Reproductive Rights

Video of Bob Marshall Proves He Said What He Meant, Meant What He Said

Submitted by Josh on February 23, 2010 - 5:20pm

Watch Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall claim at an anti-Planned Parenthood press conference that disabled children are God's punishment for abortion:

After his remarks set off a national controversy, Marshall tried to claim that he had somehow been misunderstood:

A story by Capital News Service regarding my remarks at a recent press conference opposing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood conveyed the impression that I believe disabled children are a punishment for prior abortions. No one who knows me or my record would imagine that I believe or intended to communicate such an offensive notion[.] I regret any misimpression my poorly chosen words may have created[.]

But the video speaks for itself. Marshall explicitly stated that he believes God punishes women who have abortions by giving them disabled children. And then he backed up his claim with what he evidently considered to be evidence (and the gentleman to his left nodded in agreement).

Marshall is entitled to his offensive views, but he should not run from them.

It's worth noting that Marshall has a history of saying offensive things – or being “misinterpreted.”

He said this about abortion in the case of rape: "[T]he woman becomes a sin-bearer of the crime, because the right of a child predominates over the embarrassment of the woman."

And he said this about contraception: "[W]e have no business passing this garbage out and making these co-eds chemical Love Canals for these frat house playboys in Virginia."

Marshall was not the only one at last week’s press conference to say something completely ridiculous and offensive, or as Marshall calls it – creating a “misimpression.”

Rev. Joe Ellison said he agrees with Pat Robertson’s comments that Haitians brought the recent devastating earthquake on themselves by striking a deal with the Devil and practicing voodoo:

From a spiritual standpoint, we think the Dr. Robertson was on target about Haiti, in the past, with voodoo. And we believe in the Bible that the practice of voodoo is a sin, and what caused the nation to suffer. Those who read the Bible and study the history know that what Dr. Robertson said was the truth.

And let’s remember. These guys aren’t just some sideshow attraction in Virginia’s state capital. They hold sway with top Virginia Republicans, including Gov. Bob McDonnell, and are making gains in their war on the reproductive rights of Virginia women.

Josh's blog

PFAW

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Not All Protesters Are Equal

Submitted by Kyle on June 11, 2009 - 11:49am

I have seen several articles in recent days about the on-going cases stemming from the massive anti-abortion protests that took place at Notre Dame surrounding President Obama's address there last month.

Both the Thomas More Law Center and the American Center for Law and Justice have stepped in to provide representation and the right-wing narrative seems to be disbelief that these protesters are even being prosecuted:

Attorney Tom Dixon told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) Tuesday that none of the charges have been dropped, and only two individuals accepted an offer to plead guilty in return for a sentence of time served and a fine. The rest face a maximum sentence of a year and prison and a $5,000 fine.

Asked about Notre Dame's involvement in the case, Dixon said he has "not heard anything" from the school, "except that they don't have any interest in exploring ways to resolve these matters."

...

"The general council's office of Notre Dame has responded to me by saying that Fr. Jenkins has no interest in discussing these matters any further," Dixon told LSN. The attorney said he sought help from Notre Dame's Bishop John D'Arcy to intercede with Fr. Jenkins, but has gotten no reply from the bishop's office.

Dixon said he does not think Jenkins "has any idea just how oppressive are these cases to these people."

"I just have to think that if he did have any idea, he would make some statement about how he doesn't desire to see them prosecuted," he added.

Oddly, there doesn't seem to be any similar sort of right-wing crusade to turn these anti-abortion protesters into martyrs - I wonder why that is:

A Colorado Springs municipal judge today jailed two anti-abortion activists after they refused to pay a fine for trespassing at the Focus on the Family headquarters.

Judge Spencer A. Gresham sentenced Kenneth Scott to 11 days in jail and Rev. Bob Enyart to nine days for their role in a Sept. 4 protest against Focus on the Family founder James Dobson's decision to endorse GOP presidential candidate John McCain ... During the trial, the defendants expressed frustration at not being able to raise anti-abortion issues or what they viewed as Dobson's "broken pledge" in supporting McCain's losing campaign against Barack Obama.

...

Prior to the sentencing, Lisa Anderson, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family asked the judge to consider the organization's concern over safety for its employees and visitors.

...

When both men refused to pay [fines, the judge] offered them the option of public service, which they also rejected.

"I refuse to do public service to a system that is killing babies," Scott said.

Let this be a lesson to all right-wing protesters out there: if you protest President Obama and get arrested for trespassing, the Right will coming running to your defense - but if you protest James Dobson and get arrested for trespassing ... well, you are on your own.

Kyle's blog

PFAW

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Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) Announces Protest of the National Education Association, Blames Recession on Abortion

Submitted by Christian on June 10, 2009 - 6:21pm

The Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) have announced the first major anti-abortion demonstration since the killing of Dr. George Tiller. While the demonstration is nothing out of the ordinary, PLEAS isn't focusing its effort on a traditional target of anti-choice groups. Instead, they'll be protesting... the National Education Association. In a press release, Bob Pawson, a coordinator for PLEAS, announced that the group is organizing a July 2nd "prayer & picket" that will involve many different pro-life groups.

The NEA is hardly an outspoken reproductive rights group, rather an organization dedicated to advancing and improving the public school system. They devoted a mere three sentences of their 462-page handbook to "Family Planning":

The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom. The Association urges the government to give high priority to making available all methods of family planning to women and men unable to take advantage of private facilities. The Association also urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.

Even stranger than PLEAS' choice to target the NEA are remarks made by Pawson in the press release. Pawson unveils the catalyst behind the economic recession: federal abortion policy. Oh, it's also why we don't have a cure for AIDS:

Abortion is the primary factor causing America's economic recession, said Pawson. America is suffering the consequences for killing fifty-million people who are supposed to be among us today as teachers, producers, consumers, taxpayers, leaders, inventors, and problem-solvers. It's no surprise that a nation which slaughters nearly twenty percent of its future customers, investors, and entrepreneurs also kills its own economy. Wrong moral choices have negative consequences. Evil acts generate their own punishment.

Abortion has led to the destruction of fifty-million students and simultaneously eliminated hundreds of thousands of teaching careers and education-related jobs. Surely, some of those dead students were the ones God sent to cure AIDS, end world-hunger, and create clean-energy technologies, said Pawson

Putting aside his "economic argument", Pawson should strongly consider protesting a group that devotes more than three sentences of their 462-page charter to reproductive rights.