A Colorado pro-life advocate said he was kicked out of the state Senate gallery Tuesday for wearing a “Pro-Life U” sweatshirt while lawmakers debated a bill to censor pregnancy resource centers.
The incident occurred when Jeff Hunt, the director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, showed up at the state Capitol with other pro-lifers for Pregnancy Resource Center Day, an event to educate lawmakers about the services pro-life charities provide to families in need.
Pro-abortion Democrats control the Colorado Legislature, and they recently began debating an anti-life and anti-choice bill that would prohibit pregnancy centers from helping women who want to try to save their unborn babies through the abortion pill reversal procedure.
Hunt said he went to the Senate gallery to listen to debate about the legislation and quickly was asked to either remove his pro-life sweatshirt or leave, according to The Federalist.
“I walked in, grabbed my seat, and I was immediately asked to step out,” he told the Daily Citizen. “They were pleasant and polite but then pointed me to a sign that states no apparel with any political sentiment is allowed.”
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Here’s more from The Federalist:
Under “gallery rules” on the Colorado General Assembly website, it does not say that political messages on clothing are prohibited, and Hunt told The Federalist that he was not aware of a rule against political apparel. However, the Colorado Sergeant at Arms who escorted Hunt out of the gallery showed Hunt a small sign outside the gallery that does say expressing “political statements” is not allowed in the gallery. …
“I explained to [the Sergeant at Arms] that [my ‘Pro-Life U’ sweatshirt] is our university name. This isn’t just a political statement. This is our identity and CCU’s identity, and we have submitted a DBA — a Doing Business As — and a trademark on this. And I’m just representing our university here.”
However, the Sergeant at Arms told him to leave or remove his sweatshirt anyway, he said.
Afterward, Hunt said he found other examples of people wearing shirts with political messages in the gallery, so the rule is not being equally enforced. For example, a few weeks ago, he said students wearing red shirts advocating for gun control were allowed in the gallery.
“Makes you wonder if someone wearing a Planned Parenthood shirt would also be asked to leave? How about an ACLU shirt?” Hunt said.
Two similar incidents happened during the March for Life in January in Washington, D.C. Pro-life high school students from Greenville, South Carolina said staff at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum kicked them out for wearing pro-life hats. The museum later apologized.
Another group of pro-lifers said a staff member at the National Archives also kicked them out for wearing pro-life apparel the same day. According to the Daily Signal, the staffer later was fired.
Discriminatory attitudes are indicative of abortion activists, who treat babies in the womb as disposable. In Colorado, pro-abortion lawmakers are debating three pro-abortion bills this spring that would discriminate against unborn babies and the pro-life charities who work to save their lives and help their mothers.
Writing for BreakPoint.org, pro-life columnist John Stonestreet described the legislation:
One of the bills, named “Prohibiting Deceptive Practices at Anti-Abortion Centers,” takes direct aim at pregnancy resource centers, which have been serving women across the country for decades with free pregnancy tests, prenatal care, parenting classes, baby clothes, diapers, and more. Referring to these centers as “anti-abortion” is an attempt to paint them as shadowy fronts for nefarious political action. …
Another of the Colorado bills would require private insurance companies to pay for abortions under employee healthcare plans, and it would grant state funding to pay for transportation for an abortion. The other bill would protect doctors who perform abortions or prescribe abortion pills to women from out of state, as well as prohibit the state from “restricting” or “interfering” with the licensing of abortion clinics. This could hinder law enforcement from investigating reports of dangerous conditions inside them.
In Colorado, killing unborn babies in abortions is legal for any reason up to birth.
