Anti-abortion activist campaigns against Ellison to exploit legal loophole

Anti-abortion activist Gary Boisclair announced on Saturday that he is challenging Rep. Keith Ellison for the DFL primary. But Boisclair’s campaign isn’t about defeating Ellison, it’s about exploiting a campaign loophole that will force Twin Cities media outlets to air explicit anti-abortion advertising. Boisclair works for Society for Truth and Justice, a group that opposes abortion whose employees are registering to campaign in elections across the country.

Boisclair is the latest member of the Society for Truth and Justice (STJ) to launch a primary challenge. David Lewis, a lobbyist for the Washington, D.C.-based STJ, announced in late-September that he is challenging House Speaker Jon Boehner in Ohio for the Republican primary. Lewis doesn’t live in the district and says he will move there if elected.

And Lewis is making abortion the sole issue of his campaign, as is anti-abortion activist Angela Michael who is running for Congress in the Chicago area.

Boisclair is running against Ellison in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District on the abortion issue as well.

STJ’s founder, Randall Terry, explained the strategy to Catholic Online.

“By running campaign ads in the top 25 media markets, we can reach 1/3 of the nation with a message about the truth and horror of abortion,” he said.

Boisclair is the latest of the STJ staffers to launch a campaign. His campaign website features graphic images of fetuses, and is virtually identical to Lewis’ and Michael’s. In fact, when the Minnesota Independent attempted to contact Boisclair, the email address on his website went to Lewis for Congress instead of Boisclair’s campaign email address.

In a document from Randall Terry posted on Boisclair’s website, Randall Terry lays out his campaign strategy (capitalization theirs):

WE WILL NEVER SAVE OUR ECONOMY, or CURE THESE OTHER ILLS, until we stop killing our children, BECAUSE THE HAND OF GOD WILL BE AGAINST US. Hence, our goal is to create a crisis of conscience for America, by showing the public the gruesome reality of “safe, legal, abortion;” pictures of murdered babies in TV ads. Federal Law Requires that TV Stations Run the Ads of Federal Candidates; Even Ads That Show Babies Murdered By Abortion! Every true pro-lifer in America needs to know this, and embrace this incredible chance to be a witness…a prophetic voice…for the babies. Every pro-lifer in America needs to catch the vision of ENDING THIS HOLOCAUST. “But Randall…” some will say, “surely they will find a way to get around the law; surely they will not run the ads.” WRONG!!! Federal Law
requires that TV stations run the ads that they are given, even if the ad shows aborted babies.

Despite the connections to Randall Terry and the push to get anti-abortion ads aired, Boisclair’s press release announcing his campaign tells a different story.

“I intend to defeat Mr. Ellison soundly in this primary, based upon the issues at hand. Congressman Keith Ellison has failed to represent the ethics and beliefs of this district,” he wrote. “At the onset of his tenure, Ellison took his Oath of office with his hand on a Quaran—a book which mandates violence against Jews and Christians. Ellison consistently legislates for socialist programs, which in effect make us the slave labor force of the federal government. Under his agenda, we are enslaved to heavy taxation, crushing debt, runaway inflation, and we are forced to ‘give’ our hard earned money to his favorite ‘entitlements.’”

Boisclair said Ellison’s track record is “even more nefarious.”

“Mr. Ellison has voted repeatedly to fund Planned Parenthood, a racist organization with a long history of discrimination against minorities, which has consistently targeted black and Hispanic minorities for the abortion of their children. Planned Parenthood is a racist, criminal syndicate, which covers up the crimes of pedophiles, rapists and sex traffickers; it slaughters nearly 1,000 unborn babies every day, and Keith Ellison is their brazen champion, as he hypocritically parades his Progressive Caucus motto, ‘Liberty and Justice for ALL.’”

Boisclair says his campaign will issue three ads on Monday.

Boisclair has long been involved with Terry’s STJ as well as another of Terry’s anti-abortion groups, Operation Rescue. He was arrested in front of Boehner’s office in March. He also protested Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana this spring.

“Michael Pence did a great service for the babies by introducing an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood,” Boisclair said in a press statement at the time. “As a matter of duty to God, the babies, and his constituents, Mr. Pence must be willing to ‘die on this hill’ even if it means standing against the GOP leadership – and a government shut-down – to insure that this ‘criminal syndicate’ does not receive any more of our money.”

He wore a chicken suit at a protest during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in 2010.

And in 2010, he wrote a letter to Catholic bishops urging them to deny communion to politicians that disagree with his stance on abortion.

Your Excellency:

We thank you for your service to us and to all the Church, and, in particular, for all that you have done for the unborn.

We humbly beg you to warn any Catholic Senator or House Member within your See or within your state: “If you vote for child-killing in ‘Health Care Reform,’ you will be denied Holy Communion.”

Is this not a bishop’s pastoral duty of mercy?

Jesus’ witness to the truth (Jn 18) cost him his life. Following Christ’s example many bishops have been martyred, including St. Timothy, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pope St. Clement, and St. John Fisher.

STANDING UP FOR THE BABIES AND THE EUCHARIST IN THIS HOUR WILL SURELY NOT COST YOU YOUR LIFE!

Be of good courage and let your voice be heard!

Sincerely in Christ,

Diana Roccograndi, Gary Boisclair, Andrew Beacham

Late last year, the group crashed a holiday party hosted by NARAL.

At the time he said that the “people at NARAL and DC Abortion Fund have celebrated their selfish, deceptive, wicked ideas and called it a holiday party. We at Insurrecta Nex love them too much to fail to tell them the truth.

Boisclair is also running Randall Terry’s campaign for president in 2012. Terry announced earlier this year that he would challenge President Obama in the Democratic primaries in order to exploit the federal elections law that says media outlets cannot refuse to run a candidate’s advertising. Terry plans national anti-abortion ads in 2012, particularly during the Super Bowl.

“[Terry] wants to bring America face to face with the victims of abortion,” Boisclair said of the campaign. “He wants to be able to pummel Obama’s policies.”