GOP lawmaker: Planned Parenthood is the ‘real culprit’ in the shooting

Adams County state Rep. JoAnn Windholz blames Planned Parenthood for the Nov. 27 shooting, at its Colorado Springs clinic, that left three dead and nine injured.  She is one of the few Colorado Republicans to issue a statement in the wake of the attack.

Violence is never the answer, but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit. The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any Planned Parenthood facility is Planned Parenthood themselves. Violence begets violence. So Planned Parenthood: YOU STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE YOUR WALLS.”

Windholz referenced the Center for Medical Progress video that alleged Planned Parenthood and the Colorado Springs clinic were trafficking in baby body parts, the same video suspected shooter Robert Lewis Dear referred to in his oft cited “No more baby parts” statement after his attack.

“Planned Parenthood has no shame,” Windholz said. “These facts and overall mission of the abortion industry would easily send anyone over the hill who wasn’t rational.”

Windholz attended the afternoon session of the day-long Nov. 9 Republican Study Committee of Colorado hearing on Planned Parenthood where GOP lawmakers studied the video.

Her statement, which she provided to The Colorado Independent this morning, expressed no sympathy for the victims, including officer Garrett Swasey, an anti-abortion pastor, or the city of Colorado Springs.

When a violent act happens at a Planned Parenthood facility, “the left goes on ‘auto-pilot’ blaming everyone in sight when they should be looking in a mirror,” she stated.

Amy Runyon-Harms of the liberal group ProgressNow Colorado said she was stunned by Windholz’s remarks.

ProgressNow held a press conference with the pro-choice group NARAL at 11 a.m. today at the State Capitol to discuss the shooting and the Republican rhetoric around it.

“This is exactly the type of rhetoric I am speaking out against today,” Runyon-Harms told The Independent. “For one of our sitting elected lawmakers to utter the phrase ‘Violence is never the answer but…’ is unconscionable and inexcusable. Shame on Representative JoAnn Windholz.”

Windholz, who proudly proclaims her staunch conservative credentials on her website, represents a swing district in Adams County which is dominated by unaffiliated voters and has more Democrats than Republicans.

She’s a first-term legislator who beat incumbent Democrat Jenise May of Aurora by a thin margin of 106 votes in 2014.

In contrast to Windholz’s conservative positions, she uses quotes on her website from two people not normally associated with Republican politics: former President John F. Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kennedy’s quote: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.”

And King’s?

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Windholz’s full statement is below:

Violence – Where it starts.

The freedoms we enjoy in the United States include those that were made up to fit the audience and unsubstantiated numerical support, specifically the right to an abortion. When a violent act happens at a Planned Parenthood (pph) facility (most recent in Colorado Springs) the left goes on “auto-pilot” blaming everyone insight when they should be looking in a mirror. Free Speech has brought to light the insidious selling of baby body parts (pph has no shame). These facts and overall mission of the abortion industry would easily send anyone over the hill who wasn’t rational.

The “war on women” is what pph began with Margaret Sanger and it has turned into a war on the family, especially children. It has changed children from a blessing to a commodity making it very hard to consider ourselves to be a civilized respectful rational society.

Violence is never the answer but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit. The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any pph facility, is pph themselves. Violence begets violence. So pph, YOU STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE YOUR WALLS. My question is, if abortions were free at pph, how long would they stay in business? Pro-Life organizations offer their caring services saving women and children for free every day and they clean up the mess that pph leaves behind.

Pray Daily for the women who abort, their children, and the providers.

JW

Correction 12/2/15: Amy Runyon-Harms name was written as Amy Runyon-Harris in one instance. 

Correction 12/3/15: Original vote count of 237 was based on unofficial results; updated to include results as certified by Secretary of State

29 COMMENTS

  1. My friend Shelley Gonzales responded most eloquently when she said this, “This is one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen since the Springs massacre.
    This Colorado ELECTED official extends NO SYMPATHY to the victims of this terrorist act, including all the officers who were shot and the one who was murdered. Instead she blames Planned Parenthood and dismisses the victims as expected collateral.
    This is beyond repugnant. It is shameless, callous and completely misguided.
    Please share this far and wide to call out the extreme ideology that has infiltrated our government and foments the domestic terrorism threatening our communities day after day.
    This zealot has no business legislating in our state. Her heart is cold and black. She is a disgrace to Colorado and to the entire human race. Absolutely incredible.” I would like to add that this heinous official actually said that if PPh didn’t have violence within their walls, this wouldn’t have happened. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

  2. Have you lost your mind? Your response to this hateful man and his abominable crimes of murder and mayhem is beyond the pale of sanity. I’m sure you also think that uppity women deserve being slapped around by their ‘Christian’ male husbands/boyfriends. And what about mouthy children? Are they, too, deserving of corporal punishment? And the dog that barks too much? Should he just be shot?

    Blaming the victim is the last resort of people who don’t have the decency and honesty to own up to their part in inciting violence. It is you, not Planned Parenthood, who is to blame – you and your tasteless, moronic, so-called “Christian” Republican gutter-mouths. Shame, shame, shame on you all.

  3. Somebody needs to do something about this idiot. Somebody needs to shut her up for good. Violence is never the answer but in her case an exception should be made.

  4. You have GOT to be kidding!!?? This woman is an elected official and thinks the violence against PP is their own fault??!

    DISGUSTING!

  5. You know who’s complicit in the murders? Idiots like Windholz who spread the lie that PP sells body parts.

  6. Terrorists always look for ways to justify themselves, so the real question is why is this chucklehead your Representative to begin with?

  7. windholz is doing an excellent job of getting the next nut job riled up to go shoot more innocent people…she has no clue that the center for medical studies who put out these videos have had them all debunked and she should recant all her words immediately if she does not then she is an accessory to these right wing nut job terrorists and should be tried in a court of law too

  8. Ms. Windholz is no more “conservative,” not to mention “pro-life” or “Christian,” than any other person who condones murder. Beyond that, her statement displays a remarkable level of ignorance, riddled as it is with innuendo and accusation, but no facts. My guess is that Planned Parenthood would be just fine financially if it provided free abortion services, since most of its work is focused on – wait for it, Ms. Windholz – planned parenthood, meaning women’s health and, gasp, family planning. Sort of like what its name implies.

  9. This “person” is incredibly insensitive and appallingly stupid. I hope her district recalls her ASAP. She is, as others have stated, providing justification for further acts like this one. Some people on this planet are absolutely insane and she may just be one of them. A very sorry example of humanity in a population of other examples of this. My two cats have WAY more sense than this one.

  10. Coloradans must defend themselves against the Fascists fomenting attacks such as just occurred in Colorado Springs — Windholz has no place in this country and should leave now!

  11. The more I think about her comments the more I know she is a verbal terrorist! Seems to many of these in the Republican Party.

  12. There was a time when if someone said something this outrageous, so detached from reality, steps would be taken immediately to get that person to step down. Now the modern day Republican party embraces this insanity and they continue to get away with it time and time again without consequence. It’s beyond frustrating.

  13. This woman’s statement regarding the shooting is despicable. BUT… The people of Adam’s County have no one to blame but themselves for her being in a position to spew that statement because THEY elected that idiot. Elections have consequences. The reason all of us around the country are having to endure so many Right Wing morons like her are simply because people with common sense never turn out in the numbers that the crazy Right does. Enjoy you’re time being represented by JoAnn Adam’s County…

  14. I don’t live in Colorado so I have no experience with Rep. Windholz. I couldn’t imagine how she could blame the victims of a crime for the crime itself until she answered the question for me:

    “These facts and overall mission of the abortion industry would easily send anyone over the hill who wasn’t rational.”

    Would one of you nice folks kindly take a look over the hill and see if you can find her? And maybe book her a room in the Rational Hotel. I don’t think she’s ever visited there and it might be a nice trip for her.

  15. This woman’s point of view is frightening and disgusting. I hope the people of Adams County rethink their support of her.

  16. Abortion is like 3% of what they do yet irresponsible politicians will do and say things that rev up the crazies who think God wants them to kill. Violence never arises from religion only from crazy. At best this gal is a Nutzi.

  17. Incredibly disgusting thing to say, especially by an elected official…

    First, the videos from CMP she refers to have been proven to be doctored and forgeries. Indeed, in California when non-PP medical researchers defamed by CMP sued, and demanded in discovery access to the full and unedited versions of the videos, CMP attempted to claim a 5th Amendment right to withhold the videos, admitting the unedited versions proved they’d lied and defamed researchers and PP. A judge tossed out their argument.

    Second, I’d expect a Colorado legislator to have a better understanding of the law. Title 18 in Colorado’s law clearly spells out that homicide involves the unlawful killing of a person, and then very specifically defines a person as a born person alive at the time of the homicide. So abortion, under Colorado law, is NEVER a “murder.”

    And I thought the Republican party was the party of personal responsibility? That a person who murders another bears total responsibility for his/her acts? I guess she believes in a carve out of responsibility for anti-abortion terrorists, and instead believes in blaming the victims.

  18. Planned Parenthood does sell baby body parts. They’ve gone on record with the fact that they sell body parts. They were caught on video HAGGLING over the price of those body parts. Selling aborted fetal tissue (body parts) is not illegal, making a profit on it is, One of these they freely admit to, the other the categorically deny and count on you not watching the video where they haggle over price to avoid prosecution for selling body parts at a profit.

    You people who are claiming that planned parenthood does not sell body parts are IGNORING THINGS THAT PLANNED PARENTHOOD HAS SPECIFICALLY STATED THAT THEY DO ON THE NEWS.

    From your indoctrinated perspective, planned parenthood has done nothing wrong. From the perspective of billions of people on the planet who don’t agree with you, they’re committing murder, chopping up the babies, and selling their body parts at a profit. Abortion doctors flat out admit that sometimes the easiest way to pay off the huge loans they required to get their medical degree, is to work for a PP performing abortions. The abortion industry does not exist because women’s rights, the abortion industry exists because abortions = $$$.

    It’s actually a testament to the fact that this country does not have a problem with right wing terrorists or Christian extremists that abortion clinics are not burned to the ground every day. Try opening one in Baghdad, try opening one in East Jerusalem, or Palestine, Gaza, Iran. They will blow up the building before you open the doors.

    Planned Parenthood performs abortions, abortion accounts for 3% of their services (if you count handing out a condom a “service”) but also 33% of their REVENUE (turns out that handing out condoms doesn’t generate much cash).

    This is going to come as a shock to you but not everyone believe Abortion is a woman’s right and therefore morally acceptable. Most people in the world consider abortion Murder and the people who perform it, murderers. There’s nothing fringe or extreme about this belief. For the greater part of the last century Abortion has been used primarily to A: Remove a Jewish child or child with Jewish ancestry from a true-blood German woman’s womb. B: Enforce birthrate limits on Chinese mothers. C: Sharply reduce the African American population and others Margaret Sanger deemed undesirable. D: Allow American men and women to escape the inconvenience of parenthood without impacting their decision to have unprotected sex.

    Lastly, I find it hilarious that you pro-abortion people pretend to take the moral high ground on the deaths of innocent people, including a police officer who was most decidedly pro-life and at the same time wish death and disaster on this woman who calls you out on it. You are in favor of murdering innocent, unborn children, you have forgone the moral high ground a long time ago. No one cares what you find morally outrageous.

  19. Thank you for the clarification, Rep. Windholz. This means that, if I disagree with the death penalty, I can blow up a bunch of Death Row prison guards! After all, they are the “true instigators” of my violence.

  20. Remarkable how not a single prosecutor in America has found any illegal activity by Planned Parenthood, yet Republicans keep repeating this lie.

  21. Numerous investigations by actual law enforcement bodies have found no evidence that Planned Parenthood “sells” baby parts. No democratic nation in the world prosecutes abortion as murder. Neither the United States nor any other English common law country has ever prosecuted abortion as murder. People like Keith are enraged that their view is not accepted by the majority, and think if they keep screaming “murder” they’ll look like something other than angry three-year-olds who can’t get their way.

  22. Thank you Keith (Dec 2, 2015) for your eloquent comments. I agree wholeheartedly. The truth is the truth. Let’s not cease is standing up for the innocents.

  23. This article, “The moral madness at the heart of the pro-life movement” by Damon Linker, is informative on the issue of abortion and the killer at the PP clinic in Colorado Springs:

    http://theweek.com/articles/591854/moral-madness-heart-prolife-movement

    Here are two excerpts:

    “Pro-life rhetoric is irresponsible, I argued earlier this week. By talking incessantly about millions of murdered and dismembered babies, anti-abortion activists make it sound like resorting to violence is a perfectly reasonable response.”

    “… it might be more humane and merciful, less incendiary, and truer to what are often the muddled moral facts of the matter to say that in all but the rarest, latest, post-viable elective abortions, terminating a pregnancy isn’t an act of murder at all. It’s rather something else — …”

    When you read the entire article you’ll find out what that “something else” is.

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