Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, who championed the pro-life movement and the rights of preborn babies, was shot and killed by an assassin on Sept. 10. Kirk “stood as a resolute defender of the most vulnerable among us—the preborn,” Students for Life of America noted in a tribute to him.

The national pro-life group said Kirk helped call on President Donald Trump to defund Planned Parenthood. Earlier this year, Students for Life also honored Kirk with its “Defender of Life” award. During his speech, the conservative leader explained why he fought for life on college campuses, even though it would be much easier to remain “indifferent” on abortion.

“Why are we involved in this?” Kirk asked. “Because we serve a God, and we are not Him, and we are all made in the image of that Creator.”

“And so fight with joy, with whimsy, encourage your fellow warriors who might be silent on campus,” Kirk urged attendees at the National Pro-Life Summit.

Kirk followed his own advice, calmly, but passionately, discussing the issue of abortion even during heated discussions on campus, as seen in compilation videos.

Unfortunately, while Charlie Kirk was willing to engage his opponents in open debate, many of them were too eager to excuse or celebrate the assassination of a human being, father, and husband. MSNBC commentator Matthew Dowd was one of the first to rush in to blame Kirk for getting shot.

“He’s been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups,” Dowd said soon after Kirk was shot but before he died. “And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”

(He was soon after fired by MSNBC.)

Countless doctors, nurses, social workers, and teachers have celebrated Kirk’s death, demonstrating a toxic culture primed to applaud the demise of its supposed political enemies. “In the hours after Kirk’s assassination, young people flooded the internet with hateful rhetoric justifying an innocent man’s death,” the Free Press reports. “‘Lol’ and the fire emoji trended on Bluesky. A TikTok user posted a video of himself dancing in the streets with a megaphone and singing, ‘We got Charlie in the neck.’”

Charlie Kirk understood that all lives matter, no matter their age or whether they were inside or outside of the womb. His detractors should show similar respect for Kirk, whose life mattered just as much as theirs, mine, or yours.