Top anti-abortion activist slams GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz for mocking the physical appearance of pro-abortion rights protestors
- Rep. Matt Gaetz has been characterizing abortion rights protestors as ugly and physically grotesque.
- Now, even the president of a major anti-abortion group says his comments are "hideous."
One of GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz's chief lines of attack against abortion rights activists is that they're ugly, unlikely to get pregnant themselves, and even "over-educated."
And the president of a major anti-abortion group, Marjorie Dannenfelser, has had enough of it.
"SHAME on @mattgaetz for this hideous comment," she wrote on Twitter on Monday, linking to a video of the Republican congressman's Saturday appearance at Turning Point Action's Student Action Summit in Florida.
"Why is that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions?" Gaetz asked the audience. "Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb."
Gaetz, currently the subject of a federal sex-trafficking investigation, characterized abortion rights protestors as "5-foot-2 and 350 pounds."
"I'm thinking, march? You look like you've got ankles weaker than the legal reasoning behind Roe V. Wade," Gaetz said.
"A few of them need to get up and march," he continued. "They need to get up and march for like an hour a day, swing those arms, get the blood pumping, maybe mix in a salad."
Reached for comment, Gaetz spokesman Joel Valdez simply said the congressman is "proud to have an A+ rating from the Susan B. Anthony List."
Last month, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a 6-3 decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, revoking the right to an abortion at the federal level.
The Florida congressman — one of several House Republicans who sought a pardon from President Donald Trump in his final days in office, according to testimony from former White House aides — previously faced criticism for misogynistic comments characterizing pro-abortion rights protestors as "over-educated" after a draft of the opinion leaked in May.