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Right to Life targets lawmakers — literally — with gonzo journalist tactics

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Right to Life targets lawmakers — literally — with gonzo journalist tactics

Jan 27, 2023 | 7:00 am ET
By Deena Winter
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Right to Life targets lawmakers — literally — with gonzo journalist tactics
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Minnesota Right to Life posted videos of its activists confronting Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, at the state Capitol. Courtesy Andy Smith

A Minnesota anti-abortion group posted a video of a pro-abortion rights lawmaker with a bullseye on the screen — as if putting him in a rifle’s crosshairs — before confronting him at the state Capitol.

Minnesota Right to Life posted videos of its activists confronting “far-left pro-abortion politicians” Reps. Andy Smith and Tina Liebling, both Rochester Democrats. 

In Smith, they picked a compelling target: He was anti-abortion after being raised in a conservative, Christian family, but his views changed after his wife suffered a miscarriage and he began reading U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the issue.

The Right to Life video starts out with a video of Smith leaving a House hearing on a bill that would codify abortion rights into state law, walking toward an elevator. Right to Life plastered a bullseye over the screen and the words “searching” until the “target” (Smith) was “locked” in. 

At that point, the videographer, Minnesota Right to Life executive director Ben Dorr, says, “Why do you hate babies so badly? You like tearing arms and legs off?”

Smith turns toward Dorr, smiles, then walks to an elevator. 

“Do you have any children?” Dorr asks as an off-screen woman says “Life! Jesus gave us life.” 

“Why do you hate babies so much Andy?” Dorr continues as Smith gets in the elevator. Then Dorr gets on the elevator with Smith and asks him to tell voters why he thinks it’s “cool” for 13-year-olds to kill their babies without talking to a parent or tear an 8-pound babies’ arms and legs off, snip their spinal cord and “suck their brains out.”

(In fact, most Minnesota abortions happen in the first trimester and are induced via medicine, not surgery. In 2021, just 8% of Minnesota abortions were performed in the second trimester. Only one abortion was done in the third trimester.)

Smiling, Smith says, “I believe women and those who could be pregnant should have control over their own body and their medical decisions.”

It was Smith’s first Thursday as a state representative.

Smith said in an interview with the Reformer that in the current environment of political violence, Right to Life was “unwise at best” in using the metaphorical target in the video. 

He said the experience was “uncomfortable,” but he hasn’t been shy about his views on abortion. Smith has written about his journey to becoming an advocate for reproductive freedom after he and his wife struggled with infertility. 

“It’s an incredibly hard topic,” he said. “Abortion is incredibly personal.” 

While campaigning for the House, Smith was up front about how his views on abortion have changed since his upbringing in a “very conservative,” evangelical Christian home.

A decade ago, he graduated from Moody Institute, a fundamentalist college in Chicago, with a bachelor’s degree in theology, and plans to become a pastor.

He believed human life began at conception, and that abortion — even in cases of rape, incest, or a threat to the life of the mother — was murder and morally wrong. 

“To my knowledge, I did not have a single close family member or friend who thought differently,” he said in an essay and campaign video.

But his opposition to abortion and gay marriage began to crumble when he read the U.S. Supreme Court opinions upholding them, and could not argue with the legal rationale. Even after consulting his ultimate authority — the Bible — he was surprised to find little support for his long-held views.

“The Bible wasn’t very clear about abortion, and definitely not clear enough to support the stranglehold anti-abortion voices hold in the evangelical community,” he wrote.

Then his wife had a miscarriage six weeks into pregnancy, and learned she might have an ectopic pregnancy that would require them to decide whether to do a surgery to remove the embryo and fallopian tubes, or let nature take its course — and risk her life.

Ultimately, it wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy, but the experience changed him.

“As we grieved the loss, we struggled to incorporate this new information that abortion was not evil in all circumstances, but in many circumstances was life-saving care,” he wrote.

A year later, they started fertility treatments, and learned half of embryos are lost during pregnancy.

“Basically, if I believed that a soul is conferred at conception (the standard anti-abortion line), I had to believe that billions and billions and billions of souls were created by God to be destroyed within minutes, days, or months of conception,” he wrote. “This did not square with my belief in God and his love for humanity.”

He said the activists who targeted him at the Capitol don’t want to have a thoughtful conversation on the issue, but instead are trying to promote “outrage that leads to violence.” 

Dorr of Minnesota Right to Life is a polarizing figure, even among anti-abortion activists. 

Dorr and his brothers Chris and Aaron have been accused by other Republicans of engaging in inflammatory political tactics for the sole purpose of raising money.

When the Dorrs created Minnesota Right to Life, the rival Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life wrote to its supporters, “We will be here long after the Dorr brothers have moved their fundraising scam on to the next state.” 

As MPR reported in 2020, citing publicly available tax documents, “the Dorrs’ efforts in Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio have raised more than $2.9 million since 2013, with at least a third of it going to a direct mail printing company in Iowa owned by the Dorr family.” 

Minnesota Right to Life did not respond to a request for comment.