Abortion

Abortion

A short while ago, I was cable surfing when I came across a panel of speakers engaged in some kind of debate.  Suddenly, I noticed that one of them was Randy Terry, the founder of the notorious anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue.  The debate was amongst “alternative candidates for President” and, lo and behold, there was Randy who I soon learned was running for the DEMOCRATIC nomination for President.  That’s right, he is running against President Barack Obama.

My, how the mighty have fallen.

Abortion

Abortion

It was in the mid 1980’s when Randy caught our attention.  While there were others before him, Randy was the one who really perfected the art of organizing anti-abortion protests.  In 1986, he was arrested for the first time for chaining himself to a sink at an abortion clinic. In 1990, he organized the “Summer of Mercy,” a massive anti-abortion demonstration that targeted the late Doctor George Tiller and his clinic in Wichita, Kansas.  For several weeks, his minions camped out at the clinic and harassed staff and women as they entered that facility which performed late term abortions.  In 1994, he was a co-defendant in NOW v Scheidler, a class action suit compelling pro-life leaders to compensate clinics for loss of business. Terry settled out of court but, instead of paying the settlement, he filed bankruptcy.

For years, his name struck terror in the hearts of abortion providers.  They were always on red alert, tracking rumors about where OR would be heading next.  At the clinics, they often blocked the doors, stalked staff and patients and created general havoc.  However, they ultimately went overboard and, because of that (and the murders of several doctors) the Congress passed the FACE law which severely restricted their activities.  In the next few years, OR became a shell of itself but not just because of the FACE law.

Abortion

Abortion

At some point, Randy’s personal life started falling apart.  He and his wife had several foster children, including three biracial children.  One of those children, Ebony, left home at the age of 16 in 1991. She converted to Islam, a religion Terry has preached is composed of “murderers” and “terrorists.” Then, Terry banned another child from his home after she became pregnant outside of marriage twice by age 18.  Then, his son, Jamiel, publicly announced that he was gay in an article but before the article was published, Terry wrote an essay in which he wrote of the pain and disappointment.  Then, in 2000, Terry divorced his first wife and married his former church assistant (although his feelings aboutdivorce had been so strong that when his own parents divorced he refused to let his children speak with their grandfather for three years).  As a result of Terry’s divorce, the pastor of his local church tossed him out for the divorce and a “pattern of repeated and sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women.”

Interesting set of family values, huh?

And now, the mighty Randy Terry is running a totally bogus campaign for President.  At the end of this “debate” that I happened upon, the candidate sitting next to him, who was literally wearing some kind of big silly hat, stood up and started throwing confetti onto Randy’s head.  It was the ultimate embarrassment.  At one point, he was a worthy adversary.  And now he has come to this.

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