Anti-gay legislator forced wife to have an abortion (Indiana)

[IndianaGreen]

I found this gem posted in one of Yahoo's groups. The link is to website that advocates LGBT rights in Indiana:

Doesn't appear that this person even has children of his own... In
fact took an ex-wife to get an abortion. He has NO morals... and he
is attempting to "legislate" his definition of morality???

From:

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2007/01/senator-brandt-hershman-and-family.html



Senator Brandt Hershman And Family Values

Since he was first elected as a member of the Indiana Senate in 2000
from District 7, Brandt Hershman (R) has made the passage of a
constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages the most important part
of his legislative agenda. He was the principal author of SJR-7 when
it passed two years ago, and he is the principal author again this
year. He and other proponents of the amendment argue it is needed to
protect "traditional marriage" and to promote procreation in a
household headed by one father and one mother.

So as principal author of this important constitutional amendment, how
does Sen. Hershman stand up as a family man? Not too good, at least
according to his ex-wife. On election day in 2000, the Logansport
Pharos-Tribune ran a shocking story in which Tracy Johnson Hershman
alleged her ex-husband, Brandt, a few years earlier drove her to an
abortion clinic in Merrillville where he paid for her to have an
abortion and then filed for divorce one week later. As the newspaper
wrote in November, 2000:

The open seat for one Logansport area legislative race is
encountering an open season on a controversial issue as the campaign
enters its final day.

The former wife of Republican State Senate candidate Brandt
Hershman said Monday that his pro-life positions and endorsement by
Indian Right to Life do not conform with his personal beliefs. Tracy
Johnson Hershman said when she became pregnant in early 1997, Hershman
asked to have an abortion. On May 30, 1997, she claims he drove her to
the Planned Parenthood clinic in Merrillville where he paid for her to
abort their child. Hershman asked her for a divorce a week later, she
said.

"This is about somebody who really isn't who he says he is,"
Johnson Hershman, a former Valparaiso Vidette Messenger reporter who
now resides in Michigan City.

Tracy Johnson Hershman, who says she is a Republican, said he
forced her to have an abortion. Brandt Hershman said, "I did not force
anyone to do anything, ever, period. Tracy Johnson Hershman's response
is that he may not have forcibly made her have an abortion, but he
made it clear he wanted her to abort the child.Tracy Johnson Hershman,
who is also Catholic, said her former husband did not want her to go
to church.

"If he just got religion, he just got religion," she says.
"I am the one with the Catholic guilt over (the abortion)," she
said. "I'm the one who sat there and cried over the entire thing."

The couple had been married since 1989.

Tracy Johnson Hershman said she is not out to assassinate the
character of her former husband, but the truth has to be known, but
she learned of some of the claims her former husband was making after
his campaign supporters called on a former business associate.

Because the story didn't hit the newspaper until the day of the
election in just a single newspaper in Hershman's Repubican-leaning
Senate district, it had little impact on the race. The issue seemed to
fade away by the time Hershman, an advocate for Right to Life, sought
re-election in 2004. Although Hershman denied forcing his ex-wife to
have an abortion according to the newspaper account, he didn't appear
to deny the abortion took place.

The account of Hershman's ex-wife, if true, is quite relevant to the
senator's public life and the issues he advocates today. For a man who
devotes so much time in the legislature touting family values, he
doesn't practice those values in his private life based on his former
wife's account. But with so many hypocrites on the religious right,
it's do as I say, not as I do.

Sen. Hershman was elected to serve as the Majority Whip for the Senate
Republican caucus at the beginning of this session and is employed as
a district staffer for U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer (R).

Let's hope the mainstream media takes Sen. Hershman to task on his own
private life as he seeks to write discrimination into the Indiana
Constitution against the state's gay and lesbian citizens, and doesn't
ignore his hypocrisy as they did two years ago.

Hat tip to the anonymous commenter who dug up this old newspaper story.

[hippiechick]

1. ouch!

Dang, that reality thing can be harsh sometimes, can't it, GOP'ers?! :spank:

[Delphinus]

2. This needs to be passed around.

It needs to be "headline" news - all over the state. His cohorts need to see this - the fundy right needs to see this - everyone needs to be brought up to speed.