Elections

Jackson says comments were about abortion’s ‘moral dilemma’

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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As Democrats and the media continue to hammer Virginia lieutenant governor hopeful E.W. Jackson for his past comments on social issues, the Christian minister says he is battling what he calls the “mainstream media’s caricature” of him.

In an email sent to The Daily Caller this week, the running mate to Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli said “every one of those comments has a context and were spoken in my role as a minister, not as a candidate.”

In particular, the black Republican took issue with the media’s outrage over his comments on abortion.

In 2012, he said, “It is time to end the slavish devotion to the Democrat party.” He also said, “The Democrat party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions.”

“Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was,” he said then. “And the Democrat party and their black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide.”

After Jackson was nominated last weekend for lieutenant governor, news outlets ran critical headlines like “Virginia pick compared Planned Parenthood to KKK.”

Here is his response to that criticism:

By the way, my comment about abortion was in support of Cuccinelli’s comparison of the moral dilemma abortion presents, just as slavery did. He had made the point that Americans always eventually see the moral implications of bad ideas and take corrective action. That was the only point he made and got slammed for it. I defended the point. Neither of us were suggesting that abortion and slavery are equivalent or alike. I was saying merely that both posed fundamental moral questions, and it took time for the American people to realize that the thinking behind the justification was morally indefensible.

I went on to say that the same reasoning for continuing the practice of abortion was used for slavery, that black people are not “persons” or fully “human.” That they had no independent right to life, but were solely property, which is very similar to “it’s MY body.” That was the only basis for the comparison.

Jackson also wrote that, “My ancestors were slaves in Orange County, Virginia.”

“The notion that I do not see a difference between slavery and abortion is preposterous,” he said.

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