Jesse Jackson Stands Up For Terri

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling for the reinstatement of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, according to a press release put out by the parents of Terri Schiavo.

The left-wing activist will be meeting with the Schindler family on Tuesday morning at the Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice where Terri Schiavo is entering her eleventh day without food or water.

"Rev. Jackson is responding to an invitation from the Schindler family to come and pray with the family, and if possible visit Terri Schiavo in the hospice," the Schindler family announced in the press release.

After the meeting, the reverend is expected to make a statement to the press.

"The feeding tube should be reinstated," Jackson is quoted as saying. "This is a very tough emotional, ethical, political issue. But you know she is brain impaired, she is not brain-dead. And right now they're starving her to death."

Terri Schiavo, 41, collapsed in 1990 from cardiac arrest and suffered brain damage because of lack of oxygen. Her husband and guardian, Michael, does not want her kept alive; her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, say Schiavo needs therapy that her husband has denied her.

Schindler supporters in Florida and Washington appealed Monday to have Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted.

"They're dehydrating her to death," said Jackson, "and that raises profound ethical questions. That tube should be reinstated. She is not brain-dead. She's brain impaired. It's not right to starve her to death.

"That's not right ethically."

CFPA: Though our organization does not like Jesse Jackson even a little bit, he is however at this time doing the right thing by standing up for Terri Schindler and we commend him for this. What we'd like to know is, what took him so long? Maybe this is the miracle we've been praying for.