Regina Dinwiddie, the Kansas anti-abortion activist who set up an eBay auction to benefit the suspect in the George Tiller murder, tells TPMmuckraker in a phone interview that she’s angry that eBay pulled her items — and that she believes they did not glorify violence, but rather “glorify the end of a very violent man.”
“Actually I thought [eBay] was the last bastion of free enterprise in America, where normal people could put things up for sale,” Dinwiddie told us. “I see they do have a political agenda.”
The items put on eBay — and pulled by the site today — included prison art signed by Roeder showing a bloody scene in which David has slain a Goliath labeled “Tiller.” Also for sale was Dinwiddie’s bullhorn, and various relics and treatises associated with the violent wing of the anti-abortion movement.
Asked whether she believes the items glorify violence, Dinwiddie said she did not believe they did. “David and Goliath — that’s from the Bible,” she said.
eBay, which has not returned calls seeking comment, previously said that it does “not allow listings that promote or glorify violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance.” The owner of the mission.of.life account that posted the items — who appears to be Dinwiddie’s mother — sent us this enumeration of violations she received from eBay.
Dinwiddie, for her part, said she plans to press on, and “we have plan B, C, and D” when it comes to raising money for Roeder. And, invoking a classic trope of anti-abortion rhetoric, she compared her fight to the fight against slavery.
“It’s always Bleeding Kansas. It’s funny how civil rights and the right to life issues always start with Bleeding Kansas,” she said, referring to the 1850s skirmishing over slavery. “I wonder how Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, would’ve sold in Kansas in this kind of political climate.”
Late Update: eBay sends along this statement from Associate General Counsel Jack Christin:
Today, eBay removed several listings on our site that violated several of our policies including our offensive materials’ policy. This policy prohibits items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views.
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