RSS

Tag Archives: Abortion

No Waiting to get Gun, Must Wait 72 Hours in South Dakota to get an Abortion?

27 May

So, in South Dakota you can go out and buy a hand gun with no waiting period, but if a woman wants to have an abortion – doesn’t matter for whatever reason – she has to wait 72 hours, and sit through countless lectures from anti-abortion critics; if your wive, daughter, mother or any woman in South Dakota is raped and becomes pregnant, or who is the victim of incest and becomes pregnant, or might die … too bad no abortion for you, that is, not until you sit through the right-wing re-education training.

But, hey, look on the bright side, you can buy a gun without waiting …

So, big government is bad – according to Republicans – unless it’s limiting abortion?

Under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, once the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v Wade, SD cannot limit abortion. It is Federal Law, and that trumps state law, but when has that ever stopped the current crop of right-wing demi-gods?

It isn’t just the waiting period that’s troubling to me, it’s that woman wanting abortions in SD, on top of the waiting period, have to sit through hours of far right-wing lectures before being allowed

So, it begs the question, why can you buy a gun with no waiting period, but have to wait 72 hours to have an abortion? That’s right, there’s no waiting period on buying a hand gun, but don’t you dare have an abortion? There’s something wrong there.

Problem here is the state of South Dakota is trying to condemn any woman wanting an abortion, under the guise of “education”.

Why is it not OK for government to interfere in all kinds of things – according to conservatives – such as safety, environment, etc … but it is OK for it to interfere with abortion rights? This is another case of conservatives wanting their cake and eating it too. Either conservatives are for limited government, or they’re not, you can’t have it both ways.

Many on the right – excepting Sarah Palin, who couldn’t think of a single Supreme Court ruling she disagreed with – believe Roe v. Wade was legislating from the bench, pure and simple. Of course, most educated people know and understand that the Judiciary – aka the Supreme Court – has had the authority to “legislate” from the bench – aka judicial review – since Marbury v. Madison in 1803, which opens another can of worms about how conservatives will bemoan “legislating from the bench until the court rules in their favor as in the infamous Citizens United case; a horrible ruling wherein at least one – if not more – conservative justices (Thomas) should have excused themselves from hearing or ruling on it.

I think if someone wants to buy a gun in South Dakota they should have to sit through 72 hours of lectures from the far left-wing talking about the evils of guns, and alternative ways to defend yourself. It’s only fair. No one will be denying anyone’s Second Amendment rights, we’ll just be making sure they presumed gun owner is fully educated before making the purchase; that’s all.

 
1 Comment

Posted by on May 27, 2011 in Abortion

 

Tags: , , , ,

Santorum enters 2012 White House race?

19 Apr

Former Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is setting up a fundraising committee allowing him to take those crucial baby steps toward a 2012 presidential campaign.

Santorum, who significantly lacks the name recognition and fundraising organization of his better-known rivals, is a favorite among the right wing of the GOTP primarily because of his anti-gay and anti-abortion stands. He recently claimed America’s Social Security funding issue was due to too many abortions in America.

“It’s time for America to be America again — an America that rewards innovation and hard work, that stands by our allies instead of our enemies, that protects even the most vulnerable of our society, and an America that says every life is to be cherished,” Santorum told supporters in an email that was sent as he announced his plans on Fox News Channel. “That’s what I believe in and that’s why I’m taking this next step in a possible run for president.”

It’s time for America to be America again? What country have we been? Or is this a new twist on the same old theme, “We’ve got to take America back”?

Of course, “an America that rewards innovation and hard work” is Tea Party code for “we’ve got to continue tax cuts for the wealthy and cut social spending to those welfare queens driving Cadillacs”.

“… an America that stands by our allies instead of our enemies”. Is Tea Party code for, “… an America where we bomb first and ask questions later, an America where we tell our allies, ‘It’s our way or the highway.’”

And,  “… an America that protects even the most vulnerable of our society, and an America that says every life is to be cherished,” is the Holy Grail for the far right wing religious fringe which bases all of its voting decisions on abortion; so, woman, don’t even think of having an abortion in Santorum’s America. If you’re raped, too bad! If you might die having that baby, too bad! There are no abortions in Santorum’s America, no matter what!

On Gay and Lesbian issues Santorum made headlines in 2003 when he declared, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”

After taking a lot of heat for his avowal, Santorum released a statement, wherein he did not dispute the accuracy of the quote, but criticized the AP and the “liberal” media for “misleading” the story.

“I am a firm believer that all are equal under the Constitution,” he said. “My comments should not be construed in any way as a statement on individual lifestyles.”

But, wait for it, according to unedited excerpts of the taped interview released the same day, by The Associated Press, Santorum spoke at length about homosexuality, and he made clear he did not approve of “acts outside of traditional heterosexual relationships.”

His views on both abortion and homosexuality are based on his Christianity, and that’s what is the most troubling about candidates like Santorum. It’s this attitude that pushing one’s so-called far right Christian values into the arena of public office is OK, but no one else’s views are permitted. For candidates like Santorum there is no separation between Church and State, unless you’re a Muslim. For the far right Christians of the Tea Party movement Islamic Sharia law is abhorrent, but Christian Sharia law is fine. Fortunately, Santorum’s appeal is fairly limited to the far right, and that areas already pretty crowded with Palin, Bachmann and Huckleberry.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 19, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Santorum claims abortion is to blame for social security woes?

29 Mar

Grand Old Tea Party (GOTP) presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, during his latest trip to New Hampshire, was asked about the status of the country’s social security system in an interview on WESZ-AM. He replied the system would be in much better shape if there were fewer abortions.

While admitting the system has flaws, he says the real reason social security is in big trouble is there aren’t enough workers to support retirees. He blamed the lack of workers on the “nation’s abortion culture”,  claiming it’s that culture, coupled with policies that do not support families; that are denying America what it needs — more people.

Wow. Really Rick? America’s social security is allegedly in trouble because there have been too many abortions? How about maybe there isn’t enough tax being taken from those who can afford it? Maybe the fact the wealthy only pay social security on a small percentage of their income each year and yet draw full benefits when they retire has something to do with it? Why not require the top 2% of the population to pay its taxes, rather than continue to give it tax breaks? But on no, that would be far too easy; instead we have to appeal to the far right religious fanatics of the GOTP, and instead of offering solutions to a perceived problem we have to create excuses. Maybe you can help the GOTP take our country back to that simpler time when woman were men’s property, and were expected to simply stand bare foot and pregnant in the kitchen? Are there no serious conservative contenders for the presidential nomination? No, instead it appears we have another nut ready to be gathered into the Tea Party nest.

 
1 Comment

Posted by on March 29, 2011 in Abortion

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

GOP Controlled House passes sweeping cuts to domestic programs while protecting Big Business?

19 Feb

In a classic move from a Frank Capra film, the Republican-controlled House – led by Claude Rains type characters – passed sweeping legislation Saturday cutting $61 billion from hundreds of federal programs, while at the same time sheltering coal companies, oil refiners and farmers from new government regulations.

The party line vote of 235-189 passes the bill on to the Democratic-controlled Senate where it will in all likelihood meet its well deserved demise; and if by some odd chance it survives the Democratic controlled Senate, it is all but guaranteed to be vetoed by the President.

This week has given the American people one more bill in a series of fluff and nonsense legislation by the GOP House, and is seen by many as another remarkable victory for 87-member uber-conservative class of freshmen Tea Party-Republican hybrids, who were elected last fall, in the mid-term congressional election by the largely unthinking, uneducated and unwashed masses of the Tea Party movement. The new members of Congress promised to attack the deficit and reduce the reach of government.

One of the new kids on the block, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas trumpeted, “The American people have spoken. They demand that Washington stop its out-of-control spending now, not some time in the future.”

Problem is Congressman; the American people spoke no such thing. 80 + local constituencies fed on a daily menu of vitriolic right-wing fear radio and FOX PAC programming elected you, not “the American people”. The one thing you and all the GOP House has forgotten is that all politics are local, and nowhere is that more true than in the House of Representatives.

So, what did they pass, this group of American loving legislators? Well, the $1.2 trillion bill covers every Cabinet agency through the end of the current fiscal year, or through 30 Sep 11, imposing (if it passes the Senate, and the President) severe spending cuts aimed at domestic programs and foreign aid, including aid for schools, nutrition programs, environmental protection, and heating and housing subsidies for the poor. Did you catch all that? The GOP is cutting programs for schools, nutrition, environmental protection, and heating and housing subsidies for the poor. Who does this affect mostly? Minorities; or everyone who isn’t an angry white, right-wing, Christian, gun-toting, Tea Party drinking voter; you know the types, the ones who “spontaneously” show up at “rallies” carrying signs decrying how they’re taxed too much, and how the President is a Communist/Nazi thug. Yeah, all those well read, deep thinking types; Glenn Beck’s masses.

On the brighter side, the bill is doomed when it arrives in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and was doomed even before TPGOP (Tea Party Grand Old Party) amendments adopted later in the week pushed it further and further away from the main stream shores and out onto the right-wing rocks and shoals of health care and environmental policy. Senate Democrats have promised higher spending levels and are more than prepared to defend the recent health care law, environmental policies and new efforts to overhaul regulation of the financial services industry.

But wait, the TPGOP isn’t finished with simply hurting the poor and minorities, it wants to provide shielding for greenhouse-gas polluters and privately owned colleges from federal regulators, block a plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and bar the government from shutting down mountaintop mines it believes will cause too much water pollution, siding with big business over environmental activists and federal regulators. Why would anyone in their right minds do this? That’s very simple, “money”.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass, summed it up very well when he said, “This is like a Cliff Notes summary of every issue that the Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, and the (free market) CATO Institute have pushed for 30 years.”

But what about the jobs the TPGOP promised to deliver if given control of Congress? Cue crickets chirping – put hand over eyes to shield sun as you gaze out towards the horizon – nope, nowhere in sight.

The one thing this bill passage is guaranteed to do is to drive an even bigger wedge between, not only Democratic members of Congress and the TPGOP membership, but even within the TPGOP itself. It’s as though Speaker Boehner is a maniacal train engineer  sending his locomotive plummeting down the tracks to the bridge he knows is out, screaming for more steam, more steam!

As the next two years progress we will no doubt see more of these nonsensical bills, and more Republicans voting against them, and with any luck at all a country tired of the TPGOP and a return of the House to grownups not needing a hanky handy every time they speak.

“But we have to get the deficit under control!” The TPGOP screams. “We don’t want to be bothered with any level headed, clear thinking debate. We just want to cut and slash everything that isn’t good and right in America.”

“Palin/Bachmann in 2012!” others cry.

“On with the revolution!” still more proclaim.

What the TPGOP has managed to do is to remove any and all meaningful discourse on the national debt/deficit and on the federal budget. And in so doing, they’ve magically ensured any differences on spending cuts won’t be resolved soon, meaning before the government runs out of money on 4 Mar 11, requiring a temporary spending bill when the current stopgap measure expires.

Boehner and company are insisting any new stopgap measure must carry huge spending cuts, an ultimatum carrying a threat of a government shutdown like the episodes that played to the advantage of former President Bill Clinton in his battles with Republicans in 1995-1996; the very same shutdown which eventually led to Newt Gingrich’s slinking away from Congress. Is Boehner prepared to slink away as well?

But who cares about government shutting down? Not the TPGOP; it’s on a roll baby, voting for other cuts, including voting for a ban on federal funding for the implementation of the year-old health care law; and falling all over themselves to see who can bow the lowest as they answer the royal command of anti-abortion lawmakers, calling for an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood; again not only attacking the poor and minorities, but throwing woman under the bus too. “Raped and need help with that pregnancy?” they ask. “Too bad, God says you have to carry that baby to term!”

Is there not any group which benefits from the House being controlled by the TPGOP? Of course there is, it’s the Military Industrial Complex. While mercilessly slashing and burning domestic agencies spending by 12 percent, the TPGOP awarded the Pentagon with a 2 percent increase.

But wait sports fans, the TPGOP wasn’t finished, not by a long shot; one of its greatest nemesis’s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was out there and they needed to wound it, and wound it deeply, they needed to defend big business and industry from its numerous agency regulations constantly threatening job-creation and the economy. And wound it they did, slashing its budget by almost one-third, and hampering its regulatory powers. In the process, if the TPGOP has its way, proposed federal regulations would be blocked on emission of greenhouse gases, and a proposed regulation on mercury emissions from cement kilns would also be stopped.

For those living in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, Rep Robert Goodlatte, TPGOP-Va., won a 230-195 vote blocking an EPA plan for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay that would cut pollution from runoff from farms and municipalities throughout the Chesapeake watershed. Yeah for you! Aren’t you happy to have such a wonderful guy looking out for your interests? After all, it’s not like any of you rely on that pesky old bay for your livelihoods or anything.

And woo hoo for Floridians! Your local agricultural interests won a vote blocking those damnable EPA rules issued last year aimed at controlling fertilizer and other pollutants that stoke the spread of algae in the state’s waters. More algae! More algae!

As dire as all this sounds however, these cuts aren’t going to happen. Thank God the Senate and White House are in Democratic hands. And just as Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck have to go further and further to the right-wing extremes to keep their listeners happy, these TPGOP members of congress are going to have to keep going further and further to the right-wing extremes to keep their “constituents” happy. This side show will play well for awhile, but like any traveling circus, eventually it runs out of people wanting to watch the show, pulls up its stakes and moves on. It happened to the GOP House in the nineties, and it will happen to TPGOP of the current Congress. Time – in spite of what the Rolling Stones sing – is not on their side.

 
4 Comments

Posted by on February 19, 2011 in Federal Budget

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Unlike Muslims, pro-lifers actually are peaceful?

07 Jun

ann_coulter

The right wing’s lead banshee, Ann Coulter, used the murder of abortion Dr. George Tiller to attempt to claim that pro-life extremists are peaceful, and that Muslims are not. Not Muslim extremists, Muslims; All Muslims.

“Why aren’t liberals rushing to assure us this time that “most pro-lifers are peaceful”? Unlike Muslims, pro-lifers actually are peaceful,” Coulter said.

In an attempt to justify her claim, she compared 9-11 to just “five abortionists” killed since Roe v. Wade became law.

“According to recent polling, a majority of Americans oppose abortion – which is consistent with liberals’ hysterical refusal to allow us to vote on the subject. In a country with approximately 150 million pro-lifers, five abortionists have been killed since Roe v. Wade,” Coulter said. “In that same 36 years, more than 49 million babies have been killed by abortionists. Let’s recap that halftime score, sports fans: 49 million to five.”

A halftime score? I’m not sure how to take that analogy. We’re going to flippantly compare the number of abortions performed in the past 36 years, all legally performed, to the number of people murdered who performed abortions, and do so with a sports analogy? How characteristically feeling of you Ms. Coulter.

But wait, she’s not through. Coulter went on to tie all Muslims living in the United States, almost all of them patriotic, tax paying citizens to the terrorist responsible for the murders of 9-11.

“Meanwhile, fewer than 2 million Muslims live in America and, while Muslims are less murderous than abortionists, I’m fairly certain they’ve killed more than five people in the United States in the last 36 years. For some reason, the number “3,000” keeps popping into my head.

“So in a country that is more than 50 percent pro-life – and 80 percent opposed to the late-term abortions of the sort performed by Tiller – only five abortionists have been killed. And in a country that is less than 0.5 percent Muslim, several dozen Muslims have killed thousands of Americans.”

Isn’t it interesting that Coulter never uses the term, “Muslim Extremist”; she prefers to just throw all the followers of Islam into one big group. Much the same way Islamic Terrorists throw all non-Muslims into the same bag, or the same way Adolf Hitler and his thugs threw all the Jews of Europe into one group. I think this is very revealing in deed.

I also find it very interesting that Coulter claims only the five actual killings count as acts of violence by right to life extremists. In fact, there have been 22 documented cases of violence carried out by pro life extremists in this country. Now using your own twisted logic Ann, let’s see? Twenty two (22) acts of violence committed by right wing, pro life extremists here in the United States, and only two attacks by extremist Muslims in America, counting the first bombing of the World Trade Center, and then the 9-11 attacks. Now, who exactly appears to be more violent?

Coulter doesn’t just limit her attacks on Muslims however, but also goes after the largest Lutheran organization in America, as well as comparing Dr. Tiller to a notorious serial killer.

“Tiller was protected not only by a praetorian guard of elected Democrats, but also by the protective coloration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – coincidentally, the same church belonged to by Tiller’s fellow Wichita executioner, the BTK killer,” she said.

Ms. Coulter, like many right wing extremists seems to have forgotten that a woman’s right to an abortion is a protected right in this country. It’s legal. While someone may not agree with abortion, or like Dr. Tiller because he was performing abortions, he was not a serial killer, not was he an executioner.

Coulter continues her rant by questioning whether Tiller had a right to live.

She said, “The official Web page of the ELCA instructs: “A developing life in the womb does not have an absolute right to be born.” As long as we’re deciding who does and doesn’t have an “absolute right to be born,” who’s to say late-term abortionists have an “absolute right” to live?”

Ms. Coulter, inciting someone to commit murder would make you as guilty as the person who acts based on your words. When you make such a statement you are inciting others to act violently. And, oh by the way, who are you to decide who has an absolute right to live? While I may think you’re a right wing extremist nut job, I would defend your “absolute right” to live. Yes, even you have an “absolute right” to live.

 
3 Comments

Posted by on June 7, 2009 in Abortion

 

Tags: , , ,

President Obama Voted to Commit Infanticide?

01 May

What exactly is it with conservatives and their continued bogus, ridiculous, and hyperbolic talking point that President Obama supports “infanticide,” and the extravagantly wild claim that he “voted three times that if a baby survives an abortion, it may still be killed because of the mother’s original intent to abort it?”

I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the ongoing irrational hatred of this President by the right-wing in this country. This argument of President Obama being for infanticide comes up about once a month, basically whenever the right-wing radio types can tie it to anything. And I do mean anything. The most recent attacks have surfaced because of the mini-controversy surrounding Notre Dame University’s invitation to President Obama to speak at its commencement, which incidentally is a long standing tradition at the school, a tradition to invite the newly elected President.

During a recent broadcast,  Rush Limbaugh attempted to revive the infanticide myth, “The truth is that President Obama, by virtue of his votes as a member of the Illinois Senate and as a member of the United States Senate, is perhaps the most anti-life — well, there’s no question — he is the most anti-life president we have had in American history.

“This is a man who three times voted for infanticide in Illinois. He tried to excuse it any number of ways, but this is a man who voted three times that if a baby survives an abortion, it may still be killed because of the mother’s original intent to abort it. If the abortion is botched, the doctor can go ahead and complete the job outside the womb. He voted for it three times.

“That’s — I mean, that, to me — I don’t know what — care what your position on abortion is, but now we’re not talking about abortion, not when the child has been born outside the womb and is alive. And Obama voted three times to support the notion of infanticide.”

Of course, once again, Rush is not only just stretching the truth, he’s bending it, twisting it and contorting it to the point that it in no way resembles what is true. Obama’s opposition as an Illinois state senator to SB1093 amending the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975, was based upon the fact that the amendment was not necessary as the existing law already protected infants who were born as a result of an attempted abortion. Indeed, the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 states, “No abortion shall be performed or induced  when the fetus is viable unless there is in attendance a physician other  than the physician performing or inducing the abortion who shall take control of and provide immediate medical  care for  any  child  born  alive  as a result of the abortion.”

The proposed amendment also attempted to redefine what protections should be given to a “live child born as a result of an abortion”. It stated, “A live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.  All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken to preserve the life and health of the child.”

The Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 had already provided for such protection, “Subsequent to the  abortion,  if  a  child  is  born alive,  the  physician  required  by Section 6 (2) (a) to be in attendance shall exercise the  same  degree  of  professional skill care and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as would  be  required  of  a  physician  providing immediate medical care to a child born alive in the course of a  pregnancy termination which was not an abortion.  Any such physician who intentionally, knowingly,   or   recklessly violates Section 6 (2) (b) commits a Class 3 felony.”

As the proposed amendment did virtually nothing to change the state’s abortion law it must be asked why propose the amendment? Allegedly the amendment was necessary because babies which were live born were being left to die in Illinois. However, investigators with the Illinois attorney general’s office looking into allegations that fetuses born alive at an Illinois hospital were abandoned without treatment were unable to substantiate the allegations, but said that if the allegations had proved true, the conduct alleged would have been a violation of then-existing Illinois law.

The National Right to Life Committee (the group from which Rush, Hannity, et al receive their info) claims that Obama “really did object to a bill merely because it defended the proposition, ‘A live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.’ And it is that reality that he now desperately wants to conceal from the eyes of the public.”

This is as ridiculous an argument as Liberals wanted the United States to lose the war in Iraq, or that Conservatives hate the environment. If I am to believe the NRLC, and Rush, Hannity et al., I have to then believe that President Obama is a monster. That he is someone who would be capable of killing a child born alive from an abortion. Talk about extremism. This is political extremism at its worst, and because it is so extreme it removes itself from intelligent discussion.

Rush, once again, the self proclaimed “truth detector” is wrong; President Obama never, repeat never, voted in support of infanticide. He voted to protect a women’s right to choose, in the face of fellow legislators who it would appear were attempting to amend Illinois state law in such a way that as to give the unborn fetus the same rights and protections of a born child, thus negating a woman’s right to choose. Sometime, maybe you’ll do a little research before you pounce on something Rush. But then again why change your MO? Why change from being the GOP’s chief hit man? And you accuse the media of committing drive bys?

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 1, 2009 in Abortion

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Pro-Life Advocates May Engage in Violence, Extremism?

21 Apr

The Department of Homeland Security has warned law officials across the country to the possibility of a rise in “right-wing extremist activity,” saying the poor economy and presence of a black president could spark problems.

According to the Washington Times, a footnote attached to the nine-page report from the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis say the activities of pro-life advocates is included in “right-wing extremism in the United States.”

“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.

Note, that no where does the DHS documents say, “It may include all groups and individuals that are dedicated to single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration”, it says “it may include groups and individuals”. It never says “every single group and individual”, or “all groups and individuals”. This of course doesn’t stop the defenders of truth, justice and the American way – or as they are otherwise known, Hannity, Rush, et al. – from taking a warning from DHS to law enforcement agencies, and turning it into a political three ring circus, complete with the little GOP Clown car.

Sean Hannity on his April 16th Fox “News” program talking to that pillar of American virtue, that upholder of the Constitution, that former Marine hero who had to retire in disgrace, Oliver North made this statement, “…they’re (Obama Administration) using harsher language towards conservative talk hosts and people that are pro-life and want to obey immigration laws and that are pro-Second Amendment than they are against Kim Jong-Il and Ahmadinejad and Al Qaeda and some of our enemy combatants and terrorists.”

First Sean, I could be mistaken, but I don’t recall “conservative talk hosts” being mentioned in the DHS report. Hold on let me check…Nope, nothing there.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (April 16th talking to Fox “News” host Neil Cavuto) “I think it’s absurd. I mean, to suggest that the threat should be characterized in partisan philosophical terms is ridiculous…So, at a minimum, it’s unfair, and I think more candidly and bluntly, it’s absurd.”

You’re right Governor Pawlenty, it’s absolutely absurd to think anyone associated with “pro-life” advocates, or “individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion,” would ever commit a violent or possibly extreme act; just absurd.

December 25, 1984: An abortion clinic and two physicians’ offices in Pensacola, Florida were bombed in the early morning of Christmas Day by a quartet of young people (Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, Kaye Wiggins) who later called the bombings “a gift to Jesus on his birthday.”

March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of the year before. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Dr. Gunn’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

August 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot outside of an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Shelley Shannon was charged with the crime and received an 11-year prison sentence.

June 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside of another facility in Pensacola. Also shot in the attack was Barrett’s wife June. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.

December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. Five other individuals were also wounded in the shootings. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International, was arrested and confessed to the killings. He committed suicide in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.

December 18, 1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second-degree attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years.

October 28, 1997: A physician whose name has not been revealed was shot in his home in Rochester, New York.

January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Nurse Emily Lyons was severely injured in the attack. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.

October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York State which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian’s murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001.

October 1999: Martin Uphoff set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was later sentenced to 60 months in prison.

May 28, 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire on resulted in damage estimated at $20,000. The case remains unsolved.

September 30, 2000: A Catholic priest drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being shot at by a security guard.

June 11, 2001: An unsolved bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington destroyed a wall, resulting in $6,000 in damages.

November 2001: After the genuine 2001 anthrax attacks, Clayton Waagner mailed hoax letters containing a white powder to 554 clinics. Waagner was convicted of 51 charges relating to the anthrax scare on December 3, 2003.

July 4, 2005: A clinic Palm Beach, Florida was the target of arson. The case remains open.

December 12, 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison and Dunahoe to one year. Hughes claimed the bomb was a “memorial lamp” for an abortion she had had there.

September 13, 2006:David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan crashed his car into the Edgerton Women’s Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and then started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions; however Edgerton is not an abortion clinic.

April 25, 2007: A package left at a women’s health clinic in Austin, Texas contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device after evacuating the building. Paul Ross Evans (who had a criminal record for armed robbery and theft) was found guilty of the crime.

May 9, 2007: An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

December 6, 2007: Chad Altman and Sergio Baca were arrested for the arson of Dr. Curtis Boyd’s clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Altman’s girlfriend had scheduled an appointment for an abortion at the clinic.

January 22, 2009:Matthew L. Derosia, 32, who was reported to have had a history of mental illness, rammed a SUV into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota.

May 31, 2009: Scott Roeder, 51, fatally shot Dr. George R. Tiller while Dr. Tiller was acting as an usher in his Wichita, Kansas church. Tiller was one of three doctors in the United States who performed late-term abortions. Roeder’s ex-wife, Lindsey, told reporters that her ex-husband was looking to become a martyr for the cause. Roeder had once posted a message on Operation Rescue’s web page, “Tiller is the concentration camp ‘Mengele’ of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation.”

Just 22 examples of how absurd it is to suggest pro-life Americans could ever be capable of extreme actions; 22.

Of course it’s absurd to think anyone attached to the pro-life movement could be considered a domestic terrorist Governor Pawlenty.

I mean, seriously, just because a few fringe organizations in the United States opposing abortion either explicitly or implicitly advocate violence against abortion providers doesn’t make them extreme. Absurd Sir! Completely, and utterly absurd!

It’s just ridiculous to think that fine upstanding organizations like The Army of God, an underground network of activists that believe that the use of violence is an appropriate tool for fighting against abortion, and the American Coalition of Life Activists, who published the Nuremberg Files, a controversial anti-abortion web site which published the names, home addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal information of abortion providers – highlighting the names of those who had been wounded and striking out those of which had been killed.

What’s really absurd is that people like Sean Hannity and Governor Pawlenty are so anti-Obama that they will attempt to vilify a DHS warning against homegrown terrorist threats.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 21, 2009 in Abortion

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Newer posts →