In a post on its ominously titled blog “Hatewatch,”
SPLC’s Mark Potok complained the group “behind the recent spate of undercover
videos accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally selling ‘body parts from
aborted fetuses’ is tightly linked to some of the country’s hardest-line
anti-abortion extremists.”
Potok attacked the
Center for Medical Progress, which produced the videos. But he also targeted
Cheryl Sullenger and Troy Newman, leaders of the pro-life activist group
Operation Rescue and the authors of “Abortion
Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community At a Time.”
Potok suggested Newman
implicitly supports violence against abortion providers and highlights
Sullenger’s conviction in 1988 for providing logistical support in a conspiracy
to bomb an abortion clinic.
But Sullenger fired
back, arguing the Southern Poverty Law Center was misrepresenting her record
and Newman’s record as well as trying to change the subject away from Planned
Parenthood’s misconduct.
“The information
provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center is a gross distortion of our
backgrounds. Troy has always rejected violence against abortion clinics and
providers. As for my criminal conviction, it was a mistake I freely admit. I
have worked very hard since then employing peaceful means within the law to
expose abortion abuses and bring those responsible for them to justice,” she
told WND.
CMP released its ninth
video in the series Tuesday, as WND
reported, in which a baby parts
“buyer” talks about paying clinics.
While the SPLC’s alleged
focus is on “extremism,” its blog post seems to indicate support for Planned
Parenthood’s abortion services and even its sale of baby parts.
Potok claims it is
“obvious” Planned Parenthood complied with “legal and accepted practice for
tissue donors” and says the claims of the Center for Medical Progress are
“entirely false.”
The facts don’t agree,
Sullenger said.“Many of the statements made by the SPLC in reference to the
videos veracity are downright false,” she said.“Even Planned Parenthood’s own
‘analysis’ of the videos, done by those hired by Planned Parenthood to
discredit them, found that there were no audio alterations in the videos
whatsoever. What the Planned Parenthood executive said was true. Even the video
alterations that were found were minor ones that included blurring out faces of
waitresses and placing a logo in the bottom corner. These alternations did not
affect the content.”
As
reported by WND, Planned Parenthood
hired Fusion GPS to analyze the videos created by the Center for Medical
Progress. The resulting report “did not reveal widespread evidence of
substantive video manipulation.”
However, the report was
critical of the use of “ominous music, replays, color manipulation, ‘scratch’
effects, strategic display of frame counters and timestamps” used to create
greater emotional impact.
Sullenger believes the
report commissioned by Planned Parenthood itself is confirmation of what the
Southern Poverty Law Center is trying to deny – the videos are accurate.
“The reality is that the
videos are true, and Planned Parenthood and their cronies at the Southern
Poverty Law Center have nothing in response but to attack us and spread
falsehoods about the accuracy of the videos in a vain attempt to distract
people from Planned Parenthood’s unethical and illegal behavior,” Sullenger
said.
As Sullenger noted, some
of the figures associated with the Southern Poverty Law Center have a long
history of attacking pro-life groups. Attorney James McElroy has served as an attorney for Planned Parenthood and has tangled with
Sullenger and other activists in legal battles.
SPLC’s enthusiastic
defense of Planned Parenthood and aggressive denunciation of the authenticity
of the CMP videos is the latest example of the organization’s expanding
definition of “fighting hate.”
In June, the
organization issued what critics charged was a
“hit list” of women in the
American media who oppose Islamic extremism and Shariah. The list included Laura
Ingraham, Diana West, Pamela Geller and Ann Coulter.
The progressive
organization has been especially critical of two of the leading Republicans in
the presidential race.
It raised hackles by
recently placing
Dr. Ben Carson on its “extremist watch list.” After being widely mocked, the SPLC removed Carson from the list
and issued a backhanded
apology that contained further
criticism of Carson’s supposedly “extreme” statements.
Only a few months later,
Potok gave an
interview to the Huffington Post in which he called Donald Trump’s statements on Latino immigrants
“flat out racist” and alleged, “In some ways, Trump has taken an even more
extreme position than many white nationalists.”
SPLC has also attempted
to “put
out of existence” any counseling services
for minors suffering from unwanted same-sex attractions, which critics charge will
effectively “ban help for gay people.”
And SPLC launched a
program called “Erasing Hate,” designed to identify all state-sponsored
statues, holidays and even street names linked to the Confederacy. SPLC founder
Morris Dees declared in a video such memorials are “symbols of hate” “that in
the year 2015 and forward, we just don’t need to be a part of our public.”
However, Dees himself once
stated during a ceremony in Montgomery, Alabama, “The Confederate flag that’s flying over that
capital today is just as much a part of my heritage as Dr. [Martin Luther]
King’s march down 6th avenue.”
Dees made his comments
in 1989, more recently than the criminal conviction which is now being used to
attack Sullenger.
SPLC has been accused of
“inflating” the number of hate groups it is “tracking.” Mark Pitcavage of the
Anti-Defamation League noted SPLC’s practice of counting single members as
constituting “hate groups” and called the SPLC’s list “wildly inflated” in an
interview with the South Jersey Times.
The practices have been
extremely lucrative for SPLC and its top officers, including Potok. According
to Charity
Navigator, the group has net
assets in excess of $290 million and its top officials take home more than
$300,000 per year, with Potok himself reportedly earning more than $130,000 a
year.
SPLC’s link to terror
came in the court case after the Aug. 15, 2012, shooting at the Family Research
Council in Washington, D.C. Floyd Corkins II shot a security guard at FRC’s
headquarters but was disarmed before anyone was killed. The homosexual activist
later told FBI investigators he targeted FRC because the Southern Poverty Law
Center had listed it as an “anti-gay” group.
He confessed to wanting
to kill “as many people as I could.”
Sullenger argues it is
time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to stop using toxic rhetoric against
Christian conservatives and opponents of abortion.
“It’s time for the SPLC
to stop expanding the definition of hate to include pro-life activists. They
seem to say everyone who disagrees with them philosophically or politically is
involved in some kind of hate crime. And that’s just ridiculous.
“You can’t bully the
whole world into thinking like you do. And that’s exactly what they do. They
throw out these incendiary accusations and it’s just a pejorative. It’s time to
stop.”
http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/splc-dumps-extremist-label-on-pro-lifers/
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