Morning Roundup: Abortion More Dangerous Than al-Qaeda?

Beth Saunders

A British royal cousin says abortion is worse than terrorism; a Republican backs away from an abortion billboard campaign; "reclaiming" the rainbow; conservative support for anti-gay hate groups; and oh yeah, Don't Ask Don't Tell is repealed!

A British royal cousin says a woman’s private decision to terminate a pregnancy is worse than a world wide terrorist organization, a Republican backs away from an organization involved in an abortion billboard campaign, and in LGBT news, homophobic activists are trying to “reclaim” the rainbow, politicians are supporting the anti-gay groups that supply them with untrue talking points, and oh yeah, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is repealed!

  • A British noble (his father is the queen’s cousin) has written an article for the Catholic journal First Things claiming that abortion is worse than al-Qaeda. According to the Telegraph, Lord Nicholas Windsor, “describes abortion as ‘the single most grievous moral deficit in contemporary life’ and calls for a ‘new abolitionism for Europe’ in which abortion, like the slave trade, can be abolished.” The article is available only by subscription.
  • A spokesperson for Marie Stopes International in Great Britain says the organization “heavily discounts” abortion fees for clients traveling from Ireland, due to a woman’s additional cost of having to travel a great distance for a pregnancy termination.
  • Despite being involved with a fundraiser for their billboard campaigns claiming Planned Parenthood targets African-American women, the chair of the Republican party in Florida is backing away from Heroic Media. John Thrasher’s spokesperson insists he is still anti-abortion, but doesn’t approve of the “shock value” of the campaign.
  • Religion Dispatches reports on an anti-gay activist who wants to “reclaim” the rainbow. Long used as a symbol of the gay rights and gay pride movement, Jennifer Roback Morse is now saying that the people who want to ban gay marriage in California are the real rainbow coalition, because they are from many races and many religions. Candace Chellew-Hodge writes, “When gay and lesbian people fly the rainbow flag they are not seeking “special rights” or making any special claim to the rainbow. Instead, the rainbow flag is one of inclusion—the full inclusion the community seeks within the larger society—and also the inclusion it invites.”
  • Reps. John Boehner, Michele Bachman, and many others have signed onto a letter supporting the Family Research Council and other “family” groups recently named by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups. The letter claims intolerance, but as the Minnesota Independence points out, FRC, for instance, “has suggested that gays be “exported” from the United States and says that homosexuality should be criminalized. The American Family Association, another group that Pawlenty and Bachmann are supporting, recently said that Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan should be disqualified from office because she’s a lesbian (she’s not).” Wait – who’s intolerant again?
  • Oh, and in other LGBT news, not sure if you heard, but Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed this weekend!

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