For the anti-choice activist, the battle over abortion is the battle between good and evil.  “Good” saves babies, supports mothers whether they want to give birth or not, and then seems to lose interest in supporting the children once they have been born and have real needs other than a womb to grow in.  “Evil” is choosing when to have a child in the case of an unwanted pregnancy, or taking into account your own health, wellbeing, finances, and the overall effect a child would have on the other members of your family (i.e. your ability to care for them).

No place is that “good versus evil” rhetoric taken to an almost comic level than in this piece about sitting in on a briefing from the Center for Reproductive Rights’ President Nancy Northrup:

Aside from a brief enjoiner to check Facebook and Twitter and sign up for email updates about [Planned Parenthood’s] response to 40 Days for Life, that was the end of the presentation. I couldn’t leave fast enough. A fight-or-flight response kicked in, and I nearly ran the two blocks to my car. It took a couple hours before I stopped bursting into tears periodically.

I was upset because I had seen evil, and evil was mundane. Evil had a very impressive law degree and sensible brown shoes. Evil sat in pews around me with folded arms, feeling very concerned about the plight of poor women, wearing pants it bought at Macy’s. Evil looked like people you see at the grocery store. And, most terrifying of all, evil thought it was doing good.

Because every person who doesn’t believe that potential life is more important than the woman who is carrying it from the moment of conception onward must be “evil.”