Yesterday was supposed to have been a nationwide day of protest by pro-life conservatives, answering the weeks of massive demonstrations against the new Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress’ agenda on that and many other issues with their own call to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding.
But as the Denver Post’s Danika Worthington reports, that’s not how it played out in the Mile High City:
In the morning, more than a hundred people gathered outside Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountain headquarters in east Denver to call for the government to defund the health care service.
They held signs that read “Planned Parenthood lies to you” and “Stop abortion now.” This was one of about 200 protests scheduled across the country.
Then later in the day, more than a thousand rallied outside Republican Sen. Cory Gardner’s Denver office to support funding Planned Parenthood [Pols emphasis] while holding their own variety of signs, including “Girls just want to have fun-ding” and “Nevertheless, she persisted” while chanting “My body, my choice” and “Not the church, not the state, women will decide their fate.”
The estimates we’ve heard for yesterday’s rally outside Sen. Cory Gardner’s office in downtown Denver are all in the thousands. The crowd once again filled downtown Denver’s Skyline Park from 17th to 18th Streets, with more waving signs from adjacent street corners. Attendees lined up to hand-write letters to Sen. Gardner to be delivered this week by protest organizers, noting their local address and unpaid protester status:
One of the high points of yesterday’s rally was state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada, reading the satirical pseudo-children’s book See Joan Run to the delight of thousands of rallygoers:
Bob says, “There are too many Dicks in office.”
In the end, the anti-abortion rally outside Planned Parenthood wasn’t completely squelched by the much larger protest to save Planned Parenthood, as evidenced with the news headlines that virtually all talk about the “dueling protests.” But the underlying fact that at least ten times as many people turned out in favor of Planned Parenthood as turned out against the organization, and probably a much higher ratio, cannot be considered anything but another major defeat for the anti-abortion movement–in one of the nation’s most pro-choice states.
In Colorado, #DefundPP was more than a bust. It was a backfire.
The fact that the rally to save Planned Parenthood was held outside Sen. Gardner’s offices also illustrates the growing political threat these actions represent to Republican elected officials here and around the country. Whether Gardner likes it or not–and we suspect he doesn’t like it one bit–he has become the local vessel into which the public is pouring its anger over the GOP’s and Trump administration’s agenda. Gardner’s infamous flip-flops and evasions on the abortion issue in particular on the campaign trail in 2014 have not been forgotten, and stand today as huge liabilities he has made no effort to resolve.
These few short weeks of upheaval cannot tell us what 2020, which is Gardner’s and Trump’s next election, will look like. But if Cory Gardner continues to dismiss what is happening outside his office as the work of “paid protesters” and liberal donor usual suspects?
There is a scenario in which it goes very badly for him.
Trump to issue new executive order. Free abortions for Democratic women……for the good of humanity.
Still dreaming of creating a Master Race, huh?
Passionate Prune: you need better script writers.
Hoping to preserve the human race.
You guys must be getting pretty desperate to rely on trying to kill off all the smart people just to stay in power a little bit longer. That only works in the short term, anyway. You'd know that if you paid attention to history.
If being smart is killing children I'm glad I'm not in your belief system.
A fertilized egg is not a child. It has the possibility to develop into one. But one does not automatically equal the other.
This is why you silly SOBs need smart people, to explain sciency-stuff to you.
Naw, it's all in the book of Genesis. King James version.
Dr. Cro-Magnon, please explain this sciency-stuff to the best of your ability. Please explain the day, the hour a fertilized egg becomes a child.
Democratic Party, commitment to death..
That's the thing about science. It doesn't make determinations based on your made-up Sky God. You might as well ask the day and hour that an acorn becomes a tree.
Moron.
You're fine with letting children die after they're born. You don't want people to have healthcare. There's nobody more comitted to death than you and your ilk Petie.
Now, now…those are poor children, and most likely some sort of brownish color.
So, to Pustulent Pig. they're not really "people".
I won't get into that question; but are you aware that 50% of pregnancies end before anyone (including the woman) knows they happened? It seems you god kills an awful lot of “children”.
Likewise, please explain the exact time and process by which a pear becomes powerful!
As opposed to your system of being dumb, which kills a lot of already born children. You know, the ones you don't care about.
But your 'belief' system doesn't have any qualms with killing children does it, Putrid Pear? We did leave a legacy in Iraq...just not the one the war mongers promised.
I practice a faith that has a Sky God – but one doesn't need a 'belief system' to be moral. In fact some of my friends who are atheists or agnostics have morals far beyond those who share a pew with me on Sundays.
You support abortion?
Support abortion? No. But I don't oppose it either. Decision is best left to the woman who is pregnant and anyone she chooses to consult with.
I can tell you this, if I were a woman who was pregnant and was considering termination for whatever reason, I would not be consulting nameless, faceless posters on a political website who know nothing about me or my situation…and elected officials who try to use a medical procedure as a wedge issue. Those are two groups of people whose opinions I wouldn't give two shits about.
Are you MichaelBowman?
We are all MichaelBowman!!!
I think you are right. You all are MichaelBowman.
I'd like to say you'd make a nice compote, Pear. But I'm afraid you wouldn't.
Michael, you have use the compote line before. I trust you can come up with some new material.
Why should I come up with something new when you continue to peddle your same old stale talking points in ad nauseam?
Pear, no I’m not MichaelBowman. If you’d like to engage in a private conversation with him you should probably text or email him off line. This type of a forum encourages everyone to chime in.
Your only purpose for being here is to inflict psychological violence on the other contributors to this forum. You're mindless insistence that Trump can produce an E.O. to allow Democrats to have abortions is just ludicrous and then you use it to get in your abortion is murder and I'm a saint to oppose it bullshit while ignoring all the suffering including the chemical warfare in Syria that you tolerate because you are in love with Putin and Russian authoritarianism.
The only problem with being a psychological violence junkie is that the other contributors have seen your kind before and the general consensus is a small minded jerk who doesn't know how to debate policy differences with wit and intelligence. Go ahead and give it your best shot Pear but words can never harm me. You need some therapy.
Trump is proposing a new executive order on post birth abortion. I think he means you. Your only hope is to resist.
The Party of death is worried about psychological violence? I guess you have not watched your kindred spirits riot, and destroy property in the name of Democracy.
Vlad said to tell you, Hi.
As opposed to your kindred spirits who have rioted and destroyed property and disturbed the peace in the name of low taxes on the rich and no gun laws.
You mean these violent protests?
Isn't post-birth abortion just another way of saying Republican Health Care plan? Got news for you, Petie: it's already been signed. Let's just hope it's effective enough to stop the next Bowling Green Massacre.
Your writing has been weighed and you have been found wanting. Your goofy goal is to inflict pain and punish people at this website like some kind of literary sadist. You can't be a Christian and a literary sadist at the same time because violence in all it's forms was rejected by the Prince of Peace. What we end up with is another preening Pharisee who sees his moral superiority everywhere he turns instead of the needs of the people. It's is Old Testament thinking that everyone needs to be punished and you're the one to do it.
Grow up little boy. Your writing is a joke of half-baked insults and self-righteous pronouncements. If you want to write something that explains your positions fine but if all you are going to do is throw tantrums and little hissy fits like BJ did then we'll treat you like the valueless troll you are and ignore your comments. You've been troll rated. It's up to you whether you want to act like a grown up and discuss the issues with respect and insight. Somehow I think you are capable of neither but we'll see.
Putrid Pear – I support a woman's right to make her own choices regarding her own body. Do you support stupidity? I know this is a lot to wrap your head around – but one can advocate for life and be pro-choice. Got it?
I don't think Petie gets it. Wrapping his brain around anything more complicated than Trumpian talking points is too hard for him.
Now I get it. Jesus lacks the nuance of the abortion issue. It is so very clear now. If only he was as smart as Democrats there would be no issue.
Aw Petie. I wasn't talking about Jesus. I was talking about you. There. Is that better? Such a sensitive snowflake. I'm sorry you have a sad.
Too bad your advocacy for life never shows up on the Pols site. For you, abortion is a political position, not a moral one.
You have no moral authority over another human being's body. None.
You are right Cro-Magnon man. I have no power and no authority so do not fear me. But afraid you should be. The God you mock may very well be real. Michale Blowman knows it is so. Seek his wise counsel.
Petie. How would your God feel about the nearly violent language and name-calling you do? Jesus said "That which you do to the least of these brothers and sister of mine, you do unto me". If I had to guess, based on your posts, God wouldn't be to happy with how you treat the brothers and sisters of Jesus, which we all are.
Again, get on your high horse about abortion and ignore the nuance. But if your okay with what Trump wants to do with healthcare and foreign policy and Putin-like totalitarianism, and 0 gun laws even after small children are killed, you have no business calling any person, or group pro-death.
Putrid Pig:
If your bigotry, misogyny, and hatred are in any way a result of your interpretation of your god, I do mock him. Openly. This is me, mocking your god, and more specifically, the hateful little man hiding behind him, thinking his god will give him the power he lacks.
Any god who would have his followers act as you do is a pathetic joke.
unnamed – I'll bet Petie has a bumper sticker that says Honk if you're pro-life! Who needs anything more than a horn, a bumper sticker and troll status on a political blog to prove their allegiance to
lifebirth?Don't drown in your pity for me, Pear. I don’t need any morality lectures from a nameless-faceless troll.
Why would I think anything different.
To assume you could think different would imply you think at all. No one here makes that assumption.
Then you'd better not breed, Petie.
PP – there's a difference between being pro-life and being pro-birth. For far too long we've let Karl Rove and your ilk mis-define what it means to be the former.
To quote Sister Joan Chittister…
When the "Sister" refers to "tax money", it is clear she is a kook. It's simply math. In every population set there is bell curve. She is clearly an outlier, woman of faith or not.
Sister Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun and renowned author and speaker. She has authored over 50 books and over 700 articles in numerous journals and magazines.
But, of course, you, being a half-wit, spineless, willfully ignorant bigot…You know who's right with God, and who ain't.
You mean this woman who believes in the "Sky God" as you put it, is now a credible source for your argument.
Democratic Party committed to death.
I'm not agreeing with or condemning her faith; merely pointing out that it's laughable that you think you can just dismiss someone learned and established because she doesn't believe the stupid things you do.
It's like every one of you narcissistic morons thinks they're the President just because they voted for one
But keep repeating bumper stickers. It’s not like you have any arguments.
You have condemned her faith, "made up Sky God". She is learned and established because you can pick one excerpt that confirms your point. When you have read her 50 books and 700 articles will they all confirm your commitment to death for the most defenseless. Or will you dismiss it as "made up Sky God"?
As far as I can tell, she hasn't used her faith to make claims as to when a fertilized egg is a child. I don't have a problem with faith; just idiots like you who use their own convenient definitions of it to justify their stupid bigotry.
You sky god is your own business, as is hers. When it comes to other people and their bodies, why can't YOU just mind your own business? Because your sky god says you don't have to?
By the way, how does your made-up sky god feel about you saying that Democratic women should kill their unborn babies? He’s cool with that, I guess? That’s the thing about you GOP twits and your sky god. He pretty much seems to support whatever shitty thing you say or do. He’s cool like that.
Actually, the PP is not so handy with the bumper stickers….
I find that I enjoy reading Pols much more when I block his comments.
You know what they say about pig rasslin'.
…and when you refer to 'tax money' you have no problems funding a war machine. Identifying the kook here is like shooting fish in a barrel.
In part you are correct. I have no problem in funding a defense machine that can be a winning war machine. It simply must be done.
You also have no problem letting Americans die from getting kicked off their health insurance from preexisting conditions. You don't care about the post-born and are more than willing to let them die.
+100
Women don't need an E.O. from Trump. They already have the legal right to decide when to start their family. This comment just shows how out of touch and ignorant you are of the legal environment in our country. It also shows the depth of your hatred toward your fellow Americans. It is no longer acceptable to disagree with you. If a person doesn't agree with your political philosophies than you want them eliminated. No wonder you love Russia and want to make America a totalitarian state like them. No cooperation or compromise in a partnership of Democracy for you. No sir. You want to call all the shots and anyone who disagrees needs to simply disappear. Any you call yourself a patriot.
This is probably why the eggmendments failed so badly. The crowds are an indication of the fact that the "abortion is the only issue" crowd isn't more dedicated or focused than those who believe in the right of the individual to decide their own destiny. The power of belief that the government solution crowd exudes pales in comparison of those who believe in freedom from religious zealots. Gardner et-al can label them as paid out-of-towners but his good guy credibility is getting shredded. The 2020 election is a presidential election and the weasel is going to be running on his devotion to Trump. We'll see how that works out. Right now the crowds are doing the right thing and putting the focus squarely on Gardner's vote for Supreme Court and supporting women's health care. Me thinks he is going to fail both tests.
"We'll see how that works out……." All depends on who the Dem nominee is. If the Dems heed Zappatero's likely advice and nominate a far left winger, Gardner will cruise to re-election.
Prediction: If Perlmutter is elected Governor, Rachel Zenzinger will be the next member of congress from the 7th CD.
Lol.
Naaaaah.