An anti-abortion extremist was treated like a hero on Fox News for having closed his bookstore for a day in “mourning,” as Fox put it, for New York’s new abortion law, saying he would not collect sales tax that day for “a tyrannical government that murders babies.”
Guest Jon Speed told host Katie Pavlich that when New York’s law passed, “I just sort of was grieving over it. We had done everything we could as a church beforehand …. But I just couldn’t sleep that night, just keep thinking about babies dying.”
Now, I respect people who do not support abortion (though not attempts to impose those beliefs on others) but Speed’s response seems way over the top. Especially since New York’s law does little more than protect the rights granted in Roe v. Wade. It was passed partly out of concern that the U.S. Supreme Court might reverse that landmark decision.
But Pavlich treated Speed as though he were in the mainstream. She failed to note that the majority of Americans support a woman’s right to choose. Instead, she claimed Speed was “now receiving an outpouring of support” for his stance on New York's “extreme abortion law.”
We saw a screen grab of the sign on his store door saying “We will not collect sales tax today for a tyrannical government that murders babies. We will resume regular business tomorrow, collecting sales tax under duress. End abortion now.”
Still treating Speed’s views as mainstream, Pavlich followed up by saying, “Talk to us a little bit about your pro-life stance.”
“We did a documentary a few years ago called, ‘Babies Are Murdered Here,’” Speed told us. He never explained what his role in the film was. Again, this is obviously way beyond a “pro-life stance.” But Pavlich continued treating Speed as though his views were popular.
Speed also said he’s been “going out to the clinics, trying to intervene on the behalf of the babies, offering real help to the mothers and that sort of thing and preaching the Gospel, trying to change hearts, to change minds on this.”
That suggests the kind of tactics which leave patients shaken when they are already under stress upon arrival at clinics for abortion procedures.
But Pavlich, who thinks women get abortions for “recreational” reasons, didn’t question Speed about the kind of “real help” he was providing women arriving at clinics. Instead, she said sympathetically, “So you’ve received an overwhelming amount of support … Tell us about the feedback that you’ve been getting" for his store closure.
Not surprisingly, Speed claimed that he’d gotten “all kinds of encouraging messages,” despite “a little bit of negative feedback” that cost him “maybe one or two customers.”
Unfortunately for Fox’s co-messaging of using the new abortion law to attack New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and Democrats, Speed did not think the law was some new, Cuomo-induced abomination. “Abortion has always been murder,” he said, “ … and something people need to repent of, place their faith in Christ and they can be given forgiveness.”
Pavlich moved on.
Watch another of Fox’s attacks on a woman’s right to choose below, from the January 26, 2019 Fox & Friends.