#1572: Gingi Edmonds

We sincerely believe that anti-abortion activists are motivated by good intentions and a sincere conviction that they’re cause is just. We’ll even, at least for the sake of argument, grant that the moral questions surrounding abortion are tricky ones. Being opposed to abortion is consequently not lunacy. However, plenty of anti-abortion activists are motivated not by moral considerations but by religious fanaticism, and given the poor compatibility of reason and religious fanaticism it’s not very surprising that you’ll encounter some egregious lunacy among the pro-life movement. Gingi Edmonds, for instance, is positively deranged. Edmonds has been associated for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a group picketing abortion clinics, and in the wake of a tragic plane crash in Montana in 2009, she penned an article for Christian Newswire claiming that the crash was God’s punishment for abortion – you see, some of the victims were relatives of the owner of Family Planning Associates, a chain of clinics that also does abortions, so clearly God killed 14 people (7 of them children) to make a point. “I don’t want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual ‘I told you so’ moment,” said Edmonds, and proceeded to do precisely that. At least she received the support of one Scott Johnson, who must surely be one of the craziest people we have yet to encounter on the Internet.

Edmonds did receive some flak for that article. Her response to critics is not the work of a minimally reasonable human being: Apparently her opponents are “abortion-loving” and “support and applaud the regular targeting of churches, synagogues, forestry companies, corporate and university-based medical research laboratories, medical-supply firms, fur farms and other industrial buildings.” Therefore, they are not in any position to criticize anti-abortion activists’ acts of terrorism.

Oh, but there are also conspiracies. According to Edmonds, Planned Parenthood’s real end game is to legalize child pornography and prostitution. And the Obama administration is involved as well: David Ogden, Obama’s hand-picked Deputy Attorney General, is for instance “adamantly pro-child pornography.”