Twitter Bars Candidate's Ad Over 'Baby Body Parts' Line

Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is running to replace Bob Corker in the Senate
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 10, 2017 8:29 AM CDT
Twitter Bars Candidate's Ad Over 'Baby Body Parts' Line
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., addresses a crowd at her town hall meeting in Fairview, Tenn., on Feb. 21, 2017.   (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP)

Conservative congresswoman Marsha Blackburn is running for the Senate, and her entry into the Tennessee race has gotten more attention than anticipated thanks to a decision by Twitter. The company blocked a video ad in which Blackburn declares, "I fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts. Thank God." Twitter informed the campaign that the reference to "baby body parts" was too volatile and that it would have to be ditched if the ad were to run, reports the Tennessean. Blackburn, who is running to replace the retiring Bob Corker, is instead trying to use the decision in her favor. "This is urgent," she wrote in an fundraising email to supporters, per Politico. "I’m being censored for telling the truth." She also called out "Silicon Valley elites" in the message.

While Twitter won't allow the video to be used as a paid ad, Blackburn can still keep it on her Twitter campaign page. The line in question is in reference to a 2015 controversy involving Planned Parenthood in which an anti-abortion group accused it of selling "baby parts" based on undercover recordings. Blackburn led a House panel investigating the incident, which Democrats called a waste of time and taxpayer money, per the AP. It was never shown that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue for a profit, which would be illegal, and the group faced no charges. Blackburn's panel recommended that the federal government stop funding the group. "I know the left calls me a wingnut or a knuckle-dragging conservative," Blackburn says in the video. "And you know what? I say that's all right. Bring it on." (More Twitter stories.)

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