A key American pro-life leader who was one of those behind the Center for Medical Progress videos that have brought the abortion industry’s profit-making from the sale of the body parts of aborted infants to the attention of congressional investigators has been detained in Australia based on “false accusations” from a member of that nation’s parliament.
Cheryl Sullenger, senior public policy adviser for Operation Rescue, has confirmed that her co-worker, Troy Newman, was held by authorities in Melbourne, Australia, as he arrived in that nation on an invitation for a speaking tour.
The reason for the detention apparently, Sullenger reported, was a letter from Terri Butler, an abortion-promoting member of parliament, who accused Newman of being an “extremist” and of arguing that abortionists should be “executed.”
“Newman has never advocated violence against abortion providers or facilities and has instead adamantly encouraged pro-life activists to work through the legal, legislative, and justice systems to bring abortionists who are breaking the law and harming women to justice,” Sullenger wrote.
“The pro-abortion bullies in Australia who have been slandering Troy Newman to the government have had to stoop to the lowest of lows to silence his message about Planned Parenthood’s criminality and his use of peaceful, law-abiding activism to expose abortion abuses,” said Sullenger. “Now that they have told so may lies about him, they must make sure he is deported lest their shame be exposed to the people of Australia.”
Published reports said the Australian government was not immediately removing Newman from the country, nor was it allowing him freedom.
The reports said attorneys for Newman had filed a request for an injunction that would allow him to remain. They pointed out to the government that Newman never has been charged or advocated violence.
Read the tested and proven strategies to defeat the abortion cartel, in “Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time.”
Butler’s letter charges that Newman’s visit would “incite discord” and “disrupt the ability of women to access lawful reproductive medicine.”
Operation Rescue reported that the detention followed “his visa being cancelled at the request of pro-abortion bullies who were bent on silencing Newman’s message of peaceful, legal activism on behalf of pre-born babies.”
While Newman was in custody, OR reported, “his wife, Mellissa, whose visa is still active, is left along in a foreign country with no luggage.”
“Troy’s unjust treatment by the Australian government is based on a pack of bold-faced lies about his character. This makes him a political prisoner,” said Sullenger. “It’s shocking that the Australian government would take these lies at face value and deny Troy his right to his freedom and free speech. To say we are disappointed is an understatement.”
Newman, the chief of OR, also is on the board of the Center for Medical Progress, which has been releasing videos in a series investigating the baby body parts trade of Planned Parenthood.
They have revealed open discussions by Planned Parenthood executives about the prices they want to charge for the remains of aborted infants. One executive notoriously said, while negotiating for higher prices, “I want a Lamborghini.”
That’s even though profiting from those sales is forbidden in federal law.
Newman had been invited by Australia Right to Life for a series of speaking engagements, prompting Butler to send her “spurious letter” to Minister of Immigration Peter Dutton.
OR reported the pro-abortion politicians “falsely” accused Newman of “advocating the execution of abortion providers, which Dutton never bothered to fact-check.”
In fact, Newman’s newly published book, “Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time,” provides specific instructions and suggestions for how to work within a community’s legal and social framework to advocate for protection for the unborn.
Newman had been banned from a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles en route to Australia over the issue, but continued his travel, “thinking this misunderstanding would soon be corrected,” OR said.
“Troy has been treated like a criminal even though he has never been convicted of a crime and is being detained and deported based solely on his religious and pro-life beliefs that are opposed by certain abortion lackeys in the Australian government,” said Sullenger. “This is unjust and as a representative of Operation Rescue, I demand his immediate release and an apology from Minister Dutton for the trouble he has caused by acquiescing to false accusations of those who oppose Newman’s pro-life stance.”
