Ever since it came out that Robert Dear, the Planned Parenthood shooter, was referring to “baby parts” during his arrest and in court, anti-choice activists have done their level best to distance Dear from their movement, saying all manner of crazy things in order to keep their crusade as clear and pure as possible. Stuart Shepard of CitizenLink, which is the political arm of right-wing group Focus on the Family, has made possibly the craziest claim about this yet.
Shepard went on The Meeting House, which is a Christian radio show, to make the claim that Dear was probably high on hallucinogens when he shot up Planned Parenthood. Shepard said:
If you trace his path backwards from where he ended up at Planned Parenthood to that grocery store where the first person was shot and go back another half mile, you know what they sell there? It’s a couple of marijuana shops.
I don’t know the facts of this case, but I’m sure law enforcement is looking into this, we’ve had multiple instances of people consuming what are called marijuana edibles … I’d just be curious to know if he stopped by one of those. We’ve had a number of folks who have eaten these things and then had psychotic episodes.
He went on to say that this is what happens when you legalize marijuana, so his case is two-fold: First, that the videos that smeared Planned Parenthood and the anti-choice movement itself had nothing to do with Dear’s behavior, and second, that this is why we need marijuana to remain outlawed.
We should probably outlaw alcohol again too, since people get stupid and drive while drunk, say horrible things and hurt other people. Prohibition worked out so well for alcohol and it’s clearly working out very well for drugs, is it not? This is the logic the Christian Right is using to justify the shootings in Colorado.
The interview appeared on the radio show last Friday; however, Dear appeared in court nine days ago and proclaimed himself a “warrior for the babies.” Either Shepard didn’t know that, or he thinks Dear is still riding a psychotic high. Either way, Shepard is looking more and more like he’s the one who’s off his rocker.
Someone else who’s trying to shift the blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting is the president of Priests for Life, Frank Pavone. He said that it’s really pro-choicers who are responsible, because they’re “poisoning the moral climate of the country.” When the moral climate of the country includes subjugating women and taking away their autonomy, then it’s not really a “moral” climate.
Pushing a nutty conspiracy theory isn’t going to help the situation. It’s just going to make it worse, but this is what we can expect from people who know, at some level, that their lies and rhetoric are dangerous. They want to keep pushing their agenda without push-back from people who get it, so they’ll say the nuts are just the nuts, and have nothing to do with the real world.
Featured image by Fibonacci Blue. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“I don’t know the facts of this case” No this jerk doesn’t know the facts of the case, but that doesn’t stop him from running his mouth. Loser.
It’s quite clear that facts elude him, probably on every subject.
That’s reaching a bit… I just blame PP for the PP shooting (which did not start at PP and injured no PP employee)…
Are you saying that it’s OK to just go into a health clinic and shoot people dead?
Oh nevermind-I just scanned your history. Of COURSE it’s OK with you.
Of course not! It’s not OK to just go into a health clinic and shoot people dead!!! Now, if you talk about an abortion factory, where they kill babies and sell the body parts, I would say yes. No problem at all.
There are no babies killed at PP…but since you think its ok to go there and kill people I’m guessing we’ll soon see you in the headlines. If you antis spent as much time worrying about actual real born babies, you wouldn’t have time to worry about what total strangers are doing with their own bodies.
If only it were “their own bodies”…
What it isn’t is ,, IT IS NOT YOUR BODY! You have no right to judge, or expect these women to follow your beliefs. They don’t kill babies, and they don’t sell body parts. Are you aware that fetal tissue research is how we cured polio? Decades ago! That research has kept you, and your loved ones alive and will continue to do so.
Whose body it is can’t defend himself, right?
it IS their own bodies…although I know you belong to the gender that loves to abandon their real born kids to poverty. Go adopt some of these unwanted kids, go feed the hungry ones…how about paying for their school lunches when their parents can’t? You know why you and your ilk don’t do those things? Because you could care less about real born children. Once they are born, then it becomes the woman’s fault, forgetting how men abandon real born children with needs simply because they are an inconvenience to men. What women do with their bodies is not your business. See ya on the news killer
Not their bodies… Their bany son’s bodies and life… Get it right!
And by the way, we see killers everyday on the news. And by the hundreds. All entering PP to do some killling… Just because they do it not with a gun, makes no difference!
He was not high on cannabis. He was high on religious fervor spurred on by the relentless propaganda and hate spewed by the religious right in this country.