#jason storms

Chloe Atkins at NBC News:

CINCINNATI — The group of anti-abortion crusaders showed up outside Hughes STEM High School just before 3 p.m. As students streamed out of the building, the men and women walked after them carrying large cards emblazoned with a picture of a fetus. “Pre-born children are blessings to be received, not burdens to be destroyed,” read the other side of the literature.

One man took the lead in tracking down the predominantly Black students and handing out the cards. At one point, he spent three minutes talking to a small group of girls. “I feel inspired,” a 15-year-old said afterward. But the scene took a turn when the principal, Jennifer Williams, walked out and demanded they move off the main path to the school. “The pathway to the crosswalk is being blocked and that’s not okay,” Williams said. The group moved down the sidewalk but was confronted by Williams again. “Planned Parenthood is feeding propaganda to these kids,” the head activist, Jason Storms, told her. “We are trying to counter that message.” Storms, 45, is the leader of Operation Save America, a fundamentalist Christian group that operates on the extreme edge of the anti-abortion movement. They travel around the country — to churches, schools, statehouses and abortion clinics — calling for abortions to be banned and women to be locked up for terminating pregnancies.

Storms and his fellow activists are part of a growing network of lawyers, lawmakers and pastors who have labeled themselves “abortion abolitionists.” They oppose all abortions without exceptions and promote legislation that would pave the way for women to be investigated and prosecuted for ending pregnancies. The move to criminalize the choice to have an abortion has historically been rejected by the mainstream “pro-life” movement, but Storms sees it as a necessary deterrent.  “You are intentionally killing a human being,” he said in an interview. “That’s the definition of murder.” Operation Save America is certainly not the first group to push an extreme position on abortion and use in-your-face tactics. It’s a rebranded version of Operation Rescue, an organization that gained notoriety in the 1980s for blocking women and doctors from entering abortion clinics and holding sit-in protests.

[...] GOP state lawmakers around the country have introduced at least 26 so-called “abortion abolition” bills from 2022 to 2024, according to If/When/How, a national legal advocacy nonprofit group. The bills often repeal provisions that prevent women from being investigated and prosecuted over abortions or don’t include explicit language that exempts them from being charged. [...]

Storms’ group occupies a unique position in U.S. politics. Loathed by Democrats, it also represents a thorn in the side of former President Donald Trump, who has said the issue should be taken up at the state level. “They are a loud minority, but Donald Trump especially listens to the loudest voice in the room,” said Susan Del Percio, a Republican strategist and NBC News political analyst. “And that is an issue for Donald Trump running in 2024 — that they will have a voice.” Storms was a vocal Trump supporter. He attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally and took a selfie video outside the U.S. Capitol as the mob laid siege. But he’s not planning to vote for Trump this November unless the former president takes a “strong stand in defense of preborn children.” “My hope is that we’re able to pull Donald Trump in our direction,” Storms said. “And maybe I still will pull the lever for him if he comes our direction, but he’s not going to come our direction, clearly, unless we twist his arm a little bit.”

[...] Storms held various roles at Operation Save America before he took charge of the group in June 2021. The group is not just opposed to abortions. It preaches against homosexuality, vaccines, IVF and Islam. It also represents the extreme anti-abortion movement’s reverence for high-powered weaponry and its suspicion toward the federal government.