At a time when the United States is noticing a dramatic uptick in anti-Semitic threats and grave vandalisms, calling or comparing someone to a Nazi (and punching Nazis) is not something to be done lightly.
Republican Kansas State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald missed the memo, however. According to the Kansas City Star, upon learning of the $25 donation made in his name to Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Fitzgerald wrote the branch a letter back insisting that his association with the clinic was “as bad—or worse—as having one’s name associate with Dachau.”
Fitzgerald was referencing the Dachau concentration camp, which imprisoned more than 188,000 Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis, and murdered nearly 32,000 under Nazi Germany.
After the branch tweeted his letter to the Great Plains Kansas account, Fitzgerald doubled down on his comparison, telling the Star that he chose to denounce the donation in his name instead of ignoring it, and Nazis should feel angry.
“I think the Nazis ought to be incensed by the comparison,” Fitzgerald told the Star.
Much like the mass donations made in Vice President Mike Pence‘s name to the organization, Fitzgerald’s retaliation has only served to bring in more donations under his pseudonym.
“It’s this kind of inflammatory language that adds to the shame and stigma of safe legal abortion,” Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokesperson Bonyen Lee-Gilmore told the Star. “The state of Kansas has much bigger issues to be dealing with, and this is just an unacceptable attack on women’s right to choose.”
H/T the Cut