Leave it to MSNBC to turn a tragic shooting by a deranged gunman not affiliated with the pro-life movement and turn it into a general attack on pro-life advocates who respect the lives of people both born and unborn.
On one of it’s programs yesterday, an MSNBC host essentially called pro-lifers “terrorists” who make working at Planned Parenthood dangerous.
Here’s how the conversation played out:
O’DONNELL: “We’re joined now by Joy Reid, MSNBC national correspondent, and David Cohen, a professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law and co-author of “Living in the Crosshairs: the Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism.” Joy Reid, we’ve come to the point where working at a Planned Parenthood in America is a dangerous occupation.”
REID: “Yeah, absolutely. And as somebody who grew up in Denver, Colorado, knows Colorado Springs very well. It is a highly evangelical community. It’s sort of interesting. Denver is a liberal community and then you have Colorado Springs, this big evangelical base. And I grew up in the era of Operation Rescue, where you had these really scary confrontations between anti-abortion activists, in a lot of cases who were threatening violence against clinic workers and somebody who got my basic health care from Planned Parenthood.
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When I graduated college, I had no money. And so, even in New York, you know, Planned Parenthood was where I got all health care, whether it’s birth control or not. It’s eerie to sort of think about the danger to which these clinicians who I just became used to, as just normal care providers, the fact they go to work every day under that kind of fear and duress. That is the actual terror, that is the essence of what terrorism is, being afraid to go to work. And as somebody who has used Planned Parenthood, I can tell you women are going there to get basic health care. To do that and they are in fear because there are fellow Americans threatening violence against you and against your health care providers, it’s sort of surreal.”
On Monday, alleged Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear appeared frazzled in his first court hearing following his arrest. Dear, 57-years-old and residing in Colorado and North Carolina, was arrested at the scene in connection with the violent shooting that claimed the lives of three people, including one police officer and injured 9 others, including multiple officers.
Dear reportedly mentioned “baby body parts” when arrested at the scene of the crime, but he has no connections with the pro-life movement and those who know him best say he was never interested in the issue of abortion.
As Fox News host Megyn Kelly explained, “While police have been careful not to provide information on a possible motive, that has little to stop some from suggesting this has everything to do with political rhetoric from the right.” She indicates that the true motives of most crazed shooters is never known.
As LifeNews has reported, the picture neighbors are painting of Robert Lewis Dear, who allegedly shot over a dozen people outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on Friday, is one of a “rambling and incoherent” loner who never talked about abortion.
Dear appears to have no association with the pro-life movement and those who know him say he is an awkward man who never discussed religion or abortion. The profile they paint is far from a caricature of a pro-life activist who has an issue with the Planned Parenthood abortion business and more of a loner or renegade who may have mental health issue and, at a minimum, is a bit “off.”
Since the shooting, a massive debate has ensued over any bearing it may have on the abortion debate.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, the CEO of the abortion company, Cecile Richards, issued a fundraising email essentially blaming pro-life people for the shooting, saying the “feed domestic terrorism.”
Planned Parenthood officials have confirmed none of the people killed in the shooting or 9 victims who were injured were Planned Parenthood abortion clinic staff or patients and authorities have released no motive for the shooter as to whether or not he actually targeted Planned Parenthood. And, according to the Associated Press, all of the shooting took place outside of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, not in it.
As LifeNews reported, the police officer killed during Friday’s shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood is pro-life and a co-pastor at his local church. Garrett Swasey, 44, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer who was shot and killed while responding to the shooting and was described by his fellow church members and friends as a courageous man and loving father who drew strength and inspiration from his Christian faith.
Family members and friends identified the other two victims as 29-year-old Ke’Arre Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky, 35. Both accompanied friends to the Planned Parenthood on Friday.
Multiple pro-life groups quickly condemned the shooting while pro-abortion presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a tweet exploiting the active shooting before the shooter was apprehended or a motive known to push for support for the abortion business and then went on to say pro-life people should “defend Planned Parenthood, not attack it.” And President Obama exploiting the shooting to demand pro-life people stop “demonizing” Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains issued a statement responding to the shooting, saying it doesn’t know if Planned Parenthood was the target of the attack.
“We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack,” Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains President Vicki Cowart said in a statement.
Cowart was accused of pushing abortion at the memorial for the shooting victims and one woman walked out after she politicized the event.
