Ryan Bomberger, founder of the anti-choice group Radiance Foundation, attended Values Voter Summit last week to talk about his vehement opposition to the NAACP because of its support for reproductive rights. Bomberger is not new to Values Voter Summit or to inflammatory language regarding the NAACP; he spoke about the same issue at the Values Voter Summit in 2013.
At this year’s summit, Bomberger participated in a panel moderated by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins with anti- abortion activist Lila Rose and South Carolina teen Roy Costner, who became a right-wing hero after reading the Lord’s Prayer at his valedictorian speech. Perkins introduced Bomberger, who is featured in Perkins’ new book “No Fear,” by giving a brief summary of his “extraordinary work” inspired by God: “Ryan and his wife, they took on the NAACP,” who were “targeting African-American babies and promoting abortion in [black] communities.”
Bomberger recalled a dispute he had with the NAACP after he condemned “their radical pro-abortion actions,” going so far as to call them the “National Association for the Abortion of Colored People” in an article. The audience broke into whistles and applause when Bomberger detailed how he didn’t let the NAACP “silence” him when they sued him for trademark infringement for his article, which Bomberger characterizes as the NAACP not “recognize[ing] free speech as a civil right.”
Attacks on the NAACP from the right are nothing new. Alveda King has made similar accusations of the NAACP targeting black communities for abortion, calling the instances of abortions of black babies “genocide.” The NAACP has faced continuous attacks for its support of gay rights: Matt Barber called their resolution to support marriage equality “offensive,” and the Coalition of African American Pastors, a group linked to the National Organization for Marriage, asserted that Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted them to denounce gay rights, a claim not exclusive to that group. Conservative talk show host Dennis Prager has accused the NAACP of “incit[ing] hatred of America generally and white America specifically.” A column in WorldNetDaily referred to the NAACP as one of Obama’s “SS stormtroopers.” Other right-wing activists have called the group “treasonous” and a “joke.”
