Christianity,  News

Planned Parenthood’s Morally Bankrupt Response

In my previous post, I highlighted Live Action’s latest sting operation of a Planned Parenthood (PP) facility in Austin, Texas. A hidden camera disclosed a PP worker counseling a patient about sex selective abortion. The patient claimed that she only wanted a boy and that she intended to kill the unborn child if an ultrasound indicated it was a girl. The worker showed the patient exactly how to get this done.

PP has now released a statement in response to the video. PP’s response is a moral outrage for many reasons, but I want to highlight two.

First, Planned Parenthood fails to condemn sex selective abortions. The statement reads:

Planned Parenthood condemns sex selection motivated by gender bias, and urges leaders to challenge the underlying conditions that lead to these beliefs and practices, including addressing the social, legal, economic, and political conditions that promote gender bias and lead some to value one gender over the other.

It’s a shame to have to do this, but this statement is deceptive and must be parsed. Notice that PP doesn’t condemn all “sex selection,” but only sex selection that is “motivated by gender bias.” PP will continue to allow any woman to pursue a sex selective abortion. Their main concern is the “gender bias” on the part of the mother, not protecting female babies from being killed because they are female. No surprise here, but PP continues to show no regard for the humanity of the unborn. The lives of unborn girls are disposable as far as Planned Parenthood is concerned.

Second, Planned Parenthood has fired the worker who is shown in the video, but not because she facilitated sex selection. PP says the worker “did not follow our protocol for providing information and guidance when presented with a highly unusual patient scenario.” PP does not define what that protocol is, but apparently their protocol allows for women to pursue sex selective abortions. In fact, PP says that they “do not believe that curtailing access to abortion services is a legitimate means of addressing sex selection.” In short, they fired the worker, but sex selection will continue at PP.

The statement is an absolute chapter 11 morally bankrupt response. It has no regard for the lives of the unborn, and it affirms PP’s intention to continue to allow sex selection in its facilities.

With over 50 million babies having been legally killed since 1973, abortion on demand is certainly the greatest human rights crisis of our time. But Planned Parenthood doesn’t see it that way. PP is the America’s leading abortion provider. In 2010 alone, it provided 329,445 abortions in its facilities while only referring 841 customers to adoption agencies. Estimates say that PP made $135 million dollars in 2010 on their abortion services.

Without question, PP has learned well how to leverage our national sin for its own profit. They are not about to allow sex selection to slow their abortion mills. They’ve got way too much at stake.

12 Comments

  • RC jr

    Sorry to be a nag on this issue Denny, but once again this video in principle illustrates one thing that’s terribly wrong about the pro-life world. No, it’s not the sneaky tactics. My concern is when we raise these issues we actually end up implicitly and yet potently enforcing the mental construct that some abortions are worse than others. If Live Action, whom I appreciate deeply, went in and told this story- “I was assaulted by a black man and my baby has spina bifida” this video never would have seen the light of day. The majority of “pro-life” “Christians,” the people in our pews, who read our blogs, would have been happy Planned Parenthood was there to help.

    • Louis Cook

      Who are you to declare what the majority of pro-life people believe regarding abortions after sexual assault or abortions due to potential birth defects? Pro-life means what it says and that is that all life is valuable and worthy of protection. That is what I believe and I have not found any pro-life advocates who think a caveat for the cases you mentioned would be justified.
      The sad fact is many people in the United States do not comprehend the number of abortions performed yearly and the variety of reasons for them. Sex selection abortions are seen as a foreign issue but it is very much an issue here as well. I am glad that Live Action is attempting to shed some light on this aspect of the abortion mills supported by President Obama and his party.

      • RC jr

        Louis,
        I am no one. That said, I have watched the vast majority of those evangelicals over the past six election cycles who vote vote either for a pro-choice candidate, or, more commonly for a candidate who expressly commits himself to protecting the “rights” of mothers who conceive their children by rape or incest to murder those babies. I have witnessed the largest “pro-life” organization in the country, National Right to Life declare such candidates to be pro-life. More important I have witnessed dozens of self-identifying evangelicals walking into our local abortion mill to murder their babies. I am also a pastor who has counseled evangelical pro-life women who while professing Christ and professing to be pro-life murdered their babies. So yes, I am persuaded that we are far too proud of ourselves when we are so terribly weak on this issue. Maybe things are not as bad as my comment suggests. Maybe I’m wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

    • Johnny Mason

      I think the reason that Live Action focused on the sex selection was because it would be something that those in the pro-choice camp would find abhorrent. The pro-life camp already knows PP is an evil organization and shutting them down is one of our goals, If they could put pressure on PP by showing abortion defenders just how depraved they are, then maybe it could hasten the shut down of PP or, at the very least, end public funding of it.

    • Steve, Winnipeg, Canada

      R C Jr,

      I hear you and agree with your premise that every abortion for whatever reason is equally horrific. But I don’t have a problem with this approach. By highlighting ‘sex selective’ abortion one can bring the issue into the public eye. Unfortunately, ‘run of the mill’ abortions do not shock the general public. The issue of ‘sex selective’ abortions represents a clash between two cherished secular values – anti-sexism and personal choice. This is why it gets airtime and attracts attention outside the Pro-Life camp. Because of that attention it creates opportunity to address the faulty logic of the ‘Pro-Choice’ movement. All of the sudden, we can ask questions like: ‘if we afford “choice” to a woman for one reason, why not this one?’

      I agree with you completely regarding the nature of every abortion but I welcome this special attention to ‘sex selective abortion’.

      God bless you brother!

  • Phil Brown

    Absolutely dreadful! I’m from Australia, and even from here I feel the horror. Oh Lord rescue us from ourselves and from what we do to those little ones!

  • Larry Geiger

    I imagine the firing centered on the advice leading to MediCare fraud, which was not addressed above but is on the video.

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