Dave Leach, an anti-abortion extremist and candidate for the Iowa House of Representatives, plans to air footage of women entering and exiting a Des Moines Planned Parenthood clinic on his local cable access show “The Uncle Ed Show.” “By shining a light on wickedness, I’m hopeful people will be awakened,” said Leach, according to TheIowaChannel.com. The cable company that airs Leach’s show, Mediacom, has said that it will not air the show unless the women’s faces have been obscured. However, Leach objects to this requirement because his stated purpose is to keep women from going to the Planned Parenthood clinic, according to the Associated Press. “The Uncle Ed Show” has been the subject of controversy in the past because of episodes which demonstrated bomb making techniques and discussed killing doctors who perform abortion, according to the Des Moines Register. A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa pointed out that Planned Parenthood clinics offer a variety of reproductive health services for women, such as Pap smears, pregnancy tests, and STD testing Ñ abortions represent only 2 percent of the services provided. The footage taken by Leach and his cameraman, noted anti-abortion extremist Jonathan O’Toole, will also be broadcast on Neal Horsley’s notorious site, AbortionCams.com. Abortion rights’ advocates argue that this exposure unnecessarily places women using reproductive health clinics at risk of harm, particularly since the Website features dripping blood icons and a link to the Nuremberg Files site, which lists the names of doctors who perform abortions and crosses them out when they are killed by radical anti-abortionists.
Uncategorized
