Lies And Mutilated Fetuses Get Green Light In Presidential Advertisements
A long-time, violently anti-abortion activist running for president has produced a horribly graphic ad filled with images of mutilated fetuses and lies about Democrats while a television network said it is legally blocked from rejecting or editing the ad for accuracy or its immoral content.
The activist, Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue and representing the Constitution Party, is receiving support from Democrats who hope that they can help Terry to siphon votes away from trump in critical swing states. Trump has recently generated some criticism from abortion opponents who believe trump is softening in his opposition to abortion after he said that his administration would be “great” for women’s reproductive rights.
The Democratic plan includes supporting the far right Terry while continuing to oppose trump for having appointed the Supreme Court justices who voted down the Roe v. Wade decision and denying women the right to choose to have an abortion.
Terry’s organization, Operation Rescue, gained prominence for blocking the entrances to abortion clinics. He also was a candidate in the 2012 Democratic presidential primary election and ran a series of ads in multiple states graphically showing aborted babies. Terry won 18 percent of the primary vote and defeated President Barack Obama in 12 counties in Oklahoma where the ads were shown. Terry was eligible for one delegate at the 2012 National Democratic Convention because he won more than 15 percent of the statewide vote.
A Utah TV station affiliated with ABC was criticized after airing one of Terry’s current anti-abortion ads that compared several celebrities, including Oprah and Taylor Swift to the Nazis.
The ad is titled “Stupid Celebrities, Lying Journalists” with photos of such stars as Taylor Swift, Robert DeNiro, Whoopie Goldberg, Bill Mahr, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, Dana Bash, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Billie Eilish and Scarlett Johansson.
The ad shows photos of dead and mutilated fetuses and narration, “murdered by abortion which you promote…If history even remembers you, you’ll be remembered like Leni Riefenstahl (the Nazis officials photographer) and Josef Goebells (Nazi propaganda minister).”
Though Terry is not on the ballot in Utah, he meets the criteria to purchase air time on the network. ABC issued a statement explaining why it had no choice but to run the ad.
“By law, our TV stations must air the ad. According to the Federal Communication Commission, broadcast stations are ‘prohibited from censoring or rejecting political ads that are paid for and sponsored by legally qualified candidates,’” the statement said.
Political ads on TV aren’t required to be factual as they are protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. The people who make the ads, however, may be liable for civil lawsuits for defamation.
Broadcast news networks and their local affiliates are not allowed to censor or edit ads directly from the candidate. Different rules apply for cable networks like MSNBC and CNN, which can choose what ads to air and can request edits. But in both cases, politicians are not required to provide factual statements in their ad campaigns. Stations can put disclaimers before an ad that contains sensitive material.
The ABC disclaimer posted on screen said, “The following is a paid political advertisement, and the ABC television network is required to carry it by federal law. The advertisement contains scenes that may be disturbing to children. Viewer discretion is advised.”
This ad aired in popular ABC programs like “The View,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “ABC News Tonight with David Muir.”
Other examples of Terry’s current ads include one titled, “Kamala Horror” in which the vice president is heard cackling, with a narrator noting sarcastically that Harris is “telling a woman what to do with her body” The narrator says women are being forced to carry a pregnancy to term while an image flashes on the screen of Harris laughing sadistically. The narrator says, “Make no mistake, a vote for Kamala is a vote for murder.”
Another ad titled “The Democrats: The New KKK,” features Terry’s running mate, the Rev. Stephen Broden. Over the image of bloodied, deformed, dead fetuses, Broden says that “Once upon a time, Democrats were the party of the little guy. Now they kill the little guy.”
Broden says that Democrats “promote murdering babies by abortion, mutilating children’s genitals to change their sex and corrupting their innocence with planned parenthood subversion. Democratic policy toward children is violent, abusive, satanic.”
Broden, a Republican businessman, pastor, political activist, broadcaster and former professor, lost a 2010 run for congress from Texas. In October 2010, Broden was accused of saying that the federal government was “tyrannical” and suggested violent overthrow could not be ruled out if there was not a “change in leadership” in the November elections.
An ad for Terry’s Constitution Party, mirrors trump ads, claiming that “America acts like the world’s policemen while our cities are plagued by violent crime and the U.S. pours billions of dollars into Ukraine while illegal immigrants pour over our border.” The narration is over images of images of people looting while a city goes up in flames.
Terry’s website says that “Our duty is to Defend children, Defeat Kamala, and Destroy the Party of child abuse. We’re targeting Catholic and Black voters with this message: ‘Never vote for a Democrat candidate again!’”
Broden is quoted on the website with comments made before President Joe Biden quit the race to open up the nomination for Harris.
“I’ve never seen a community so exploited and bamboozled by slick advertising as the Black community. If you are Black, and you vote for Biden, you’re an accessory to Black genocide, and the murder of innocent babies,” Broden says.
Among Terry’s supporters is the disgraced, former Rep. Tom Delay, R-Texas.
“The ‘3-D battle plan’ of the Terry/Broden campaign is political genius! Every Republican should invest in this mission to DEFEND Children, DEFEAT Kamala/Walz and DESTROY the Democrat Party. I assure you, when Biden loses, Trump WINS! Please join me in financially supporting this campaign, so these television ads can run nationwide,” Delay says on the website.
DeLay was a congressman from 1985 until 2006 when he resigned after he was indicted on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate election law by campaign money laundering. Delay’s conviction was overturned by the Austin Court of Appeals, a Texas intermediate appellate court, that ruled that “the evidence in the case was ‘legally insufficient to sustain DeLay’s convictions.’”
During his time in the Texas Legislature, DeLay struggled with alcoholism and gained a reputation as a playboy, earning the nickname “Hot Tub Tom.” By the time of his election to Congress in 1984 he was drinking “eight, ten, twelve martinis a night at receptions and fundraisers.” In 1985 DeLay became a born-again Christian, and allegedly gave up hard liquor.
Terry, 65, founded the anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, in 1987 and ran it until 1991. Beginning in 1987, the group gained notoriety for blockading the entrances to abortion clinics. Terry was arrested more than 40 times for various crimes including trespassing.
In 2003, Terry founded the Society for Truth and Justice and conducted a program which he called Operation Witness. In 1998, he ran for Congress in upstate New York, and in 2006, he ran for a seat in the Florida state Senate. Both times, he lost in the Republican primary.
In 2013, Terry appeared on an episode of MTV’s True Life and advocated the criminalization of all forms of birth control. During the episode he said, “Do we want to make the pill illegal? Yes. Do we want to make the IUD illegal? Yes. The morning after pill? Yes. The patch? Yes. Anything that’s a human pesticide, they all have to be made illegal. A woman has to go to jail if she kills her baby.”
The ultra conservative Constitution Party, formerly the U.S. Taxpayers’ Party, was founded in 1992. It promotes a religiously conservative interpretation of the Constitution and strict originalist interpretations of the Constitution.
As of June 2024, the Constitution Party had 28 members who have been elected to city council seats and other municipal offices across the U.S. In terms of registered members, the party ranks fifth among national parties in the United States.
The party rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, saying that “globalists are using the global warming threat to gain more control via worldwide sustainable development.”
The party’s best showing for president was in 2010 when Scott Bradley got 5.7 percent of the votes in Utah. The best showing for Senate came in the 2008 race when David Brownlow picked up 5.2 percent of the vote in Oregon. In the House, the 2010 Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo garndered 36.4 percent of the vote in Colorado.