People For the American Way today applauded Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for pulling out of an event that was moderated by militant anti-abortion activist Rob Schenck. Schenck is best known for his involvement in a publicity stunt that included shoving a fetus in the face of then-candidate Bill Clinton. He was also involved in founding the aggressive anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and led protests against Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was later assassinated by an Operation Rescue activist.

More recently, Schenck has repeatedly maligned Senator Obama’s Christian faith and insinuated that Obama might be a Muslim.

Kathryn Kolbert, president of People For the American Way, issued the following statement:

“I’m proud of the Obama campaign for standing up to a character like Robert Schenck. Schenck hasn’t just shown his extremism on the issue of reproductive freedom; he’s shown his utter contempt for civil dialogue on the subject. The idea that he could serve as an unbiased moderator of any discussion is preposterous. His behavior shouldn’t be dignified by candidates from either party, and the media certainly shouldn’t accept his ludicrous claims that he speaks for all evangelical Christians.”

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