Commenting on a story about moves to allow pharmacists to prescribe emergency contraception, the editor of CovenantNews.com offers the following:

Editor asks, What does the future hold for a nation possessed by the Spirit of Murder? With each expansion of death comes escalation. Local churches hold silent prayer vigils outside Eckerd Drugs? Anti-abortion protest at local drug stores? Drug Store ‘Escorts’ volunteer at CVS Pharmacies? Off duty cops moonlight at abortion-drug stores? Local Right to Life director opposes protesters and graphic pro-life signs at drug stores? Operation Rescue holds sit-in at abortion-drug store? Court creates ‘Buffer Zones’ around abortion-drug stores? U.S. Congress adds ‘Pharmacies’ to the Freedom of Accsess to Clinic Enterance Act, President said he will sign bill into law? Fire guts local drug store, FBI suspects arson? Pharmacist is keynote speaker at NARAL fund raiser? Pharmacists wear bulletproof vests?

That’s interesting.

Why would a “pro-life” blogger imagine that providing safe and legal contraceptive services would result in protests, blockades, security details, harassment, sit-ins, arsons, and shootings? We were told over and over that those tactics – rampant at abortion clinics, with deadly results – are not representative of the anti-choice movement, that they (in their thousands, over and over, year after year) were each and every time spontaneous aberrations caused by a few “bad apples”. Now “pro-lifers” themselves are predicting “escalation” of the characteristic violence of the anti-choice religious right in response to the newest reproductive-health technology.

I suspect many supporters of women’s rights have the same expectation, but it would sound accusatory if we said it. I think we should take “pro-lifers” at their word – and prepare for the worst.