Paul Hill was put to death

in Florida last week. The former Presbyterian minister went to meet his

Maker with a smile on his face, a lie in his heart and a boatload of twisted

logic in his mind.

Hill was convicted of murdering

abortionist John Britton and Britton's bodyguard, James Barrett, and of

wounding Barrett's wife outside an abortion clinic known as "The

Ladies Center" in Pensacola in 1994. His weapon was a 12-gauge shotgun.

Hill believed he was going

to heaven for his actions on behalf of the unborn. "I expect a great

reward in heaven," he said with a smile on his face in an interview

before his death. "I am looking forward to glory."

Hill's statements sound chillingly

like Muslim zealots who believe that 72 virgins will satiate their every

desire in the afterlife if they will just "kill the infidels."

As a pro-life Christian, I am saddened that this man called himself a

follower of Christ, let alone a minister of His gospel.

Some have compared Hill's actions

to those of a person who had a clear shot at Adolf Hitler, an analogy

that warrants close examination.

Hitler and his Nazi henchmen

forced millions of people into death camps and systematically exterminated

them. As justification for his actions, Paul Hill's defenders would point

out that 40 million unborn American children were forcibly killed over

the last 30 years in abortion mills, and they would be correct. But no

one forced those mothers into those abortion clinics. This is still America,

not Mainland China.

A shot to the head of Adolf

Hitler would have affected the outcome of World War II, possibly even

stopping it cold. When he was apprehended minutes after his crimes, Hill

was quoted as saying, "I know one thing: No innocent babies are going

to be killed in that clinic today." Probably not, but that does not

mean they didn't die at the hands of some other abortionist the next day

or a week later. Paul Hill stopped nothing except three beating human

hearts.

There is a growing body of

evidence that Americans have become more conservative in their views on

the abortion issue over the past decade. The loving care of crisis pregnancy

center volunteers, combined with frank debates over the issue of partial

birth abortion in Congress and in state legislatures across the country,

have brought the reality of abortion home to many Americans who had never

before equated abortion with the infanticide that it truly is.

A Gallup Poll earlier this

year showed that only 23 percent of Americans want abortion to be "legal

in all circumstances." Conversely, 19 percent want it "illegal

in all circumstances, and 42 percent want it to be "legal only in

a few circumstances." Factor in the consistent polling figures that

show 85 percent of people want an outright ban on partial birth abortions,

and it is not hard to see that Americans are not, by any stretch of the

imagination, in favor of abortion on demand, which is currently the law

of the land.

However, one could make the

case that the sad, sick odyssey of Paul Hill may have set the pro-life

movement back several years by giving ammunition to the radical pro-abortion

left, which would like nothing better than to demonize legitimate protest.

This man is not a hero to the

pro-life cause. He is no less a murderer than the extremists who commandeered

those airplanes two years ago this week.

Paul Hill did nothing to save

unborn babies, and those of us who have fought the pro-life battle peacefully

for years, speaking out in our churches, protesting in the public arena,

working through the courts and through the legislative process, are ashamed

to have him and his ilk associated with our cause and with our God.

[Doug Patton is a freelance

columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy

advisor to candidates, elected officials and organizations at the federal,

state and local levels. His weekly columns can be read in newspapers across

the country, and on selected Internet web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com,

where he serves as the Nebraska Editor. He also writes for Talon News

Service (www.TalonNews.com). Readers can e-mail him at [email protected].]