Right-Wing Voices Uses Colorado Shooting to Slam Abortion

Religious Right figures and Republican presidential candidates have ignored the relationship between strident anti-abortion rhetoric and the shooting rampage at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic. To make matters worse, some right-wing commentators are either equating abortion with extremist violence, or blaming Planned Parenthood for its own victimization. The self-righteousness  demonstrated by some anti-abortion activists is appalling.

First, in a YouTube video posted on November 30th,  Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries sneered at the idea that anti-abortion rhetoric triggered an act of terrorism. Planned Parenthood is the real terrorist, he insisted. "Terrorism in the womb leads to terrorism in the world!" he cried. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

"I tried to warn you on Friday that they were going to blame this whole Planned Parenthood thing on pro-life Christians. Here's the truth. You really want to know what terrorism is? Can you imagine being an unborn baby in the warmth of your mother's womb, and having some doctor insert some scalpels up inside there and dismember you, grab a hold of your legs? Can you imagine the terror of a little baby trying to get away from those metal objects ... Planned Parenthood has the audacity to blame terror on those who are out trying to rescue the children? Folks, there's terror every day inside those Planned Parenthood clinics!"

During an appearance on the December 1st edition of Newsmax's Steve Malzberg Show, actor Kevin Sorbo was stunned that the media was more shocked by the Colorado Springs shooting than by the "60 million murders" allegedly committed by abortion providers. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.)

MALZBERG: On this abortion--the Planned Parenthood shooting, the media's trying to make it that all Republicans, anybody against those baby parts are evil.

SORBO: Yeah, you know, they're more upset about the murdering that happened by this one guy instead of the 60 million murders they’ve committed since Roe v. Wade. That's not an issue? So, I don't know. Once again, we’re dealing with insanity.

Colorado state representative and Religious Right commentator Gordon Klingenschmitt denounced the Colorado Springs shooting during the December 1st edition of his Pray In Jesus Name Show. "This man does not represent the pro-life community," Klingenschmitt told viewers, elaborating at the 5:39 mark of the show. (Hat tip to Raw Story.)

"We denounce the criminal and violent actions of this shooter. Whatever his motives are, there's no excuse for him taking the law into his own hands. This is a spirit of lawlessness, this is a spirit of murder."

However, he later compared the Colorado Springs violence to the alleged "violence" of abortion. At the 7:06 mark, Klingenschmitt spoke of the shooting and of abortion as similar kinds of violence.

"When radical leftists want to use this shooter as an example of how pro-lifers act, it's illogical, and here's why. Because when we pray for an end to the violence at the Planned Parenthood clinics, the violence being done to unborn children, and this man comes in and does the exact opposite of what we prayed for -- an end to the violence -- then he clearly is not affiliated with us and cannot be blamed for doing what we want, because we prayed for the opposite to happen."

Another Colorado state lawmaker, Rep. JoAnn Windholz, openly blamed Planned Parenthood for its own persecution. In an angry Facebook post, Windholz claimed that Planned Parenthood instigated the Colorado Springs violence. "Violence begets violence," she wrote. The Facebook post has since been taken down, but Think Progress and Friendly Atheist captured screenshots.

"The freedoms we enjoy in the United States include those that were made up to fit the audience and unsubstantiated numerical support, specifically the right to an abortion. When a violent act happens at a Planned Parenthood (pph) facility (most recent in Colorado Springs) the left goes on “auto-pilot” blaming everyone insight when they should be looking in a mirror. Free Speech has brought to light the insidious selling of baby body parts (pph has no shame). These facts and overall mission of the abortion industry would easily send anyone over the hill who wasn’t rational.

The “war on women” is what pph began with Margaret Sanger and it has turned into a war on the family, especially children. It has changed children from a blessing to a commodity making it very hard to consider ourselves to be a civilized respectful rational society.

Violence is never the answer but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit. The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any pph facility, is pph themselves. Violence begets violence. So pph, YOU STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE YOUR WALLS. My question is, if abortions were free at pph, how long would they stay in business? Pro-Life organizations offer their caring services saving women and children for free every day and they clean up the mess that pph has left behind."

Even in discussions about other crimes, right-wing commentators manage to sneak in shots at abortion. Commentators on Fox News' Outnumbered were outraged over a New York Daily News cover that compared NRA president Wayne LaPierre to a terrorist and slammed the NRA's "sick gun jihad". In an excerpt captured by Media Matters, Andrea Tantaros argued that Planned Parenthood allegedly has a "higher body count" than Islamic extremism. In the wake of the Colorado Springs shooting, Tantaros' comments were tasteless.

FRANCIS: They're putting on equal footing, you know, somebody who is advocating Islamic terror against somebody who is clearly mentally ill with someone who is defending people's legal rights. What if you put the CEO of Planned Parenthood on there as well? I mean, people would say that is somebody who's defending people's legal rights. It isn't different from the NRA. What kind of an outrage would that cause?

PAVLICH: Yeah, and it's just dishonest. I mean, it's not a fair comparison to make.

TANTAROS: They don't want to talk about that. Even though the president conflated what happened in Colorado with Paris, nobody wants to talk about who has the higher body count: the doctors at Planned Parenthood or the jihadists.

Victim-blaming and false equivalence are disgusting, especially in the wake of a tragedy. There is no excuse for anti-choice extremism, full stop. Providing reproductive health services is not in the same moral category as cold-blooded murder, and should not be spoken of as such. The language of such anti-abortion activists reveals how little empathy they have for the Colorado Springs victims.