Over 25,000 Sign Petition Demanding Brian Sims Resign After Bullying and Doxxing Pro-Life Women

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 9, 2019   |   11:13AM   |   Washington, DC

Over 25,000 people have signed a petition sponsored by LifeNews demanding that Pennsylvania state representative Brian Sims resign after he filmed himself twice bullying and harassing pro-life women and teenagers.

His conduct has sparked a national outrage — including a rally planned for Friday with national pro-life leaders in Philadelphia at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic where Sims harassed pro-life people.

Thousands of people have directed their condemnation of Sims and his actions to an online petition demanding that he resign. Many of the people signing the petition are calling for much more — they want a criminal investigation of Sims for potentially violating state laws against cyberbullying and doxxing. Other signers hope the Pennsylvania state legislature will impeach Sims and remove him from his position as a state representative.

But many of the people signing believe, at minimum, Sims ought to resign because his bullying and harassment behavior was completely inappropriate and inconsistent with the kind of behavior they expect from elected officials.

And while Sims has received wide-spread media attention and condemnation from Republicans across the country, his fellow Democrats have been silent. Most of the national mainstream media has been silent, too.

As far as LifeNews can tell, no Democratic leaders have condemned Sims’ behavior thus far. One group, the Temple University Democrats club, tweeted that it was “proud” of Sims. It later deleted the tweet, but several other tweets posted this week on its page support Sims with the hashtag #IstandWithSims.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania sent a letter to U.S. Attorney William McSwain, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner urging that Sims be investigated.

SIGN THE PETITION: Rep. Brian Sims Should Resign for Harassing Pro-Life Women

The pro-abortion Democrat politician has been condemned repeatedly since he posted a video of himself berating a pro-life sidewalk counselor last week in Philadelphia. A second video that he posted earlier in April showed him offering $100 for the identities of three pro-life teenage girls who were praying peacefully outside the abortion facility with their mother.

His requests suggest that Sims, a state representative, may have been trying to intimidate the 13- and 15-year-old girls through doxxing, a practice where a person’s name and contact information are posted publicly online usually to encourage harassment.

In the first video, Sims also appeared to be attempting to doxx another pro-life woman – he called her an “old white lady” – by asking his viewers for her name and address.

“Shame on you!” Sims said as the woman asked him to get his camera out of her face. “You have a problem protesting in public? Don’t protest in public!

“If you know who this woman is and you can give me her address, we’ll protest out in front of her home. Let’s go protest out of her house and tell her what’s right for her body,” he continued.

For most of the video, the woman silently bore Sims’ bullying. The exception was when he got his camera close to her face and she told him not to.

Sims also repeatedly exerted his power and privilege by mentioning that he is a state representative, including when the woman appeared to be calling police.

His bullying continued for more than eight minutes, the length of the video.

In the second video that Sims posted several weeks ago, he made a similar request. He offered his viewers $100 to identify three teenage girls who were peacefully praying outside the same Planned Parenthood.

“What we’ve got here is a bunch of … pseudo Christian protesters who’ve been out here shaming young girls for being here. So, here’s the deal, I’ve got $100 to anybody who will identify these three, and I will donate to Planned Parenthood,” Sims said in the video.

His actions may have violated consent and cyberbullying laws. The Philadelphia police and district attorney’s office said they are looking into the incident.

Sims released a statement late Tuesday where he did not apologize for his behavior. Instead, he chose to attack pro-life advocates even more by claiming they “slur” and “attack” Planned Parenthood patients – without providing any evidence to support his claims.

Several leading pro-life groups are planning a rally on Friday at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Philadelphia where Sims filmed himself twice harassing and bullying pro-life women.

A LifeNews petition calling for Sims’ resignation amassed more than 24,000 signatures this week. And a fundraiser started by the family of the teenage girls has raised more than $95,000 for a charity that helps mothers and babies in the city.

The Planned Parenthood abortion clinic where Sims harassed the women has failed 13 of its 23 safety inspections.