First, because pro-lifers are so plentiful in America, no one accepts that an obvious nut like Dear is an accurate representation of how they behave. Only Planned Parenthood and its true believers think like this, and it’s one of the reasons their public relations efforts have in recent years performed so poorly. The fact that the officer killed, Garrett Swasey, was a pro-life Christian pastor who died attempting to defend people he disagreed with on the issue of abortion also complicates matters (listen to his last sermon here). Predictions by Planned Parenthood about the levels of violence among pro-life Americans are also unconvincing, because, well:

Second, much like the hard case to be made against the National Rifle Association (still more popular than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) in the wake of a shooting like this, no one believes that the NRA is in favor of mass shootings any more than they believe that the National Right to Life Committee is in favor of attacking abortion clinics. These organizations and the politicians who agree with them condemn such attacks, and loudly. They hate crazy people who hurt their political cause more than anyone else. For those who have been talking about moderate Muslims until they turn blue in the face, depicting the pro-life community as one giant radicalized group of Robert Lewis Dears is absurd. The pro-lifers praying and swaying and holding their placards are as responsible for this shooting as the Beatles were for Charles Manson’s violence, and most people know it.

And third — and this is where things get Alanis Morrissette chaotic Paladin-level ironic — this frame will not work because the media was so successful at squashing the very story they now cite as the source of Dear’s rage: the series of undercover videos, which have depicted behind-the-scenes activities and conversations at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country and with their top ranking officials, showing them engaging in legally questionable and ethically vile behavior, even to the point of negotiating the sale of baby parts for profit.