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Trent Franks' Office Swarmed By D.C. Residents To Protest Abortion Ban
| Source: |
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huffingtonpost.com (blog) |
| Date: |
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 |
| Author: |
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Laura Bassett |
A swarm Washington, D.C., residents descended on Rep. Trent Franks' (R-Ariz.) Capitol Hill office on Wednesday to drop off plastic rats, pictures of potholes, unfair parking tickets and other representations of municipal problems in protest of the D.C. abortion ban he sponsored.
Franks recently introduced a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in D.C. and denied D.C.'s only elected representative, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), from testifying at the hearing on the bill. The incident sparked debates about D.C.'s lack of voting representation in Congress, since Norton does not have a vote.
Wednesday's protest was organized by DC Vote, an advocacy group dedicated to securing full representation for D.C. in Congress, and Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. One by one, about 50 protesters knocked on the door of Franks' office, and then spoke a few words about a problem in the city that they think "Mayor Franks" should address if he's going to be writing laws that affect D.C. residents.
"My issue today is metro -- full funding for metro," said Jon Ozment, a 56-year-old D.C. resident. "As a constituent here, I use metro all the time, my children use it, and it's really disgraceful the condition they've allowed metro to get to."
"I have to say I'm very disappointed today," he added. "I really wanted to meet my representative, Mr. Franks. He's supposed to be representing us and I did take some time to come in here today, so I hope he takes these concerns into account."
Franks' office did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.
Franks told the Washington City Paper last week that D.C. residents who were upset about representation issues were "missing the point."
"District of Columbia is not the issue here," Franks said, stepping into an elevator. "It's the pain of the child, and when people make the District of Columbia the issue they're missing the point."
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/trent-franks-dc-abo rtion-ban-protest_n_1539830.html?ref=mostpopular
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