Anti-Abortion Extremist Is Running For President

By Irin Carmon | June 9, 2011 | 2:16pm

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Randall Terry, an anti-choice extremist even Operation Rescue, the group he founded, finds too crazy, is running for president as a Democrat. The goal: To get as much anti-abortion propaganda on television as possible, maybe even the Super Bowl.

The Daily Caller casually notes that Terry’s “running mate is effectively a dead fetus,” and that’s a pretty accurate characterization. (Incidentally, John Boehner’s chief of staff didn’t find Terry too extreme, granting him an in-person meeting earlier this year).

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But thankfully, there are no dead fetuses in the television ad that Terry has already gotten at least one Iowa television station to agree to air as he “challenges” President Obama in the Democratic caucuses.

But that doesn’t mean things won’t get uglier. In the show candidacy of Missy Smith in Washington D.C. that Terry helped mastermind last year, the goal was to get bloodied fetuses on television. At the time, lawyers for the local stations said they were compelled to show because of courts’ interpretation of the Communications Act as pertaining to candidates.

And anti-choice blogger Jill Stanek wrote in last December:

Terry is considering a run for president specifically with the goal to air a graphic abortion ad during the big game in 2012. Terry’s back-up plan if unable to raise enough funds, estimated at $2.5-3 million, would be to run his ad during either the AFC or NFC championship game two weeks prior.

Of course, the 2012 election doesn’t need Terry to inject anti-abortion extremism. There are the “mainstream” Republicans eagerly lining up to do just that. Given that the defunding of Planned Parenthood is turning into a litmus test for Republican candidates, they’re past anti-abortion and onto anti-contraception. And just to name one, Jon Huntsman, who has gotten the conservative side-eye for being a “moderate” and being an ambassador in the Obama administration, said just last week, “You see, I do not believe the Republican Party should focus only on our economic life to the neglect of our human life. That is a trade we should not make. If Republicans ignore life, the deficit we will face will be much more destructive. It will be a deficit of the heart and of the soul.”

Incidentally, Terry’s response to the Republican party’s record on restricting women’s choices is on record in musical form.

Obama-Bashing Ads By Abortion Foe Randall Terry To Air In Iowa [Des Moines Register]
Anti-Abortionist Democrat Randall Terry Challenging Obama In Iowa [Daily Caller]
Earlier: Graphic Anti-Abortion Ads Trying To Infiltrate Super Bowl