The “Superhero for Choice” is a cartoon character who drowns an evil abstinence educator in a trash can, boils a conservative U.S. Senator and blows up Christian pro-life advocates (or just makes them disappear…its not entirely clear). We might dismiss this as a tasteless joke if it was a skit on Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show or on some radical web site, but this video is on the official Planned Parenthood Golden Gate website! Actually the video is not nearly as violent as it sounds and the only thing Planned Parenthood is probably guilty of is producing poor quality, cheezy, propoganda.
But in defense of their video, Planned Parenthood would probably cite the acts of violence committed against abortion clinics by “Christian” fundamentalists. In my lifetime I’m sure I’ve come in contact with thousands of Christian fundamentalists. To my knowledge, not a single one of the fundamentalist pastors, professors and Christian leaders I’ve known has ever supported violence against abortion clinics. In fact, of all these fundamentalists, the number who I know to have intellectually supported violence against abortion clinics could be counted on one hand (I say intellectually supported, because if I knew they were actually contemplating such violence I would have turned them in to the authorities a heart-beat)!
Although those who advocate violence against abortion clinics are a relatively tiny misguided fringe group, it is an important pro-abortion strategy to portray all pro-life Christians as radical, extremist, violent, gay-bashing, abortion clinic bombing nut-cases! Apparently, Planned Parenthood must think this gives them justification for producing a cartoon depicting violence against pro-life Christians. My guess is that if an organization like Focus on the Family had produced a cartoon even jokingly depicting violence against pro-choice advocates, they would be charged with hate speech and condemned by nearly every media outlet in the country.
