Katrina Springer admits that up until now she had pretty much just blindly believed information from Kansans for Life, the pro-life group with a goal to eradicate abortion.
All that changed Wednesday night when Springer, a self-described conservative Catholic and staunch Republican, visited the KFL Facebook page and discovered postings that she characterizes as defaming David Toland and Thrive Allen County by painting them as abortionists.
The Kansans for Life postings also urge members to contact their state senators to protest Tolands confirmation as Secretary of Commerce. The vote is now scheduled for Monday.
Because Springers older sister, Lisse Regehr, has worked for Thrive the past four years and is now its CEO, Springer knows its mission of promoting public health and wellness.
So I posted a reply, saying Kansans for Life needs to get its facts straight and that the money they received from the Tiller Fund in fact goes for smoking cessation classes for pregnant women, vaccinations and birth control the kinds of things that are the opposite of abortion.
Along with Katrina, her mother, Mary Ann Regehr, and several other Iolans, posted comments defending Toland and Thrive.
But within minutes of their postings, they were deleted.
So I posted again, Springer said.
As did her mother, a fourth-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary.
Again, the messages disappeared, this time within seconds.
Springer said the more she thought about the deletions, the more upset she became.
I thought about it overnight and through the next morning, she said.
On Thursday afternoon, Springer called KFLs Wichita number and asked to speak to the person in charge of its Facebook page or someone on its board of trustees.
I spoke to the chairman of the board (Alan Weldon) and he said the board had not discussed the post, and to call their Kansas City office, with Weldon giving Springer the cell phone number of Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life.
So Springer called Culp and asked why the postings had been deleted, adding she could substantiate their truth.
Culp replied it didnt matter how Thrive used the funds because their source implicated Thrives connection to abortion. Any use, Culp said, would be validating Tiller, a Wichita physician who performed late-term abortions and who, in 2009, was gunned down while attending church.
She was very stuck on that fact, Springer said. It didnt matter at all to her that the funds went to help unborn children of smoking mothers.
