Slideshow Presented at US Army Base Described Abortion Opponents as Terrorists; Congressional Republicans Demand Answers

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:27 pm

The House Armed Services Committee is investigating after U.S. Soldiers at the Fort Liberty Army Base in North Carolina were shown a PowerPoint slide that described organizations opposed to abortions as “terrorist groups.”

The PowerPoint slide in question presented the logos for National Right to Life and Operation Rescue. The presentation slide described a range of non-violent activism both groups have engaged in, but then included a “Violence” bullet point that lists “Arson and Bombing of Clinics” and “Murders and Attempted Murders,” suggesting those actions were within the range of behavior exhibited by these two groups.

Along with the logos, the PowerPoint slide also included a sample license plate with the phrase “choose life” as a potential indicator of a person’s views in opposition to abortion.

Sam Shoemate, an independent journalist who was among the first to report on the PowerPoint slide, alleged the slide was presented immediately after one about the Islamic State, which is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government.

In an emailed statement shared with FreeBase News, the public affairs team at Fort Liberty described the inclusion of their PowerPoint slide about the activist groups as an oversight.

“It came to our attention that an anti-terrorism slide was posted on social media – After conducting a commander’s inquiry, we determined that the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities, and do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense,” the public affairs team said.

The base press team said the slides were developed by a local garrison employee and were meant to train Soldiers manning access control points across the base.

“These slides will no longer be used, and all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they align with the current DoD anti-terrorism guidance,” the base press team continued.

Despite the public affairs team’s assurances, lawmakers are taking a closer look at the incident. The members of the Republican majority on the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth on Friday, July 12, expressing their dismay and demanding she answer for the incident.

“Training the installation gate guards to ensure that servicemembers and their families who have pro-life license plates should be considered suspicious and possible terroristic threats to the installation, is not only absurd but dangerous,” the committee Republicans wrote. “Young soldiers trained to treat certain state-issued license plates as a terrorist threat heightens the risk that they will be involved in a needlessly confrontational situation with otherwise permissible drivers accessing Fort Liberty. Disturbingly, it also requires soldiers at the gate to profile conservatives for their political leanings.”

The committee Republicans called on Wormuth to address questions about the approval process for the slideshow. They also asked Wormuth if any other Army installations have used similar slides, and whether the Army will issue a correction to the Soldiers who viewed the slide in question. They also asked Wormuth to clarify what types of activity and activism they consider to be terrorist activity.

The committee Republicans requested Wormuth answer their questions by July 15.