A growing sidebar of the James Pouillon murder (he was gunned down while peacefully protesting outside an abortion clinic across the street from a high school in Owosso, Michigan) is the silence of national pro-choice organizations.

I ran a quick search, and none of the biggies – NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, or the National Organization for Women – have issued statements condemning the murder. (President Obama was late to the party, but he did end up issuing a statement on the killing.)

On its home page, the National Abortion Federation gives top billing to mourning the loss of Ted Kennedy and to remembering George Tiller, whom NAF calls “an American hero.” Tiller was a late-term abortionists who was murdered May 31 at his church.

In contrast, a number of pro-life groups issued statements the day of Tiller’s death condemning acts of violence in the heated abortion debate (National Right to Life and Americans United for Life, to name two). Naturally, pro-choice groups put out their own releases. But the non-existent response from abortion advocates over the cold-blooded murder of Pouillon – a man standing up for life and exercising his constitutional rights – should give us pause.

Could be that one side in this debate does, in fact, value human life more than the other.