Abortion activists in Germany ended the year with a string of violent attacks. Within a week, an abortion group vandalized a church and set a minibus on fire, causing an estimated 40,000 euro in damage, and lit a Pro-Life journalist’s car on fire. The violence did not end there, and on January 8 or the early morning hours of January 9, the same group vandalized another church. An anti-Life, radical feminist group took credit for each of the attacks, posting a letter online signed by the “Feminist Autonomous Cell.”
Such violence is not unprecedented for abortion activists. Pro-Lifers noted that similar arson attacks have occurred on other Pro-Lifers in Germany in recent years. The Pro-Life journalist victimized by the most recent violence, Gunnar Schupelius, previously had his car set ablaze by the same group in 2014. Schupelius, who writes for the newspaper B.Z. and runs a blog, has been singled out for these attacks because he promotes and strongly encourages attendance at the annual March for Life in Germany, which takes place in the fall. The March last fall drew a record crowd with more than 8,000 Pro-Lifers.
In the letter admitting to the crime, the abortion activists wrote, “Every year he [Schupelius] heavily promotes the ‘March for Life’ of male and female opponents of abortion and repeatedly makes it clear what he thinks of women and their tasks and duties.” The groups stated, “We torched his SUV today,” and included information about Schupelius’s address in an effort to encourage further violence, adding that he “lives there with his children.”
Despite this overt, blatant attack with the criminals posting a confession online, there have been no arrests made. Protestant and Catholic clergy issued statements against the violence and the president of Germany’s union for journalists denounced the group’s actions as a “disgusting attack on press freedom.”
The Federal Association for the Right to Life in Germany responded to the accusations of the anti-Life aggressors with a statement clarifying their purpose. The group wrote, “We exclusively promote the cause, namely the unrestricted right of any human being to his life, no matter where he comes from, what he looks like, what his religious or political attitude is, or where he is.”
In Germany, sadly such violence by anti-Life radicals is not isolated but becoming mainstreamed in the culture. Jonathon Van Maren recalled the appalling 2015 FEAR, which premiered in Berlin. In the play, well-known Pro-Life figures were depicted as zombies who were chased, attacked, had their eyes gouged out, and one character suggested they needed to be “shot in the brain, as only then will they be really dead.” Surprising to no one, two of the Pro-Lifers depicted as zombies later became the target of arson attacks, with one woman’s family business being burned to the ground.
Such vitriolic anti-Life displays are not confined to Germany. Recently, abortion activists in Mexico attempted to set fire to the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, in addition to many other acts of attempted arson and vandalism.
Texas, on the forefront of advancing Pro-Life laws and protecting innocent human Life, has experienced the wrath of anti-Life radicals. When strong Pro-Life legislation was moving forward, anti-Life protesters were bused into the capitol and were expelled for disrupting legislative proceedings. Capitol security allegedly confiscated jars of feces, in addition to feminine hygiene products, and glitter intended to make a mockery of civil order.
We should expect nothing less than violence from true adherents to abortion and the anti-Life worldview. If a mother has a “right” to destroy the innocent and defenseless child in her womb, no one is safe from violence. Anti-Lifers committed to abortion before anything else will, therefore, stop at nothing to advance their cause. Truth is on our side, and Life is on our side. The more anti-Lifers reveal their true colors, the more opportunity Pro-Lifers have to share the truth.