In February, Terri Lynn Land accidentally confirmed that she was confirmed that she was speaking with Super PACs about funding her campaign, something that is against the law and something she had done before. One of the groups she mentioned is the notorious anti-Choice group Susan B. Anthony List. Apparently Land’s outreachwas successful because this week the Susan B. Anthony List announced their endorsement of her campaign for Senate. This endorsement is in addition to the endorsement she received by the equally radical Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee.
Now, it’s not surprising to see a Republican be endorsed by these forced-birth groups. What separates the SBA List from other groups, however, is their extremism. One of their previously endorsed candidates was Richard Mourdock who has gone down in infamy for this outrageous comment made during a debate:
I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.
Rape pregnancies portrayed as a “gift from God”. It’s astonishing that anyone would think to utter that sort of thing within in earshot of other adults, much less than on a debate stage. The SBA List was in full agreement, however:
The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative group that opposes abortion rights, restated its support for Mourdock and stressed its own ad campaign highlighting Donnelly’s abortion record.“Richard Mourdock said that life is always a gift from God, and we couldn’t agree more,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the SBA List.
The group also believes that contraception, the biggest factor in decreasing unwanted pregnancies, actually INCREASES the abortion rate. I’m not kidding:
On a Catholic activism panel at the Faith and Freedom conference last week, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, made a surprising claim to defend her support for defunding Planned Parenthood, stating that “Every year that contraception and family planning increases, the abortion rate also increases in direct proportion… this is an undeniable fact.”
On MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, Dannenfelser defended Virginia’s forced transvaginal ultrasound requirement for women seeking a legal abortion from a healthcare provider with this nonsensical explanation:
The reason the majority of women in Virginia and across the country support this is that they believe in that vulnerable spot in a very difficult place, that more information is better. And making — there are two decisions to make. One decision is a medical decision. One is about the very contentious, very difficult decision about what is actually happening in an abortion.And that ultrasound speaks to that. It`s science. It`s a scientific opinion backing up a medical reality.
Terri Lynn Land has spent a great deal of time lately attempting to convince women that she’s the candidate that will best represent the interests of women. However, her anti-Choice position makes it clear that she doesn’t trust women to make healthcare decisions for themselves and wants to remove their options in favor of her own “moral” views. She’s on the Board of Directors for Gift of Life of Michigan and supports the radical Republican Party platform that would ban abortions even in the case of rape an incest. She even supported Michigan’s odious “Rape Insurance” law, erroneously claiming it would prevent tax dollars from being spent on abortions.
Terri Lynn Land isn’t a moderate Republican with Michigan women’s best interests in mind. She’s a conservative ideologue who wants to impose her personal worldview on everyone around her, including women.
Here’s how Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer put it on her Facebook page today:
I saw the news today that Terri Lynn Land was endorsed by the extremist Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-woman group that has rallied to the defense of people like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock who shamelessly said that pregnancy from rape was what “God intended to happen.”Despite Terri Lynn Land’s attempts to portray herself as a pro-woman candidate based solely on the fact that she is a woman herself, courting endorsements such as this one makes it abundantly clear that her true interests lie anywhere but what’s actually best for women.
The Susan B. Anthony List of endorsements reads like a who’s who of backwards thinking politicians that have tried to minimize the impact of rape and force women to endure invasive and unnecessary medical procedures. On behalf of women throughout Michigan, I’d hope to see Ms. Land reject SBA-List’s endorsement rather than embrace it, but I’m not holding my breath for that to happen either.
Like countless women across our state, I’m proud to support Gary Peters for U.S. Senate because he’s always fought for us, our health and our best interests. I hope you’ll join me in working to elect Gary this year!
The Michigan Democratic Party is also calling on Land to reject the SBA List’s endorsement saying, ““Terri Lynn Land should immediately denounce the Susan B. Anthony List and reject their endorsement. This was a group that defended the statement that pregnancies from rape are what ‘God intended.’ In their defense of Richard Mourdock, they even said these pregnancies after a violent attack are ‘gift(s) from God.’ Land, Mourdock, and Susan B. Anthony share the same extreme anti-women agenda that would turn back the clock on women’s rights and erase decades of progress for Michigan women.”
It’s not going to happen of course because Land isn’t a pro-woman candidate. She is a far right Republican trying desperately to convince us otherwise. Sort of reminds me of a certain 2010 gubernatorial candidate who attempted and succeeded in doing the same thing.
