I wrote yesterday that the defunding of Planned Parenthood was high priority for social conservatives and likely to be a major point of contention as the Assembly moved forward.
The whole issue is about to go viral and in a very unexpected manner.
At the press conference held by the coalition advocating defunding, Bob Marshall made the following observation.
“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children…. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord… There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
The initial news reports in the major Virginia papers presented the argument over defunding Planned Parenthood, but did not draw attention to Marshall’s observations about children born with handicaps subsequent to abortions.
Kelsey Radcliffe, a student reporter for the Capital News Service at VCU, however, filed a story that included Marshall’s commentary and her story was picked up by a couple of smaller papers around Virginia, including the Yorktown Gazette and the Staunton News Leader.
The stories circulated widely this morning among disability advocates across Virginia.
At this moment, it’s about to go viral.
Tomorrow, all the major papers will be following up on Kelsey Radcliffe.
And asking McDonnell, Bolling, and Cuccinelli what they think of Marshall’s comment.
The national media will surely follow. It’s grist for Olbermann’s mill.
But there is a remarkable twist to the story.
Last year, the Virginia General Assembly was considering legislation (as it is again this year) expanding health coverage for children with autism.
Who was the major patron of the legislation?
Who was unrelenting in criticizing his own party for bottling it up in a committee without a vote?
Who called this action a gross failure, arguing eloquently that “silence was not a morally acceptable response”?
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