During a Pentagon briefing at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, on July 10, two prominent pro-life organizations were described as “terrorist groups,” a description that drew swift condemnation from national and local pro-life leaders.
Slides from the Anti-Terrorism Awareness Briefing
Posts The slides were posted to social media late on July 10 by Pentagon whistleblower Samuel Shumate, who received them from a U.S. Army soldier attending a training conference at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg). The slides have been viewed 1.5 million times on X.
“The briefing was just a course on how to be a gate guard and what to look out for while on duty,” an Army soldier told The Blaze News, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “Gate guard duties are something we all have to do from time to time. The briefing was conducted by a civilian from the Department of Defense, not a counterterrorism officer.”
The slide in question was titled “Terrorist Groups” and included logos for National Right to Life and Operation Rescue, describing the organizations as pro-life but also saying they are “against terrorist groups.” [sic] These cases are the “Wade Cases” and are linked to the “clinic bombing” and “attempted murder cases.”
Also featured is an image of New York’s “Choose Life” license plates, which are sold in various designs in 33 states and the District of Columbia, and have raised more than $29 million for crisis pregnancy centers, according to Choose Life America Inc.
The pro-life slide came immediately after a section on ISIS, the jihadist terrorist group that has carried out mass shootings and suicide bombings around the world and was led for nearly a decade by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who blew himself up during the 2019 US invasion of Syria.
A briefing given to soldiers at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, described pro-life organizations as “terrorist groups.”Photo by Samuel Shumate and used with permission.
“It’s pretty disturbing that they’re trying to push pro-life organizations to the level of ISIS, but this is the kind of thing we see all the time now,” a Fort Liberty soldier told The Blaze News.
“We’re regularly briefed on things like, ‘If your colleagues are expressing support for the Second Amendment, pay attention to them. They could be dangerous,'” he said.
Shumate said he worries that using terrorism designations against pro-life groups and others could increase the likelihood of military forces being used against conservative Americans in the future.
“I’m completely committed to the idea that at some point the military will turn against the American people, and I don’t object to that being used as a quote,” he said. “I really believe that at some point that will happen, and the idea behind that is that we have to remove anybody who values the Constitution from the military.”
Shumate said he is confident the material shown on the slides is not the work of one person.
“Nobody is going to cheat or try to sneak something into the slideshow because that would be caught by their commander,” he said. “So it’s highly likely that the O-6 garrison commander, or at least his deputy commander, knew about this and approved the slideshow. I can say that with confidence.”
“It’s not an extreme thing to do to try to save children, but this is their rhetorical game.”
Army officials at Fort Liberty quickly distanced themselves from the presentation and its portrayal of pro-lifers as terrorists.
“After conducting a command investigation, it was determined that the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval agencies,” Fort Liberty said in a statement posted to X. “They do not reflect the views of XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense.”
The statement said the training presentations were developed by “local garrison personnel” and that “these slides will no longer be used and all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they are in line with current Department of Defense counterterrorism guidelines.”
Shumate said this type of ideological information is increasingly being promoted in military schools and higher education institutions.
“It’s an ideology, an idea that pushes through every media outlet in the country the idea that anything center-right, and of course what we would call far-right, is very frowned upon in the military right now,” Shumate said. “One of my favorite things we heard years ago was an elderly brigade commander at Fort Benning who told a roomful of company commanders that any reference to the Constitution was a dog whistle for white supremacy.”
The presentation drew swift condemnation from National Right to Life, which called it “deeply offensive” and contrasted it with the Biden administration’s unlimited support for abortion.
“Fort Liberty demonstrated lazy scholarship and spread outright lies about National Right to Life in a presentation that was deeply offensive to pro-life Americans across the country,” NRL president Carol Tobias said in a statement. “Throughout our more than 50-year history, National Right to Life has always, consistently and unequivocally condemned violence against anyone.”
“The Department of Defense has long considered us domestic terrorists.”
“How can a license plate that raises funds for a pregnancy support center be interpreted as a symbol of terrorism?” Tobias asked.
“Only under a Biden administration can peaceful law-abiding citizens and their peaceful activities be labeled as ‘terrorism,'” Tobias said. “The Biden administration promotes the death of unborn children and advocates unlimited abortions, while peaceful, pro-life Americans are labeled ‘terrorists.'”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the type of language used in the government’s training materials is intended to stifle speech and discourage people from going to abortion clinics or peacefully praying for unborn babies and their mothers.
“It’s not an extreme thing to do to try to save children,” Pavone said, “but this is their rhetorical game.”
Dan Miller, president of Pro-Life Wisconsin’s chapter near Milwaukee, said the Pentagon has a history of denigrating pro-life groups.
“The Department of Defense has long considered us domestic terrorists,” Miller told The Blaze News. “Pro-lifers in general have been designated domestic terrorists by the Obama administration. [President Donald] Trump is there, but now [President Joe] Biden, they’re back to the same old game.”
The labeling of these groups as terrorists is the latest in a series of attacks against conservative and religious groups who oppose abortion and protect the lives of unborn children.
The U.S. Department of Justice is aggressively prosecuting and pursuing sidewalk counselors and pro-life volunteers for violating laws regarding freedom of access at clinic entrances.
On May 31, U.S. District Judge Colleen Koller Kotelly in Washington, D.C. sentenced Paulette Harlow, 75, of Kingston, Massachusetts, to two years in prison for conspiring to shut down abortion clinics in D.C. in October 2020. Harlow is the 10th pro-life defendant to be convicted in the case.
Dan Miller, director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, left, stands outside the Affiliated Medical Services abortion clinic in Milwaukee.Photo by Dan Miller, used with permission.
Miller said pro-life organizations aim to save lives, not take them, and that they do not condone or use violence.
“This is tried-and-true civil disobedience,” he said. “Mahatma Gandhi did it. Martin Luther King did it. The pro-life movement did it to an extent. [President Bill] Clinton basically enacted the FACE Act to crush the rescue movement.”
The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to use force, threats of force, or physical obstruction to prevent access to abortion centers, and while blockades of entrances to abortion facilities have occurred, protests are more likely to consist of volunteers praying outside the buildings or attempting to counsel women entering the clinics.
Mark Hack, a pro-life activist from Pennsylvania, was indicted on charges of violating the FACE Act for shoving a “clinic chaperone” who he said was verbally harassing his son outside a Planned Parenthood clinic on October 13, 2021, but was acquitted by a federal jury in January 2023. If convicted, he could have faced up to 11 years in prison.
Shumate, the former Army warrant officer, said the materials could have an impact beyond spreading left-wing talking points.
“What surprised me the most was not only that they decided to give up the right of people to live, which is completely absurd, but the real issue is the number plates they put on their cars. [the slide]”This is a license plate that many pro-life people are proud to have on their vehicles,” Shumate said.
“I’m just going to guess here, I have a mother, she drives this and she’s on base. [pro-life] She has a license plate on the front of her car and gets pulled over and harassed by the E-3s and E-4s working the gates, not realizing it, and they say, ‘I heard this is a terrorist threat.'”
