“But the doctor’s violent death was the latest in a string of shootings and bombings over two decades directed against abortion clinics doctors and staff.”

Is this accurate?  The author of a blog called “Political Math” decided to check.  Political Math uses youtube videos and graphs to demonstrate statistical points about everything from President Obama’s expansion of the national debt, to the number of jobs lost after the stimulus package was enacted.

Using statistics from the National Abortion Federation (naturally, with a pro-abortion bias), Political Math published this graph:


Would you have ever guessed from reading the AP article that this was the first abortion related murder since 1998?  Probably not.

Political Math states,

“Given the actual data, the characterization of this incident as “the latest in a string of shootings and bombings” is deeply dishonest. It embeds into people’s minds the idea that this is a very common tragedy, like school shootings, hurricanes or gang-related violence. In fact, until I looked at the data very recently, I was under exactly that impression.

It would be much more accurate to say something along the lines of:

This incident has shattered an eight year lull in anti-abortion related shootings, an activity that spiked to record levels in the 90’s.”