Pro-life activist Abby Johnson said Tuesday Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Brian Sims’ video message in which he attempts to justify his aggressive berating of a pro-life woman outside of a Planned Parenthood facility “isn’t cutting it.”
The former Planned Parenthood director who founded a ministry to help other abortion workers leave the industry is calling on all pro-life activists to join at abortion clinics throughout the country Friday to show abortion supporters like Sims “we won’t be bullied,” and “we will continue to stand against the abortion clinics who bully children til death.”
Sims tweeted a video message Tuesday in which he said he works as a volunteer patient escort at Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, where he harassed a woman he referred to as an “old white lady” who was praying the rosary outside. He said his behavior toward the woman and his bullying of pro-life teens two weeks earlier — both of which he videotaped and posted to Twitter — were influenced by what he claims are “the insults, the slurs, the attacks, and the racism that those protesters aim mostly at young girls going for clinical care.”
In justifying his actions, Sims said in his message, “What I should have shown you was protesters gathered together to pray at, not to silently pray for, people coming in and out of Planned Parenthood, as they intercepted them and harassed them.”
“I also know that two wrongs don’t make a right, especially on the front lines of a civil rights battle,” he said. “I can do better and I will do better, for the women of Pennsylvania.”
“It seems Mr. Sims is digging his heels in further, refusing to issue actual apologies to the woman in the video he harassed nor rescind his offer for money in exchange for the dox on underage girls outside of the clinic who were protesting abortion,” Johnson, whose transformation to pro-life activist is recounted in the new film Unplanned, said in a statement to Breitbart News. “I hope he comes on Friday to meet us, to understand why we stand out there in the cold, rain, snow, and sun praying for and helping women going inside for abortions. I hope he shows up to have an adult conversation about his side and listen to ours. A Twitter video isn’t cutting it.”
An online petition created by pro-life media outlet Life News is calling for Sims’ resignation and had received nearly 6,300 signatures at the time of publication.
“We call on Representative Brian Sims to resign immediately after this shameful harassment and bullying of a pro-life woman,” the petition states. “If he does not resign, the Pennsylvania state legislature should censure him and take whatever other disciplinary measure that are appropriate.”
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