Contact: Charles Cox, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, 559-308-2873

CLAREMONT, Calif., Aug. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- Pro-life activists were attacked Thursday, August 27th, while voicing dissent at a town hall meeting in Claremont, CA. The meeting, held in the Alexander Hughes Center, was intended as a forum for discussing the health care reform bill currently in the House, HR 3200. The 7 p.m. event was hosted by the Democratic Club of Claremont.

Cox, a representative from the pro-life group, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, says he attended the meeting, "to discuss a bill which opens the floodgates to tax-funding for abortion."

At around 7:20 p.m., a representative from Progressive Christians United stood up to speak in favor of HR 3200. Cox, who was seated in the second row, retorted that tax-funded abortion was not something Christians should support.

The speaker motioned asked that Cox be removed. Approximately 10 people assisted in removing him.

Claremont police later declared that the individuals had no right to remove Cox, and he was readmitted into the meeting.

At approximately 7:45 p.m. another speaker asked that a man be removed for booing, and warned that any others who booed would be removed as well. When a woman associated with the event attempted to pull the man from his seat, he cried, "Don't touch me! I'm a lawyer. I'll sue you."

Cox then shouted, "You can't remove him just because he disagrees with you." At this, a crowd of people forcefully removed Cox from the room again.

Cox reentered through a side door where people were listening in on the meeting. The panel continued to threaten those who disagreed with the removal and threats. After a few minutes, a staff member for the event, Rudy Mann, noticed Cox and began to choke him. Mann pushed Cox to the ground by applying pressure to his handicapped knee, causing it to dislocate.

When another member of Survivors attempted to film the incident, she was shoved by the host of the event, Zehpyr Tate-Mann, in an attempt to block the camcorder.

Paramedics arrived and provided medical aide to Cox.

According to officer Christopher Abarca, Mann was arrested and brought to jail.

"It seems that the Democratic Club of Claremont was only interested in hearing one side of the story," said Cox. "And so they chose to use violence as a means to silence opposition."