I know that I mentioned the situation regarding Edwin Graning yesterday, but the level of hypocrisy involved is just so staggering that it almost defies belief … or at least it would if hypocrisy wasn’t seemingly the foundation of everything the Religious Right does.
Basically, Graning had been working for a bus service in Texas for less than a year when he was assigned to bring a woman to a Planned Parenthood facility in South Austin and refused:
Before picking her up, Graning called the clinic in advance to confirm someone would be there on her arrival. As he was waiting to leave a message, he listened to a list of the clinic’s services.
Graning – an ordained Christian minister – could not go against his religious beliefs.
“Dear God, this woman’s going to have an abortion,” he said. “I went ahead and called my supervisor at home and told her, ‘I can’t be a part of this.’”
Graning said he was told to park the van immediately. He was fired the next day.
I have a simple question: how did Graning know that the woman was going to have an abortion? Did it ever occur to him that maybe she worked at the facility? Or that maybe she was going there to get a pregnancy test, or a HIV test, or a STD test, or a Hepatitis vaccine, or a breast exam, or a cervical cancer screening, or a pap test, or any one of the other countless services offered by the facility?
Heck, for all Graning knew, this woman was going to Planned Parenthood to get some abstinence education, which they also offer.
But Graning decided for himself that she was going for an abortion and refused to take her and was justifiably fired … and now his case has been taken up by Pat Robertson’s ACLJ and he’s been turned into a Religious Right cause célèbre.
I’m sure that if Graning had refused to take someone to church, the Religious Right would have had an entirely different response.
