A Pennsylvania lawmaker under fire for posting a video showing himself taunting and harassing an elderly woman praying outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic asked his supporters to help him obtain private information about teenage girls.
State Rep. Brian Sims ( D-Pa.), posted the video recently showing him confronting the woman outside of the clinic.
“What you are doing here is disgusting. This is wrong. You have no business being out here,” Sims told the woman before denigrating the Christian faith. Many people who protest outside the clinics are Christians.
Sims posted another video offering his Facebook followers $100 to dox teenage girls who were also outside the clinic in Center City, Philadelphia, sparking a slew of reactions, including from the father of two of the girls.
https://www.facebook.com/brian.k.sims/videos/414485826014673/
“There’s a group of ‘Christians’ out here shaming the girls and families coming here for medical treatment!” Sims said in a caption accompanying the video.
“So let’s make the most of it! I’ll donate $100 to Planned Parenthood if anyone who knows who these awful people are. Who’ll join me in that $100?—feeling furious at Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania.”
The video shows Sims walking up to three girls who appear to be minors, with an adult woman who is presumably one of the girls’ mothers.
“What we’ve got here is a bunch of protesters—a bunch of pseudo-Christian protesters—who have been out here shaming young girls for being here. I’ve got $100 for anybody who’ll identify any of these three,” he said.
“So, look, a bunch of white people standing in front of a Planned Parenthood shaming people. There’s nothing Christian about what you’re doing … nothing Christian, loving, or godly about what you’re doing. I’ve got $100 for anybody who’ll identify them,” he added.
Sims was asking people to dox the girls, or reveal private or identifying information about a person, typically with malicious intent.
As he asks followers to dox the girls, the woman tells him, “What we’re actually doing is praying for the babies and we believe that women deserve more.”
After the girls and the woman walk away from Sims, he approaches a young man who was also outside the clinic. “It would be easier if you would just tell me your name and address,” the state representative tells the man. The man tells Sims his name.
“What makes you think you have the right to tell women what to do with their bodies?” Sims asked. “The truth is I’m not really asking because I don’t care. Shame on you,” he added, walking away before the man had a chance to speak.
State Rep. Brian Sims must apologize for his despicable conducthttps://t.co/eHrZjLEmB6
— PA GOP (@PAGOP) May 6, 2019
The father of two of the girls was among those responding to the video.
Joe Garecht said that two of the teenagers in the video are his daughters, the third is their friend, and the woman is his wife.
They were praying outside the Planned Parenthood “when a man started yelling at them … after ranting at them for several minutes, he left and returned with his cellphone to record the above video,” Garecht wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“It turns out that the man is an elected official. Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims. In his video, later posted on Twitter, Rep. Sims not only attempts to shame them for praying for the unborn babies facing abortion but offers viewers $100 if they will identify the teen girls in the video.”
Garecht sent a message to Sims, telling him: “Brian, if you have a problem with my wife and daughters praying outside of an abortion clinic, you can come and see me. It seems like you like to pick on women, teenagers, and senior citizens. That’s shameful, and unacceptable.”
He also asked people to donate to the pro-life movement.
The Pennsylvania GOP called for Sims to apologize to the woman he harassed in addition to the people of the state.
“State Rep. Brian Sims’s harassment of a woman’s peaceful and religious exercise of her First Amendment rights is yet another example of a troubling trend of growing extremism and hypocrisy among Democrats. People are entitled to exercise their First Amendment rights and should be free from intimidation and harassment, even when their views make left-wing Democrats like Rep. Sims uncomfortable,” said Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Val DiGiorgio in a statement.
“Having met Rep. Sims, I am surprised at this episode of despicable conduct. Given the nature of his conduct, he owes an apology not just to the woman he harassed, but to the people of Pennsylvania that expect more out of their elected officials.”