Colorado 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-Harris 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 237 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

This article originally appeared at the Colorado Independent