Oregon Right to Life Uses Racially Charged O.J. Simpson Meme to Get People Angry About Abortion

O.J. Simpson: known for killing white people?

On Wednesday, Oregon Right to Life, an Oregon anti-abortion advocacy group, sent an email out to their subscribers with the subject line: "Do you know who Kermit Gosnell is?"

The body of the email began with this image:

Screen Shot 2016-04-28 at 10.33.02 AM

The image plays on multiple race-related memes, so it's difficult to parse.

First, there is O.J. Simpson as the "murderer" that everyone knows because he "killed two white people." Interesting choice, given the fact that Simpson is actually known because he was a very famous football player and actor who then, allegedly, murdered his ex-wife and her friend.

You may remember, from his trial or the books about the trial or the recent television show about the trial, that Simpson was not found guilty of those murders.

So, to say you know Simpson's face because he killed two white people is, at the very least, race baiting.

Then, there is the well-documented pro-life idea that abortion is "black genocide" because, well, African American women get abortions? It's the kind of logical backflip that needs a chart for back-up:

Screen Shot 2016-04-28 at 10.38.55 AM (Via blackgenocide.org)

The question is what this means. Are anti-choicers less racist than pro-choicers because they care about the secret black genocide happening in America? It's not clear.

Anyway, the email goes on to tell the reader why he should know the name Kermit Gosnell: "Nothing on American Horror Story can compare. Gosnell delivered countless babies and murdered them in cold blood over his 32 years as an abortionist in the polished, first-world city of Pennsylvania."

Pop culture side note: The creator of American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy, is also the creator of American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson. Has there ever been an email with more layers?!

The email continues, detailing Gosnell's horrific-sounding crimes, which include severing "the spinal cords of living babies with scissors, an excruciating death (and yes the babies feel it! No anesthesia for them!)." (Italics theirs.)

But, if you didn't know about Gosnell, "don't blame yourself," the email begs. "His trial was barely covered by media. Just check Google. OJ Simpson's name results in over 71 million Google hits. Gosnell? Just 225,000."

The upshot of the whole thing is that some independent filmmakers—who aren't Gosnell-hiders like the lame-stream media—are making a movie that needs your money. With your help, as many people might someday recognize Gosnell as recognize Heisman Trophy winner, NFL star, Roots actor and possible murderer, O.J. Simpson.

So who is Kermit Gosnell? According to The Washington Post, he's a doctor, though not an actually certified obstetrician or gynecologist, who ran "a non-compliant [abortion] clinic for three decades."

Gosnell's clinic was certainly horrifying; the WaPo story says, "Patients were neglected; providers were not certified; and cats were allowed to roam and defecate in the clinic." Women died there. And the fact that he ran it for years without oversight is also horrifying.

But what he did was and is illegal. It's not even remotely related to legal, safe abortion. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "induced abortion and miscarriage are the safest outcomes of pregnancy."

Saying abortion should be illegal because of Gosnell is like saying police should be illegal because of Daniel Holtzclaw. We need better systems with actual oversight that are meant to help citizens, not no systems at all.

We've reached out to ORTL for comment and they have yet to respond. If they do, we'll let you know what they say.

Here's the full email:

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