Kansas State Senator Steve Fitzgerald, who represents Leavenworth county and portions of Wyandotte, didn’t care so much for an individual making a donation to Planned Parenthood in his name. He decided to express his anger by sending Planned Parenthood a letter — denouncing their organization and saying the donation “blackened his name” and compared their organization to Dachau.
When asked to clarify his thoughts, if he really meant the comparison, he decided to double down:
kcur.org/…
Asked if he thought Planned Parenthood was akin to a Nazi concentration camp, he replied, “Worse. Much worse, much worse, much worse."
“They’re killing more people,” Fitzgerald said in a phone interview. “They’re more insidious. The Nazis had the good grace to call them ‘Untermensch,’ less than human. These people admit that the victims are human and, so what? They kill them anyway.”
Asked about the other women’s health services offered by Planned Parenthood besides abortion, he said, “So does everyone else. No, I don’t need an apologia for Planned Parenthood, thanks. I’ve read the stuff, I know what they’ve got, I don’t need it.”
“And Hitler did a great job for the autobahn, too,” Fitzgerald added. “So, you know, c’mon, killing people equals killing people. That’s my statement and I’m staying with it.”
In a phone interview with the Kansas City Star, Cecile Richards noted that such rhetoric is out of bounds.
“He should be ashamed,” Richards said in a phone call. “It’s this kind of inflammatory language that condones the type of behavior we see sometimes outside of women’s health centers...It’s really disturbing to me that this kind of rhetoric and language is considered acceptable.”
By making such claims, Fitzgerald continues to endorse the concept that stopping Planned Parenthood is the equivalent of a war, a dangerous comparison especially in a state like Kansas — where shooting death of a provider occurred.
Rabbi Moti Reiber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action noted: “Sen. Fitzgerald is comparing a legal medical procedure that could save a women's life with the indiscriminate murder of 6 million people because of their ethnicity and religion. The comparison, it should be - but apparently isn't - needless to say, is odious and deeply offensive."
Regardless, Sen Fitzgerald, who retained his seat in one of the slimmest margins in the state, doesn’t seem deterred to speak his mind.
Asked about his positions during the campaign, Sen. Fitzgerald told an audience in Leavenworth: “I say what I believe. Everyone knows that.”
And now, we know something else as well — that Sen. Fitzgerald either doesn’t understand WWII, or his fevered imagination of health care is truly terrifying.
You can make a donation in the Senator’s honor here: secure.ppaction.org/...
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