Pro-choice Pa. lawmaker apologizes to mother, 2 daughters for harassment
A pro-choice Pennsylvania state legislator who harassed a mother and her two daughters as they prayed outside an abortion clinic recently sent them a letter of apology asking for their forgiveness months after the altercation.
The Daily Caller reported Monday that Democratic state Rep. Brian Sims sent a letter to Ashley Garecht apologizing for an altercation he instigated in April when he filmed himself berating her and her two teenage daughters, and called on supporters to doxx them.
Garecht provided the Daily Caller News Foundation with a copy of a handwritten letter that Sims sent to her, in which he wrote that he wanted to “reiterate my sincere apologies to you and your family.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
“I regret the harm that I caused and I have learned a great deal from this. I can only ask for your forgiveness and I wish you all the best in the future,” wrote Sims, as reported by the Daily Caller.
In April, Sims confronted and filmed Garecht and her two teenage daughters who were praying outside an abortion clinic, and offered $100 to anyone who could identify them.
He also posted a video on Twitter showing himself harassing an elderly woman who was praying outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia.
“They prey on young women, they use white privilege, & shame. They’re racist, classist, bigots who NEED & DESERVE our righteous opposition. Push back, please,” he brazenly tweeted in May.
Garecht previously told Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson that during the incident she was “concerned for my girls.”
“I was genuinely trying to enter into just a dialogue with him to try to bring the situation, calm it down a little bit, and say to him on film we are really here just praying for these women and babies,” Garecht told Fox News.
“I never come to a clinic looking for a fight. … It's always just with peaceful, prayerful intent. Yes, I was concerned that he said multiple times that he wanted the identities of my daughters.”
In May, Sims posted a video on Twitter expressing regret for his actions, but also claimed that protesters at the abortion clinic were engaging in “slurs,” “attacks,” and “racism.”
“I know that two wrongs don’t make a right. I can do better, and I will do better for the women of Pennsylvania,” he said in the video.
Sims’ earlier expression of regret was criticized by many for being insufficient; Townhall associate editor Beth Baumann described the apology video as “pathetic.”
“After conservatives pounced on Sims for his disgusting tactics, he took to Periscope, yet again, but this time to semi-kind-of ‘apologize,’” wrote Baumann in response to the May video.
“Except he didn't really offer an apology at all. All he did was make an excuse for his behavior and say he didn't mean to embarrass Planned Parenthood.”
