July 17, 2024
You may have seen the news that came out of Fort Liberty North Carolina recently. An anti-terrorism presentation put mainstream pro-life groups in with major terrorist and extremist groups, and the reaction was swift and LOUD.
Not for nothing the genius that created the slideshow also spelled “Roe” wrong. We digress.
But the backlash for this grotesque charade isn’t over. According to reporting from Military.com, “Leading Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from the Army after gate security at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, was given an anti-terrorism briefing that lumped mainstream anti-abortion groups in with extremist groups.
The slide presentation was botched in many ways, including also labeling non-violent, left-wing groups as terrorists. But Republicans are homing in on the anti-abortion slide to charge that the Army is targeting conservative political beliefs.”
Now, Students for Life Action (SFLAction) has made no secret where we stand on the issue of abortion and the military – we proudly supported Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s stand against the use of defense dollars to fund abortion travel. But is THAT the reason why a pro-life organization wound up on a terrorist watch-list for a military security briefing?
Ultimately, it’s just another example in a long list of pro-life organizations and conservative groups being targeted for persecution by weaponized government agencies. And it’s sadly not our first rodeo.
Earlier this year, Students for Life of America (SFLA) was notified of a terrorism slur at a website with the pretentious title – the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism—better known as START. They put SFLA on an unalphabetized list titled: Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States – PIRUS (Keshif), in which “offenders” under Group or Movement Affiliation include the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Ku Klux Klan, Hamas, and Nation of Islam, to name of few.
READ: NOT THE BABYLON BEE: YES, Peaceful Pro-Life Students were Placed on a Terrorist Watch List!
We responded with a cease and desist letter, naturally.
READ: CEASE AND DESIST: Students for Life of America Demands Removal from TERRORIST AND EXTREMIST LIST
Of course, this kind of action only ever seems to flow one way, as we’ve documented elsewhere.
And these examples, along with others, are precisely why SFLAction has joined with other pro-life organizations to call for the repeal of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Introduced by Texas Rep. Chip Roy, the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023, H.R. 5577, would repeal “provisions of federal criminal law that prohibit conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with persons who are seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.”
READ: Students for Life Action and other Pro-Life Groups Call for Vote on FACE Act Repeal Act H.R. 5577
It’s also why we continue to argue – despite assertions to the contrary – that abortion IS federal, because it’s something that federal agencies continue to exploit and abuse in their question to crush political opposition and reward political allies.
And this Fort Liberty instance is another shameful book note in the ever-growing list of reasons why targeting conservative and pro-life groups must end.