A Tennessee woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly chased a pro-life U.S. Congressman down a highway last week, making him and his staff afraid that they would be forced off the road, according to local police.
Townhall reports the incident involved U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, a pro-life Republican from Tennessee, who recently voted in favor of legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare and defund the abortion chain Planned Parenthood.
The Weakley County Sheriff’s Department told Buzzfeed the woman who was charged, Wendi L. Wright, 35, of Obion County, Tennessee, allegedly was upset with Kustoff for supporting the legislation.
On May 8, Wright allegedly followed Rep. Kustoff in her vehicle as he drove away from a meeting at the University of Tennessee at Martin, according to police. Police said Kustoff and his aide Marianne Dunavant, who also was in the vehicle, were afraid that Wright would force them off the highway.
Police said Kustoff turned off the highway and into the driveway of a person who he knew. They said Wright also pulled off the highway and got out of her vehicle. Police said Wright then began screaming and hitting the windows of Kustoff’s vehicle, and, at one point, reached inside. At another point, police said she stood in front of the vehicle to keep them from leaving.
Sgt. Marty Plunk of the sheriff’s department said an eyewitness told him there also was a “lot of cursing” and they “couldn’t understand a lot of what [Wright] was saying.”
“I’ve been led to believe she was upset over a vote he had cast involving health care,” Plunk said.
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Police said they responded to a 911 call at the scene, but Wright had left by the time they arrived. According to authorities, they later found Wright after she posted details about the incident on Facebook.
The sheriff’s department took her into custody, and she was charged with felony reckless endangerment, according to police. She was released after posting $1,000 bond, police said.
In response to the incident, Townhall’s Guy Benson urged Democrats to denounce the growing hostility by “left-wing ‘resistance’ agitators and violent gangs,” writing:
These extremists do not represent all liberals, nor are they anywhere near a majority of Americans concerned about Republican policies or opposed to Trump. But given the Left’s rush to smear the Tea Party movement based on garbage anecdotes, and based on the standard under which the media demands that virtually every elected Republican under the sun answer for the worst excesses (alleged or real) of anyone right-of-center, it’s time for Democrats to be hounded to denounce this ugliness. It’s a decent bet that this political road rage incident might have been fueled by misinformation. Perhaps Ms. Wright heard the lie that the American Health Care Act makes rape and sexual assault a pre-existing condition. Or maybe she’s under the impression that the bill would leave tens of millions of innocent people with pre-existing conditions to fend for themselves. After all, prominent Democrats keep repeating that debunked claim …
LifeNews has been reporting frequently about what appears to be growing hostility toward pro-lifers.
In January, a pro-life Texas state lawmaker and his family were put under state protection after receiving multiple death threats related to his bill to ban abortions, the Dallas News reported. In late 2015, a Missouri pro-life lawmaker also received a death threat while he led an investigation into the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
In two separate incidents this year, two men allegedly threatened to kill pro-life advocates outside abortion facilities in California and Florida.
And in early February, violent threats against a California pro-life leader prompted him to cancel a pro-life rally in Gilroy, LifeNews reported.
Violence also has been directed toward pro-life organizations’ buildings or displays. In November, the FBI began investigating whether a hate crime occurred when a suspected arson set fire to a pro-life pregnancy center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In December, a Christian pro-life organization in Australia was damaged by an explosion in what pro-lifers believe was a “targeted attack,” the BBC reports. Australian Capital Territory Police said a 35-year-old man parked a van filled with bottles of gas right outside the Australia Christian Lobby headquarters in Canberra and lit them, causing an explosion that damaged the building, ABC Australia reports.
On college campuses this spring, student abortion activists also were caught vandalizing pro-life displays and then bragging about them.
