HUCKABEE PAL SENDS FETUS TO TESTIFY IN LEGISLATURE

My thoughts on the Huckabee birther story are in the previous post. For now, I just want to point out the latest from Janet Folger of the religious right group Faith2Action -- who was the co-chair of Huckabee's Faith and Family Values Coalition during his campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, and who's a close ally ("I answer to" Porter, Huckabee says). She and her group are pulling this stunt in Ohio:

A fetus has been scheduled as a legislative witness in Ohio on a unique bill that proposes outlawing abortions after the first heartbeat can be medically detected.

Faith2Action, the anti-abortion group that has targeted Ohio to pilot the measure, called the in-utero witness the youngest to ever come before the House Health Committee at 9 weeks old.

Faith2Action president Janet Folger Porter said the intent is to show lawmakers who will be affected by the bill, which abortion rights groups oppose....

More:

A release from backers notes: "Two in-utero babies will appear live before the committee by an ultrasound projector which is able to not only show that baby's moving arms and legs, but also display–in color–the baby's beating heart."

Fortunately, the bill is unlikely to become law, and it probably wouldn't survive a court challenge if it did. (UPDATE: According to thisstory, the bill "appears to have the votes in the Republican-dominated legislature.")

But this is the kind of thing Huck's close ally does. I wasn't kidding when I said that he's told people he "answer[s] to" Porter:



"My wife, by the way, is named Janet, and I tell people there are two Janets that I answer to, my wife, Janet, and Janet Porter, because both of them are pretty strong-willed, and when Janet Porter told me I was coming to this event tonight, I just asked her how I was going to get here..."

(That was at the 2009 How to Take Back America Conference.)

Porter organized a Values Voter Debate for Republican candidates in 2007 at which a choir sang a rewritten version of "God Bless America" called "Why Should God Bless America?"



Why should God bless America?
She's forgotten he exists
And has turned her back
On everything that made her what she is...

The courts ruled prayer out of our schools
In June of '62
Told the children "you are your own God now
So you can make the rules"
O say can you see what that choice
Has cost us to this day
America, one nation under God, has gone astray....

(Full lyrics here.)

There's the crowd Mike Huckabee's runs with, ladies and gentlemen. And yes, imagine if something comparable to this song was sung anywhere near a Democratic politician.

****

Meanwhile, here in New York City, the anti-abortion crowd is getting a taste of its own medicine -- and whining about it:

The owner of a dozen "crisis pregnancy centers" in New York said he thinks he is being unfairly targeted by a City Council that he says is clearly pro-choice.

"The government is taking the abortionist side of the debate and forcing it down our throats," said Chris Slattery, founder of Bronx-based Expectant Mother Care pregnancy center. "We're being completely targeted because we are pro-life."

The Council is expected to pass a bill [today] that will require centers like Slattery's to list services they do not offer, like abortions, prenatal care and contraceptives....

Slattery is preparing to sue....

My heart bleeds, Chris. Your side has been using legislation to harass abortion providers for the better part of four decades. I have no sympathy.

Oh, and Mayor Bloomberg supports the bill, so it's likely to become law.