Terror at Planned Parenthood: Facing the Consequences of the Far Right’s Lies
In the wake of Friday’s horrific shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, we’re hearing calls to deescalate the rhetoric around the issue of abortion.
The implication is that both sides are reaching for rhetorical excess. The problem with this claim is that it’s demonstrably untrue.
Pro-choice advocates have argued calmly in favor of reproductive choice for years. They’ve marshalled facts and figures. They have pointed out that Planned Parenthood provides an array of services to men and women, many of whom are low income. They’ve challenged anti-choice activists to explain how these services would be provided if Planned Parenthood were defunded.
In the wake of the Planned Parenthood shootings in Colorado, several GOP presidential candidates offered perfunctory denunciations of violence before launching more attacks on Planned Parenthood and spreading more lies about the group.The response from many in the anti-choice community has been nowhere near as reasoned. They have ignored the facts, repeatedly employed the most lurid rhetoric imaginable and lobbed charges that don’t stand up to scrutiny. On the fringe of the movement rest people who advocate and employ violence.
Details about Robert Lewis Dear, the shooter in Colorado who stands accused of murdering three people, are still leaking out. But several media outlets have reported that Dear made comments about “baby parts” to police after his apprehension.
It’s likely this was a reference to a series of “sting” videos released over the summer by an anti-abortion group called the Center for Medical Progress. The videos were deceptively edited to make it appear that Planned Parenthood staffers were illegally selling fetal tissue.
Right-wing media outlets spread these false charges, and they were quickly picked up by politicians eager to score points with the Religious Right. The requisite round of show hearings in Congress followed. Several Republican presidential candidates piled on. Carly Fiorina began claiming that the videos showed a botched abortion that resulted in a live birth, and that Planned Parenthood staffers plotted to kill the child and harvest its brain.
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