(LifeSiteNews) — The interim leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center defended his group’s accusations that opposing the killing of innocent preborn babies is part of “white supremacy.”
On Tuesday, Bryan Fair appeared before the House Judiciary Committee as part of a hearing on the left-wing group’s activities. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused the group of misleading donors and using funds to pay white supremacist leaders as informants. Some of the funds reportedly went to buying Ku Klux Klan hoods and cross-burning supplies.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) also pressed Fair on why his group maligns pro-life activists.
“Your organization said that ‘restricting and banning abortion is a tool that the far right uses to maintain white supremacy.’ Do you believe that pro-lifers are white supremacists?” Gill asked.
“Um, I believe that reproductive liberty,” Fair said. “No, do you believe that pro-lifers are white supremacists,” Gill said.
Fair said he “can’t answer that question yes or no,” after being pressed.
“What I think is that reproductive liberty is a right that every woman should enjoy,” Fair said.
He then struggled to answer a question about how many abortions per year were committed on black babies. Gill informed him it is about 40 percent of abortions, a highly disproportionate figure.
“Calling someone a white supremacist is a pretty serious charge, isn’t it,” Gill asked.
After a short back and forth and yelling between other representatives, Gill turned to Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Are pro-lifers white supremacists?” Gill asked.
“Pro-lifers cannot be white supremacists,” King said. “Pro-lifers believe in life from the womb to the tomb and beyond.”
She continued on to say that “pro-lifers fight for every baby in the womb regardless of skin color. We have been aborted, as blacks in America, disproportionately.”
She concluded by noting that Planned Parenthood’s origins are racist.
The Southern Poverty Law Center also targeted King, according to the testimony that she gave on Tuesday.
The civil rights leader stated:
For years, because of my views on the sanctity of life, because I believe abortion should become not only illegal but unthinkable, because I believe children deserve protection in the womb, because I believe biological reality matters, because I believe in secure borders and lawful immigration, and because I believe America should remain one nation under God, I have found myself targeted and characterized in ways that bear little resemblance to who I am or what I believe – I have even been labeled by the SPLC itself!
While once a respected civil rights organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center has over the years morphed into a massive fundraising operation that labels broad swaths of the American population as hateful for opposing the LGBT agenda or criticizing unchecked immigration.
Among the mainstream organizations included as “hate groups” on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website are Turning Point USA, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Family Research Council.