundred protesters would turn out at the clinic on a regular basis. Some jammed a Chevrolet Chevette into the clinic’s door. Police had to cut the car in half to remove the two protesters inside.

Because of course when you think of wanting to protect "life," you think of violence and firebombs.

Eventually, the movement to deny health care to women by any means necessary started to shift its tactics, and while "pro-lifers" still regularly use violence as a means of trying to shut down the clinics—like in Florida and Wisconsin and Georgia—they've also moved on to pushing for absurd legislation intended to so restrict women's access to health care that their protection under Roe v. Wade might as well not exist at all. Legislation like the law passed in Pennsylvania in 2011, which established nonsensical requirements for abortion providers, has succeeded in its intended purpose:



Eight of Pennsylvania’s 22 surgical abortion providers failed to gain approval under the new law. They can offer medical abortions, using a prescription drug, but not perform surgical procedures. To comply with the regulations, abortion clinics will need to install hospital-grade elevators and have a set number of parking spaces.

Because obviously a health clinic cannot safely provide health care to women without hospital-grade elevators.

These are the kinds of victories Cindrich and her fellow terrorists will celebrate as they gather in Washington D.C. later this month. Of course, they don't call themselves terrorists and don't consider what they do terrorism. But when your movement employs threats, intimidation, violence, bombing and even assassination—like the cold-blooded murder of Dr. George Tiller in his very own church—to achieve the political goal of scaring people away from exercising their protected rights, well, as the saying goes, it's a duck.