Reasonable people can disagree about what is and is not violence. For me, engaging women who are seeking medical care at what can be a very vulnerable and painful time in their lives is fundamentally violent. As is advocating for the use of state violence by criminalizing healthcare providers. That’s activity that I certainly don’t think that Thomas Merton would have supported, let alone participated in.

I’m not interested in vilifying people who are morally concerned with abortion and are working to stop abortions from happening, but I can’t condone the tactics embraced by Rehumanize International and I can certainly understand why many organizations (even organizations that share their moral objections to abortion) would choose not to work with them.