HERE are some things abortion opponents have said about Robert L. Dear Jr., the shooter accused of killing three and wounding nine at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last Friday. He was just a lunatic. He wasn’t attacking Planned Parenthood, he ran in there after trying to rob a bank. My personal favorite, from the Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz: He is reported to be a “transgendered leftist activist.”

Given that Mr. Dear is said to have told the police “no more baby parts,” could the attack be related to the deceptively edited incendiary videos from the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, which purport to show that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit? Another Republican presidential contender, Carly Fiorina, called it “typical left-wing tactics” to connect them.

Who is she kidding? Since the videos appeared over the summer, there have been four arsons at or near Planned Parenthood clinics. Abortion providers say threats and harassment have increased as well. But then, disclaiming any connection with violence has a long history in the anti-abortion movement. Black Lives Matter activists are accused by some of promoting the murder of police officers, and every Muslim on earth is seemingly expected to condemn jihadi terrorism on practically a daily basis. Meanwhile, I’m not aware of any prominent abortion opponents who have publicly accepted responsibility for fomenting violence by using language that equates abortion with the Holocaust or murder on an industrial scale — atrocities that would seem to call for resistance by any means necessary.

In fact, even when deploring violence, opponents equate it with the practice of abortion. As Mike Huckabee, who is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said in the wake of the Colorado Springs shooting, “There’s no excuse for killing other people, whether it’s happening inside the Planned Parenthood headquarters, inside their clinics where many millions of babies die, or whether it’s people attacking Planned Parenthood.” Millions of dead babies versus “people attacking” a clinic? Which sounds like the greater evil to you?