Anti-choice activists have had a wide range of responses to the Planned Parenthood shooting, spanning from denouncing all violence to calling the gunman a hero.
The question being asked by Gov. John Hickenlooper is, are shootings, like Friday's massacre in Colorado Springs, caused by "inflamatory rhetoric" of some anti-abortion crusaders?
"I think our community, the United States of America, ought to begin a discussion looking at, how do you begin to tone back the inflammatory rhetoric that in some ways might be good for selling products in advertisements or whatever, but in some way it is inflaming people to the point where they can't stand it?" said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in a CNN interview Sunday at the five-minute mark. "And they go out and they lose connection to reality in some way and commit these acts of unthinkable violence."
Hickenlooper emphasized he did not want to "restrict people's free speech."
"But I think we should have a discussion of at least urging caution when we discuss some of these issues so that we don't get people to a point of committing senseless violence," he said.
On his radio show this morning, KNUS 710 AM's Dan Caplis denounced the governor's comments, saying Hickenlooper, "Just doesn't want us speaking the truth," about Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains sounds a lot like Hickenlooper when it says:
"We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country," tweeted PPRM on Friday.
"We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust."
On Breitbart yesterday, John Nolte seemed to prove Hickenlooper's point when he wrote:
Nolte: Almost entirely for purposes of convenience, nearly 60 million innocent children have been butchered since the Supreme Court manufactured a Constitutional right to kill your unborn child.
In the coming days, as the defenders of this barbaric practice get more shrill, we must not be intimidated. In fact, with the media spotlight on abortion and on the pro-life movement, we must use this opportunity to continue to make our case for the million-plus innocent lives that will be legally massacred next year.
In the coming days, we'll see if inflammatory rhetoric like this continues, despite Hickenlooper's call to tone it down. Somehow, judging from the intense attacks on Planned Parenthood in recent months, I doubt anything will change.