This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A prominent pro-life organization that has worked on behalf of the unborn for decades already is blasting a U.S. military base that allowed an employee to create a lesson – an "indoctrination" – claiming that the pro-lifers are terrorists, like ISIS.
Troy Newman, chief of Operation Rescue, responded to reports that the indoctrination lesson was delivered to soldiers at Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
Base officials confirmed the indoctrination after it appeared online.
The false claims appeared in a social media posting that featured the image of the "Terrorist Groups" list with the Operation Rescue and National Right to Life Logos embedded.
It said, "The slide you see here followed right after a slide about ISIS, a terror group in the Middle East. The organizations labeled by the army as terror organizations include National Right to Life and Operation Rescue. They also included a screenshot of a license plate with 'IM4IT,' which is a plate many pro-life citizens put on their cars which implies normal citizens are terrorists if they display this plate. The slide goes on to mention activities in which these organizations participate which include being pro-life, opposing Row (sic) v Wade, demonstrating and protesting (a 1st Amendment protected right), 'Truth Displays,' and picketing."
The soldiers were being trained to monitor access points on the base.
"Pro-life organizations have absolutely nothing to do with those responsibilities, therefore, the only perceived purpose for disparaging pro-life organizations in such a training would be to satisfy a political agenda and indoctrinate our soldiers. It is truly a disgrace and clearly violates the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which limits the powers of the U.S. government to use the military to enforce domestic policies," Newman said.
"It is a shame that the proper authorities were either not aware of the slide or allowed it to be included in multiple trainings. We await an answer after Fort Liberty's investigation is complete, that assures us this will not happen again!"
Newman called the fact that the base allowed such a presentation extremely irresponsible.
"It is utterly ridiculous that Operation Rescue and other groups that work to defend innocent babies would be put in the same category as groups like the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida that carried out the September 11 attacks," he said.
The base said after a commander's inquiry, it was determined the slides were not approved by authorities, and do not reflect the views of the military operations there. It said the slides no longer would be used.
WND reported earlier that the National Right to Life also was critical of the presentation.
"In a presentation that is deeply offensive to pro-life Americans across the nation, Fort Liberty promoted outright lies about National Right to Life in a demonstration of lazy scholarship," Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said. "In our over 50-year history, National Right to Life has always, consistently, and unequivocally, condemned violence against anyone."