Wednesday, August 22, 2018

#2059: Troy Newman

Yeah: that Troy Newman. Troy Edward Newman-Mariotti is the president of Operation Rescue and a board member of The Center for Medical Progress, which has nothing to do with medical progress. (The Center was, for instance, behind the phony Planned Parenthood “sting” videos.) He is also the author of Their Blood Cries Out, in which he compares George Tiller to Adolf Hitler (a signed copy of the book was among Scott Roeder’s possessions), likens abortion to “sacrifice to demons” (this is apparently not only a simile) and argues that doctors who perform abortions should be executed by the government “in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people”. It is sometimes a bit unclear whether he has actually read his book himself.

Newman, who compares his fight against Planned Parenthood to WWII and anti-abortion demonstrations to abolitionists working in the Underground Railroad, apparently thinks that women’s health centers that offer family planning are filthy, “demonic” places where “the abortionist takes every drop of money that he can get” to feed his many addictions, including drugs, alcohol, sex and gambling, since if you disagree with someone they’re obviously demons. Dr. Tiller, for instance, was according to the deranged mind of Troy Newman a raging alcoholic, drug addict and sexist, who only performed abortions to satisfy his addictions. Apparently the pro-choice movement is also responsible for NSA spying, in one of the flimsiest connections ever drawn in the history of argumentation (American Life League’s Jim Sedlak has actually tried to make a similar connection, which tells you a bit about the minds of these people and nothing about any putative connection between the pro-choice movement and NSA spying). You can, if you wish, read more about Newman’s anti-abortion activities here. More recently, Operation Rescue has branched out into more general Alex Jones-style conspiracy mongering, however, concerning not only Planned Parehthood but a wide variety of stuff – partially, it seems, under the influence of its domestic terrorist and house-conspiracy theorist Cheryl Sullenger.

Newman is also firmly opposed to marriage equality, and has claimed that the very existence of LGBT communities poses a threat to the United States. For instance, according to Newman the late 2000s recession and extreme weather events of the same time were brought upon by God as retributive punishment for legal abortion and tolerance for LGBT people. As Newman sees things, the American society has made it “too easy” to be LGBT, and God will accordingly actively harm and pass judgment on persons who show tolerance and acceptance of gay people to reestablish natural balance.

With his group Pro-Life Nation, a division of Operation Rescue, Newman was also part of a 2012 effort to “encircle” the Supreme Court  while “praying that Obamacare is Declared Unconstitutional.” According to Newman, people should rely on God, not government, to cover their medical costs. In 2013, he therefore suggested that “civil disobedience” may be “the only solution for an increasingly totalitarian state.” Part of the reason Obama’s presidency was totalitarian is because it looked, at one point, like he would be in a position to appoint Justice Scalia’s successor on the Supreme Court, which is definitely totalitarian (Operation Rescue also dabbled in conspiracy theories surrounding Scalia’s death). Operation Rescue suggested appointing Roy Moore instead.

For some unfathomable reason, PBS has used Newman to talk about guns in a documentary about gun violence. Newman dutifully parroted NRA talking points. He is also a sometime member of the wingnut Council for National Policy. There’s a decent Troy Newman resource here.

Diagnosis: Completely and utterly deranged.

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