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Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has been blamed for bringing a group of preschoolers to her pro-life rally in Iowa, without informing their parents beforehand or having their consent.
The controversial event took place on Wednesday, January 20, when the former tech CEO turned politician decided to campaign across the Hawkeye State in an effort to try and generate more support for her apparently doomed presidential run.
The day started off on the wrong foot right from the early hours of morning: the Republican had been scheduled to participate in a Coffee with Carly Fiorina meeting, starting from 8:30 a.m. at Prime Time cafe, in the heart of Gunthrie Center.
The small city, situated at a distance of 40 miles from Des Moines, only has around 1,500 residents, but for the campaign event, which was supposed to be completely free of charge and open to the public, just 15 persons showed up.
It may be that unfavorable weather conditions were partially to blame for the disappointing turnout, given that the streets were filled with slush, and the pavements were strewn with snow.
Even the few supporters that attended the event, most of them well past their youth, were relatively skeptical of Fiorina’s potential to lead the nation, one of them asking the candidate when the United States would once again accomplish grand things, like the nation did during his childhood.
The visit to Iowa continued even more dismally, when the presidential contender committed a faux pas by hijacking a school field trip, in order to have a group of 15 children participate in her anti-abortion rally.
The kids had been wanting to explore the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, alongside their tutor. That’s when they encountered Fiorina, who immediately decided to bring them on stage, in order to join her impassioned speech about the immorality of abortion.
The politician spoke in front of an audience numbering 60 individuals, outlining the way organs are taken from aborted fetuses. She was also joined on stage by a pro-life advocate, who showed the crowd a picture of a 4-month, thumb-sucking embryo, referring to the photograph as the “face of abortion”.
It’s not the first time that Fiorina has broached this topic during presidential debates and rallies.
In fact, she has previously stirred controversy after referring to an online clip allegedly filmed at Planned Parenthood: the video shows an 18-month fetus being mishandled shortly after being born, as doctors are heard saying they would make a profit by selling its brain.
While the authenticity of the footage has been challenged, now it appears the candidate has involved a group of unwilling participants in her crusade against abortions, and parents are none too pleased about it.
For instance, Chris Beck, the father of one of the kids who had to share the stage with Fiorina during her pro-life speech, has accused the woman of having detoured a preschool trip, in order to further her political agenda, without even bothering to seek the assent of the kids’ legal guardians.
As he explained, his 4-year old son obviously has no understanding of politics whatsoever, being a keen fan of dinosaurs and transformers instead, and should’ve never been brought to an anti-abortion protest.
It remains to be seen if this latest incident will result in lowering the politician’s already slim chances of becoming the Republican nominee for the presidential elections, especially since her spokesperson has denied the accusations, suggesting the preschoolers alongside their adult supervisor actually wished to take part in the event.
Fiorina, who previously served AT&T’s first female executive officer and also became the first woman to run a Fortune 20 company as Hewlett-Packard’s CEO, had initially been seen as a worthy adversary for Republican front-runners, when she joined the presidential race in May 2015.
However, lately, support for her has been fading, political analysts suggesting that this might be partially because of her failure to make headlines like Ben Carson and Donald Trump.
Others have linked her rapidly declining poll numbers to her lack of charisma, and even to her being a woman, since some Americans still remain unfavorable to the idea of having a female president.
Image Source: NYMag
