LOEWEN ATTACKS A RENOWNED CHILD ADVOCATE
April 5, 2017 Dr. Lolita McDavid is an award-winning pediatrician who has saved tens of thousands of at-risk children during her career. Dr. McDavid serves as professor of pediatrics at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. As director of child advocacy and protection at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, she oversaw a program that served 4,000 families each year, ensuring that children receive essential services to meet their needs. She turned Rainbow into a no hitting zone, encouraging parents to switch from beatings and spankings to non-violent disciplinary measures.
As a child advocate, she spent 60 hours a week serving on the Junior League of Cleveland and other non-profit boards. She has appeared on CNN and other television networks. Three years ago she won an alumnae service award for outstanding professional achievement and exceptional community service.
Dr. McDavid doesn’t perform circumcisions, nor does she recommend them. She explains the benefits and risks to parents. But when she was confronted by James Loewen and the anti-circumcision protesters outside the 2016 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exposition she decided not to take their abuse. She uttered a profanity, and Loewen directed his wrath towards her. (She explained to a colleague that the protesters “are used to being rude, but aren’t used to being spoken back to.”) And that was enough for James Loewen to turn his attention to her. We encourage readers to watch this 6 minute, 45 second video.
McDavid explained that she she considered their derogatory barking emblematic of a general lack of civility shown in the United States. When Loewen first approached her, she thought he was an unbiased journalist, and didn’t realize he was part of the protest until he demanded to know her thoughts on circumcising children. Once she realized he wasn’t an unbiased journalist, she laughed for a few seconds. Loewen took that footage, and attempted to fool his viewers into believing that she was indifferent to children suffering pain. When editing the video, Loewen juxtaposed her with photos of infant circumcisions, including one in which the baby appears to be screaming. Loewen made it appear as if Dr. McDavid was laughing at the circumcision procedure and the child in pain. He continued to contrast her responses with images of crying babies, seeking to manipulate the emotions of his viewers by portraying the child advocate as callous and sadistic. After Loewen manipulated the video, he posted it on his Facebook page three times over the next several weeks.
Before posting the video, he identified her by name, title, and employer. He included this information, because his followers knew the drill. The very first comment was: “Name and shame her practice.” Within minutes they posted Dr. McDavid’s hospital affiliation, her office phone number, her LinkedIn profile page, her professional Facebook page, her personal Facebook page, and various online review pages, where his followers proceeded to write scathing 1-star reviews in order to drive down her professional rating.
To reiterate, Dr. McDavid clearly stated that she neither performs circumcisions, nor recommends them to parents of her patients. The real-life harassment was based entirely on the fact that she defended the right of parents to make the decision. This organized and efficient harassment campaign is being repeated with increasing frequency every week, targeting hospitals, medical offices, and individual doctors and nurses throughout the United States. Often the intactivists overload phone lines, preventing callers from reaching the office with actual medical concerns.
Two months later a similar online bullying campaign targeted an Ob-Gyn intern. Loewen justified the use of such harassment, explaining: “One of our jobs, as intactivists working on social media, is to help publicize these criminals. May they be long remembered and may their memory serve to dissuade young doctors from following in their criminal footsteps.”
Tomorrow: The ambush in San Francisco
Smile for the Irate Man behind the camera
April 3, 2017 - Part 2: A Seething Anger April 4, 2017 - Part 3: Young James learns that he is circumcised April 5, 2017 - Part 4: Loewen attacks a renowned child advocate April 6, 2017 - Part 5: The ambush journalist gets ambushed
April 7, 2017 - Part 6: Lies, Lies, Lies ... Yeah! April 8, 2017 - Part 7: Conclusion September 23, 2017: The Irate Man accuses Circumcision Choice of dishonest tactics September 24, 2017: Update: The Irate Man's continuing dishonesty