MSNBC Host Chris Matthews Says Pro-Life Advocates Use "Terrorist" Methods

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 3, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

MSNBC Host Chris Matthews Says Pro-Life Advocates Use "Terrorist" Methods

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 3
, 2009

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — Chris Matthews has been on the pro-abortion side of the debate since before his time as a top Congressional aide for abortion advocates. Now the MSNBC host has gone overboard by referring to pro-life advocates who oppose pro-abortion Health Secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius as terrorists.

During his program "Hardball" on Monday night, Matthews worried that Sebelius would become the target of "the terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people."

Immediately after making the remark, Matthews appeared to realize his mistake and corrected himself to say, "I mean verbal terrorism."

"Is she gonna get through the, the terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people," Matthews said during a question to Lois Romano of the Washington Post. "I mean verbal terrorism."

"Yeah I think she’s gonna do that and I think they’ve got a clear shot," Romano responded. "Yeah they’re, she’ll get through that."

Matthews followed up his verbal miscue with another concern that pro-life advocates in the Senate would bring up her pro-abortion record and relationship with late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.

"But are we gonna have days and days of hearings about what she did about this guy who was a late-term abortion doctor?" Matthews complained.

Geoffrey Dickens, the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center, noted Matthews’ comments and called his attempt to correct what he had said about pro-life advocates using terrorist tactics "feeble."

This isn’t the first time pro-life advocates have been referred to as terrorists.

During the presidential election, Barack Obama was criticized for comparing a pro-life senator to a domestic terrorist responsible for setting off bombs and never apologizing.

In August, CNN’s miniseries "God’s Warriors," featured file footage of the bombing at a Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic in 1998 by someone unaffiliated with the pro-life movement but who claimed to be against abortion.

Christiane Amanpour said the attack was conducted by "radical opponents [who] had long waged their holy war against abortion clinics," which also "terrified many women."

In July 2006, Planned Parenthood’s web site labeled pro-life groups "terrorists and extremists."

The group included a heading, "Terrorists and Extremist Organizations" that included Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council, Feminists for Life of America and Focus on the Family.

Abortion activist Gloria Steinem came under fire in October 2004 when she called President Bush, because of his pro-life record on abortion, "more dangerous to this country’s citizens than terrorists" at a New Mexico NARAL fundraising breakfast.

Asked to comment on Steinem’s remark, Chris Lalley, director of media relations for Planned Parenthood of New Mexico, used terrorism comparisons to describe the president.

"We think President Bush is terrorizing women’s rights," Lalley told LifeNews.com.

Steinem’s offhanded remark was too much for Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, who told LifeNews.com, "Gloria Steinem demeans the victims of terrorism by equating opposition to her political agenda to acts of violence."

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