Carly Fiorina Uses Preschool Children At Anti-Abortion Rally Without Parental Permission
Carly Fiorina ushered a group of preschoolers away from their class trip to her speech on the “Right to Life.” The children were visiting the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden yesterday when they were allegedly “ambushed” by Carly Fiorina.
According to the Guardian, the Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina embarked on a day of campaigning across Iowa, in an attempt to boost her ailing campaign. Entering the rally, before a crowd of about 60 people, she directed around 15 young children towards the stage.
The GOP candidate discussed the allegations against Planned Parenthood harvesting organs from aborted fetuses. During the rally, an anti-abortion activist joined Carly Fiorina at the front of the room with a scale model of four-month-old foetus.
“This is the face of abortion,” the activist told the crowd as Carly Fiorina looked on. The foetus model was sucking its thumb.
Carly Fiorina, who is polling at 1.5 percent in Iowa, spoke for about 15 minutes and then took questions from the audience. Several of the children looked bored as they sat around the former Hewlett-Packard executive, and in front of a giant poster of a fetus.
Poor kids are just thinking, "Worst. Field Trip. Ever."
Fiorina accused of 'ambushing' kids for anti-abortion rally https://t.co/VnJYPTy1fz— Becky (@Bec_AS) January 21, 2016
“The kids went there to see the plants,” said Chris Beck to the Guardian. Beck is the father of 4-year-old Chatham, one of the children Fiorina appeared with.
“She ambushed my son’s field trip.”
Beck, who lives north of Des Moines, was not asked if Carly Fiorina could interact with the children, or whether she could include them in her rally. He said the first he knew of it was when his childcare provider told him the group of children had encountered the Fiorina at the botanical garden.
Carly Fiorina’s camp seem to have a different version of events.
“We were happy that these children chose to come to Carly’s event with their adult supervisor,” was the response of Carly Fiorina’s spokeswoman after a series of detailed questions were posed by the Guardian.
“Taking them into a pro-life/abortion discussion [was] very poor taste and judgment,” Beck said.
“I would not want my four-year-old going to that forum… He can’t fully comprehend that stuff. He likes dinosaurs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers.”
“I do not know enough about Carly to support her,” Beck said of the woman who introduced his son to the idea of terminating a pregnancy.
“And after today, she wouldn’t get my vote for sure.”
Using children as political pawns, and especially without parental permission has alienated voters on social media.
I'd have absolutely lost my mind if @CarlyFiorina had done this to my kids. And the chidcarer should be fired. https://t.co/0ek8Xf13Mk
— Mazarin (@Mazarin221b) January 21, 2016
Carly Fiorina’s success in wooing other voters in Iowa will be revealed on February 1 at the Iowa caucuses.
[Photo by Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo]
