If California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to sap the momentum of the pro-life movement, the best thing he could do is stop trying to draw attention to the pro-abortion cause.
I say this because for the second time, his people have featured a young woman crying on the steps of the Supreme Court on the day Roe v. Wade was overturned in the summer of 2022 in an ad with a pro-abortion message.
And for the second time, that young woman has been given the opportunity to remind America she was crying tears of joy that the invented constitutional right to an abortion was overturned by the court, not tears of sadness.
The second ad, tweeted by the governor last week, emphasized California’s enshrined state constitutional “freedom” to abort your unborn baby whenever you so choose to.
“Our basic rights are being stripped away. It’s not just reproductive rights. The @GOP are fighting to take away fundamental freedoms — the freedom of speech. To vote. To live without gun violence,” Newsom wrote in a tweet accompanying the video.
Trending:
“CA is proud to be the true freedom state.”
At 10 seconds into the video — as a voiceover from an unmentioned media talking head intones, “I would say panic is the primary reaction” — a crying young woman is shown outside of the fence then surrounding the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.
Watch this.
Our basic rights are being stripped away. It’s not just reproductive rights. The @GOP are fighting to take away fundamental freedoms — the freedom of speech. To vote. To live without gun violence.
CA is proud to be the true freedom state. pic.twitter.com/xuM4Dr56eP
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 21, 2023
Should this woman sue Newsom and Clinton?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Last October, in an ad paid for by the California Democratic Party and amplified by none other than Hillary Clinton, the young woman is also shown crying — this time in a less-identifiable location — at just four seconds into the video.
No matter where a person lives or how much money they have, women—not politicians—should be able to make decisions about their own lives. That includes abortion care and miscarriage management.
Californians should vote YES on Prop. 1 to protect fundamental rights. #yesonprop1 pic.twitter.com/787j92Mlqv
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 18, 2022
That video was part of the effort to pass the Newsom-backed Proposition 1, which enshrined said constitutional right to an abortion in the state constitution. The ad was thoroughly unnecessary; as you might expect in hard-left California, the measure passed easily by a 67-33 percent margin.
However, on both occasions, Newsom, Clinton and the Democrats provided an opportunity for the young woman in the video, Lee University student Macy Petty, to share why she was crying.
“Once again @GavinNewsom is using MY joy of Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade] to promote abortion,” Petty said in a Jan. 21 tweet. “After changing the previous video, you chose to use another clip from the same video in a similar manner- KNOWING I am pro life. What don’t you understand? I am OVERJOYED about the Dobbs decision.”
Once again @GavinNewsom is using MY joy of Dobbs to promote abortion. After changing the previous video, you chose to use another clip from the same video in a similar manner- KNOWING I am pro life. What don’t you understand? I am OVERJOYED about the Dobbs decision. https://t.co/uoJZW7uDj8
— Macy Petty (@macypetty0416) January 21, 2023
“Panic? Sad? Try ecstatic, blown away by God’s grace on this country,” Petty said in another tweet, adding: “Please stop using my face to kill the babies I’ve dedicated my life to protect.”
Panic? Sad? Try ecstatic, blown away by God’s grace on this country.
Please stop using my face to kill the babies I’ve dedicated my life to protect #prolife @GavinNewsom @HillaryClinton @CA_Dem pic.twitter.com/SjaMS37L7d
— Macy Petty (@macypetty0416) January 23, 2023
She wasn’t the only pro-life voice outraged over the error by Newsom’s team.
How many times do we have to tell you @GavinNewsom that the woman crying at 0:11 seconds is pro life advocate @macypetty0416 with tears of JOY that Roe v. Wade was overturned! Yet you keep using it incorrectly in NEW videos.
Stop spreading fake news. Take down the video. https://t.co/y1H9mKwSf0
— Sophia Lorey (@SophiaSLorey) January 21, 2023
Sue. Hold them accountable and make them give you financial remuneration for what they’ve done. They won’t stop unless you take legal action.
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) January 23, 2023
To be clear, this isn’t the first time that Petty has informed the Democrats that, no, she’s not on team baby-killing:
Hey Hillary, I’m the girl crying in this video. I am pro-life and those are HAPPY tears because I just witnessed a MIRACLE! @HillaryClinton @GavinNewsom #prolife https://t.co/rlnEhdB6yg
— Macy Petty (@macypetty0416) October 20, 2022
“[Newsom is] manipulating my image to encourage the killing of innocent children. That is EXTREMELY harmful to who I am both in character and in image,” Petty told conservative outlet Campus Reform.
Campus Reform also noted that Petty had partnered with the California Family Council — which states its mission as “Advancing God’s Design for Life, Family, & Liberty through California’s Church, Capitol, & Culture” — to fight back against the Newsom administration.
Asked if she had any particular message for the California governor, Petty said, “Gavin Newsom, stop manipulating women for personal gain. Stop belittling my voice. Stop using your power to to degrade women and their beautiful gift of pregnancy.”
Granted, I’m not the one in the ad — but, to the extent the sloppy use of the evocative footage has done anything, it’s managed to bring Petty’s passion for the pro-life cause to an audience which blankly assumes all women want the ability to kill their child in the womb, even if they don’t exercise it themselves.
Instead, there were plenty of people of both sexes who felt “panic” and “sadness” over that constitutional guarantee in the first place. As Gavin Newsom prattles on about California being “the true freedom state” for everyone not currently in the womb — which isn’t exactly much of a guarantee, particularly for a governor who’s version of freedom involves attacking real constitutional freedoms like the Second Amendment while inventing fake ones like the right to an abortion — Macy Petty has been allowed to point out the hollowness of that agenda, all thanks to the sloppiness of Democrat ad-makers.
Of course, a lawsuit against Newsom would amplify the pro-life message further — and by using the same footage in a misleading fashion despite having been very publicly rebuked by Petty months earlier for the same mistake, he and his party have certainly opened themselves up to that option.
Nice work.
