Planned Parenthood: Colorado killer fueled by 'hateful' anti-abortion rhetoric

Planned Parenthood said on Sunday that the man allegedly responsible for the attack on one of its clinics was motivated by his opposition to abortion.

Robert Lewis Dear, who is suspected of having killed three people and injured nine others in the attack on a Colorado Springs clinic, is widely reported to have used the phrase “no more baby parts” in interviews with police—a possible reference to the debunked claim that Planned Parenthood was profiting off of tissue donations from aborted fetuses.

In response, Planned Parenthood tweeted on Sunday morning that the killer was “motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion,” and decried the “hateful rhetoric” that it said was helping to fuel violence against abortion providers.

The organization’s president, Cecile Richards, also linked to an article by Guardian columnist Jessica Valenti, who wrote, in part:

We can all tell the truth about this attack; we don’t need a police press conference to confirm the shooter’s motive. We know why this happened. Clinic workers who put their lives on the line every day know why this happened. Because of hate, because of lies, and because words matter.