{"id":107939,"date":"2015-12-02T20:39:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T03:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/abortion-debate-at-colorado-capitol-grows-louder-in-wake-of-planned-parenthood-shooting\/"},"modified":"2015-12-02T20:39:04","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T03:39:04","slug":"abortion-debate-at-colorado-capitol-grows-louder-in-wake-of-planned-parenthood-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/abortion-debate-at-colorado-capitol-grows-louder-in-wake-of-planned-parenthood-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion debate at Colorado Capitol grows louder in wake of Planned Parenthood shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Karen
Karen Middleton, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, speaks at a rally at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday, where pro-choice advocates called on Republicans to halt anti-Planned Parenthood rhetoric.<\/span>Peter Marcus\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Despite pleas to curb \u201cinflammatory rhetoric\u201d days after a shooting spree at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, vitriol from all sides swirled about Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Inside a committee room across the street from the Colorado Capitol, Republican state lawmakers used a budget briefing to allege a lack of transparency from state health officials concerning investigations into whether Planned Parenthood, an abortion provider, sold fetal body parts.<\/p>\n

Over on the west steps of the Capitol, reproductive-rights advocates \u2013 mostly women \u2013 declared that the GOP inquisition led to the Colorado Springs shooting last Friday, which left three dead, including a police officer and two civilians.<\/p>\n

Neither of the events seemed to answer a call by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday, who said, \u201cI think it\u2019s time to look at how we tone down some of the inflammatory rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities, as of Tuesday afternoon, still had not released a clear motive in the case. Robert Lewis Dear Jr., 57, has been preliminarily charged with first-degree murder, though additional formal charges are expected in the coming days. Prosecutors are looking into domestic terrorism and hate crimes as possible offenses.<\/p>\n

Much of the politics have been driven by media reports that Dear referred to \u201cbaby parts\u201d in a statement to authorities when surrendering.<\/p>\n

Despite the tragedy still fresh for the public and victims\u2019 families, Republicans on Tuesday wasted no time, getting right back to the fetal body parts issue. Remarks came during a budget hearing with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill the department be taking some action to deal with this inadequacy?\u201d asked Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, pointing out that the state health department has taken no action against Planned Parenthood on the fetal body parts issue.<\/p>\n

Anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released videos over the summer that the group says shows Planned Parenthood profiting from fetal-tissue programs. The secretly recorded videos were heavily edited, according to forensic experts who submitted their findings to congressional panels.<\/p>\n

Dr. Larry Wolk, executive director of CDPHE and chief medical officer for the state, said his department did investigate, watching more than five hours worth of video footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not see any connection to Colorado,\u201d Wolk responded to Lundberg\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

Lundberg appeared irked by the response, pointing out that the medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains appears to discuss organ harvesting in a video released by CMP. He accused Wolk and his department of withholding information and not being truthful, despite Wolk promising to be \u201ctransparent, as always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word \u2018as always\u2019 is also not accurate,\u201d Lundberg responded.<\/p>\n

Across the street, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado and ProgressNow Colorado claimed Republicans have blood on their hands for advancing the anti-Planned Parenthood message.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it hard to believe that these things are not linked,\u201d said Amy Runyon-Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado. \u201cWe must start pointing out who is the real culprit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Middleton, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, added: \u201cIf you\u2019re calling women\u2019s health care providers evil, you\u2019re part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Springs Republicans responded with dismay, livid that left-leaning groups would use the recent tragedy to advance a political message.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur grieving has been interrupted by groups that would exploit our tragedy to promote their agenda,\u201d said Jeff Hays, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. \u201cThey use the vile actions of an evil man for fundraising and political gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, assailed Hickenlooper for suggesting that people need to curb political remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cGov. Hickenlooper\u2019s comments that he wants to limit discussion of a controversial political issue are reckless,\u201d Tipton said. \u201cIt\u2019s a slippery slope when politicians begin deciding what is and is not an acceptable form of political rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

lawmakers, pro-choice advocates step up rhetoric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[2612],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-107939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-abortion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107939"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}