National Public Radio is reporting that the "pro-life" views of Bruce Ivins may have contributed to his targeting certain political figures with anthrax tainted letters in 2001.

In an unusual presentation Wednesday, the Justice Department went public with evidence it says shows that Ivins was the man behind the anthrax mailings that killed five people and sickened 17 others. Ivins committed suicide last month, so there will be no trial to prove their allegations and no opportunity for Ivins to defend himself.

Ivins and his wife were both practicing Catholics, and their children had attended and graduated from a Catholic high school in Frederick, Md. His wife, Diane Ivins, according to an e-mail Ivins wrote in 2002, was president of the Frederick County Right to Life, and the couple had connections to many other anti-abortion groups. In a July 10, 2002, e-mail cited in the affidavit, Ivins wrote: "I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-life, but I want my position to be one consistent with a Christian."

In 2001, the Catholic anti-abortion movement was openly critical of Catholic members of Congress who voted in support of abortion rights for women. Two of the more prominent lawmakers who fell into this category were Daschle and Leahy. The Ivins affidavit mentions an article in the September/October 2001 issue of the Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati newsletter that singled out Daschle, Leahy and Sens. Edward Kennedy and Joseph Biden for criticism because of their abortion rights votes.

The article was part of a longer dispatch by the leader of the Netherlands-based International Right to Life, Dr. John Wilke. The small article, titled "Pro-Abortion Catholic Senators?", ended with: "We should stop labeling these men Catholic, for anyone who directly aids abets or gets an abortion, by Catholic teaching, excommunicates themselves.

The affidavit stops short of saying that Ivins read the article. But officials close to the case say the newsletter was found in a search of his home. Given his longstanding connection to Cincinnati (he attended college there), his wife's role in the Frederick Right to Life Chapter, and his own beliefs about abortion, it is not implausible to have found the article in Ivins' home. Officials close to the case said that they believe Ivins' right-to-life fervor was at least part of the reason he would target Daschle and Leahy.

Officials also said Ivins did a great deal of mailing under pseudonyms and from various cities other than his hometown of Frederick. Much of that letter traffic involved anti-abortion or Right to Life activities, they said.

It is fascinating to watch this story unfold, knowing that our government tried to make it seem like this was being done by fundamentalist terrorists abroad in 2001, when it appears it may have been an act of domestic terrorism inspired by fundamentalist rhetoric at home.

Progressive ideas about sexual and reproductive health promote privacy, evidence-based sexuality education, responsibility and prevention of unintended pregnancies and disease, and the right to make your own important medical decisions.

Social conservative ideas about these issues increasingly seem to motivate a very different world view.

Perhaps it is time we choose a less divisive and violent approach to rhetoric on sexual and reproductive health issues, one that is not born of the extremism of the right wing, and focuses on health care issues.

It seems the right doesn't realize how their extreme rhetoric impacts people.