Media Censors Info That Officer Killed During Shooting at Planned Parenthood Was Pro-Life

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 1, 2015   |   4:35PM   |   Washington, DC

The media is doing everything possible to blame pro-life advocates for the shooting last week at at Planned Parenthood abortion business. The police officer killed during Friday’s shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood is pro-life and a co-pastor at his local church.

But, as Newsbusters is reporting, media outlets are censoring that information:

The Bible says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” and that appears to be the standard by which one man lived, who gave his life Friday protecting those he disagreed with on abortion. But you won’t hear that story from the media because the pro-life “Good Samaritan” doesn’t fit their agenda.

Garrett Swasey was a police officer and a church elder in the Colorado Springs area, a husband and father of two. Amidst the shooting last Friday at a local Planned Parenthood clinic, Swasey was killed in an attempt to save the hostages inside.

In dozens of reports from the three major networks on the Planned Parenthood shooting since last Friday, not one reporter mentioned Swasey was morally opposed to abortion, yet gave his life protecting those inside the abortion clinic.

The only mention of Swasey’s pro-life views was one tiny blurb by panelist Hugh Hewitt on the Nov. 29 Meet the Press. After he made the comment, NBC’s Chuck Todd immediately changed topics.

The stereotype of the militant “Christian extremist” is one the media are only too willing to promote, as we’ve seen with the heavy coverage and demonization of the pro-life side. But the story of a Christian giving up his life for his enemies is not the kind of story the networks are willing to report on.

As the New York Times reports about Officer Garrett Swasey:

Garrett Swasey, 44, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer who was shot and killed while responding to a shooting at a Planned Parenthood office, was described by his fellow church members and friends as a courageous man and loving father who drew strength and inspiration from his Christian faith.

He was married, with two young children, and had been on the campus police force for six years. He also spent seven years as a co-pastor at Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. “Here’s a guy who worked full time as a police officer, and then gave a great amount of time to his local church and didn’t get a dime for it,” said Scott Dontanville, a co-pastor who knew Officer Swasey for 15 years. “He did it because it was the thing that he felt he needed to do.”

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Kurt Aichele, a co-pastor at the church and a close friend, said Officer Swasey was once a nationally ranked figure skater and ice dancer and moved to Colorado Springs years ago to train.

When it became clear he had not survived, Mr. Aichele said, they gathered at his home, where his wife broke the news to their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.

“She had to tell her kids that their daddy wasn’t coming home,” Mr. Aichele said.

The newspaper reports that Officer Swasey would have “disagreed with the abortion industry,” according to those who know him best.

Family and friends of Officer Swasey have set up a memorial fund for his family to which people can contribute.

On Monday, alleged Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear appeared frazzled in his first court hearing following his arrest. Dear, 57-years-old and residing in Colorado and North Carolina, was arrested at the scene in connection with the violent shooting that claimed the lives of three people, including one police officer and injured 9 others, including multiple officers.

Dear reportedly mentioned “baby body parts” when arrested at the scene of the crime, but he  has no connections with the pro-life movement and those who know him best say he was never interested in the issue of abortion.

As LifeNews has reported, the picture neighbors are painting of Robert Lewis Dear, who allegedly shot over a dozen people outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on Friday, is one of a “rambling and incoherent” loner who never talked about abortion.

Dear appears to have no association with the pro-life movement and those who know him say he is an awkward man who never discussed religion or abortion. The profile they paint is far from a caricature of a pro-life activist who has an issue with the Planned Parenthood abortion business and more of a loner or renegade who may have mental health issue and, at a minimum, is a bit “off.”

Since the shooting, a massive debate has ensued over any bearing it may have on the abortion debate.

Less than 24 hours after the shooting, the CEO of the abortion company, Cecile Richards, issued a fundraising email essentially blaming pro-life people for the shooting, saying the “feed domestic terrorism.”

Planned Parenthood officials have confirmed none of the people killed in the shooting or 9 victims who were injured were Planned Parenthood abortion clinic staff or patients and authorities have released no motive for the shooter as to whether or not he actually targeted Planned Parenthood. And, according to the Associated Press, all of the shooting took place outside of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, not in it.

As LifeNews reported, the police officer killed during Friday’s shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood is pro-life and a co-pastor at his local church. Garrett Swasey, 44, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer who was shot and killed while responding to the shooting and was described by his fellow church members and friends as a courageous man and loving father who drew strength and inspiration from his Christian faith.

Family members and friends identified the other two victims as 29-year-old Ke’Arre Stewart and Jennifer Markovsky, 35. Both accompanied friends to the Planned Parenthood on Friday.

Multiple pro-life groups quickly condemned the shooting while pro-abortion presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a tweet exploiting the active shooting before the shooter was apprehended or a motive known to push for support for the abortion business and then went on to say pro-life people should “defend Planned Parenthood, not attack it.”

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains issued a statement responding to the shooting, saying it doesn’t know if Planned Parenthood was the target of the attack.

“We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack,” Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains President Vicki Cowart said in a statement.

Cowart was accused of pushing abortion at the memorial for the shooting victims and one woman walked out after she politicized the event.

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