Matthew Trewhella, co-founder of the Milwaukee-based anti-abortion group Missionaries to the Pre-Born, announced earlier this week that he will run for a seat on the School Board in the district of Richfield in Wisconsin.
A long-time anti-abortion activist with ties to some of the most extreme anti-abortion activity in the country, Trewhella is also an outspoken opponent of public education, taxes and gun control. He reported to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his personal agenda will not interfere with his service on the School Board; however his website features scores of material and sermons written by him with titles such as “10 Reasons Why Christians Should Not Send Their Children to State Schools.” “I do not believe the state should be in the business of educating children,” he told the Journal Sentinel on Wednesday.
Trewhella is one of a handful of anti-abortion activists who has signed the Defensive Action Statement, also known as the Ôjustifiable homicide’ statement, which declares that it is justifiable to murder abortion providers “in defense of the unborn.” He has been arrested numerous times for his anti-abortion activities, and in 1994 he was sentenced to 33 days in jail for targeting an abortion provider at his home and blockading his driveway. Trewhella was a speaker in 2001 at the White Rose Banquet, which is a gathering of extremists who celebrate arsonists, bombers, and murderers for the crimes they have committed against abortion providers and clinics. Its attendees include associates of the most violent wing of the anti-abortion movement, the Army of God. At the banquet, he introduced anti-gay and anti-abortion activist Chuck Spingola by stating “Chuck is a man who understands that hate is good.” In 1994, he became one of about 30 anti-abortion activists who were the focus of a federal investigation to determine if there was a nationwide conspiracy to murder abortion providers.
In addition to his plans to run for the School Board, he expressed interest in becoming chaplain to the Richfield Fire Department. The Journal Sentinel reported that Trewhella would automatically be appointed to the School Board on April 1 unless a write-in candidate draws more votes in the election.
