Arlington, Va., May 7, 2009 / 09:49 am
Students for Life, a national pro-life student organization, sent President Obama a letter saying they were "alarmed" at the administration’s "ignorance" by including pro-lifers in the Department of Homeland Security’s Assessment of "Rightwing Extremism" report and requested that Obama "educate" his staff on the goals of the movement.
Last month, CNA reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) equated being "abortion opponents" with white supremacists. Since the release of the report, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has retracted some of the statements from the report concerning veterans, but has failed to retract any of the reports comments made about the pro-life movement’s inclusion in the report.
Students for Life, which has local organizations at over 492 universities, said the report was "extremely insulting" and clearly showed the Obama Administration’s "ignorance" about "what [they] stand to accomplish."
The letter also referenced a previous DHS Reference Aid, Domestic Extremism Lexicon. The report said that pro-lifers were "a movement of groups or individuals who are virulently antiabortion and advocate violence against providers of abortion-related services, their employees, and their facilities. Some cite various racist and anti-Semitic beliefs to justify their criminal activities."