Fresh off Planned Parenthood‘s successful censoring of innocuous Advice & Aid Pregnancy Crisis Center advertisements, anti-free speech extremists from UltraViolet are taking their protests out to the ballgame. This time, UltraViolet, a community organizing group, cast its sites on the Kansas City Royals and the Vitae Foundation, a non-profit and educational organization.
The Vitae Foundation‘s mission is to create a culture of life by “using research-based messaging and cutting-edge media to inform women facing and untimely pregnancy about local pregnancy help centers.” The organization has radio ad buys during Royals’ broadcasts, and a sponsorship that allows an announcement about Vitae Foundation and a foundation logo shown on the scoreboard.
Royals officials told the Kansas City Star that the baseball club takes no official position on culturally-sensitive issues, but that announcement likely isn’t good enough for UltraViolet.
UltraViolet is sponsoring a petition on their website demanding that the Royals cut ties with the Vitae Foundation. Ultraviolet organizers also issued a press release trotting out the tired lie that crisis pregnancy centers manipulate the public “by spreading extreme, deceptive anti-choice propaganda not only to those seeking reproductive health care options, but also to young children.”
For what it’s worth, most people at Royals games aren’t seeking reproductive health care options. They’re seeking a baseball game. It appears none of UltraViolet’s leadership lives in Kansas or Missouri, so maybe they are confused about what people do at Kauffman Stadium.
The Star didn’t talk to anyone from the Vitae Foundation in covering the story, but the Vitae Foundation did issue a statement:
“If a woman in a difficult pregnancy makes the courageous decision to bring her child into the world, Vitae believes she should have meaningful support in making that decision,” the statement read.
According to its website, Ultraviolet “exists to create a cost for sexism and to achieve full equity for all women through culture and policy change. The site says the organization focuses on the voices of all women, with the apparent exception of those in the womb.