Listen to the full story here
Delegate Bob Marshall, a Republican of Manassas, said that comments he made regarding disabled children during a press conference Thursday were misconstrued.
In a statement released on his website Monday, Marshall said he does not believe that disabled children are a punishment from God for having an abortion.
Marshall was responding to a Capital News Service story I wrote quoting remarks he made last week at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood. I wrote that Delegate Marshall said disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.
Here is his direct, unedited quote:
“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
In Marshall’s statement, he said “No one who knows me or my record would imagine that I believe or intended to communicate such an offensive notion. I have devoted a generation of work to defending disabled and unwanted children, and have always maintained that they are special blessings to their parents. Nevertheless, I regret any misimpression my poorly chosen words may have created as to my deep commitment to fighting for these vulnerable children and their families.”
Since my article has been accused of taking Marshall’s quote out of context, I’ve decided to release the entire audio of Marshall’s speech for you to judge for yourself.
-Kelsey Radcliffe
Kelsey...from your humble VCU student base...awesome reporting! And the audio backup is PRICELESS! I contacted the delegate for my district (Delegate John Cox, Republican, Hanover 55th seat) who replied to me personally via email stating that he had spoken with Marshall about his comments and that Marshall said the journalist doing the piece had "grossly misquoted" him (you are more than welcome to have the email if you would like it forwarded to you). My response to "my" representative (I didn't vote for him) was to reply with the link to your audio tape of the comments and ask what he had to say for Marshall's claim of being "grossly misquoted" now. Of course I have received no response back, but I wasn't really expecting one. I just wanted to say thanks for bringing this nut to our attention and rest assured there are many of us following your story still (check FaceBooks page "Virginians Against Bob Marshall's Ignorance") and we KNOW what real journalism is because you have laid it in front of us all. Great work!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your article, and for bringing attention to the malefic comments made by the Delegate. from Manassas. Those comments, even though he claims that they do not represent his personal views, are offensive and hurtful to me, as I am a person with disability and Social Worker. My hope is that he learns the lesson of keeping such malicious opinions private.
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