The New York Times editorial board has penned a full-throated defense of Planned Parenthood. The opening paragraph gives you the core of the argument:
A hidden-camera video released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses. It shows nothing of the sort. But it is the latest in a series of unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood, which offers health care services to millions of people every year. The politicians howling to defund Planned Parenthood care nothing about the truth here, being perfectly willing to undermine women’s reproductive rights any way they can.
Here’s how the editors defend Planned Parenthood. The defense is based solely on the contention that selling baby parts is legal and that allegations of illegality are false. Yes, the editors trumpet “women’s reproductive rights” and engage in ad hominem against the producers of the video. But the bottom line of their defense is that there’s nothing illegal going on at Planned Parenthood.
I believe there is evidence that Planned Parenthood has broken the law, but let us for the moment set aside the question of legality. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Planned Parenthood hasn’t profited in an illegal way from selling baby parts. After setting that question aside, here are the facts that everyone agrees to.
(1) Planned Parenthood routinely kills babies in utero through procedures that involve “crushing” the baby.
(2) Planned Parenthood harvests the body parts of dead babies and sells them to buyers. [Planned Parenthood says they are “donating” the body parts, but they do not dispute that their “donations” involve accepting a payment from the ones they are “donating” to.]
In other words, the most damning aspect of Planned Parenthood’s work is not the potential illegality. The most damning aspect is the morally bankrupt act of killing babies in utero and trafficking their broken bodies to buyers. Neither Planned Parenthood nor the editors of The New York Times dispute these facts. All sides agree that this is what is happening.
That barbarism is what is shocking the consciences of Americans who are viewing this video, and all the euphemisms in the world cannot conceal the bald inhumanity of it. And neither can The New York Times.
15 Comments
schwagwager
This does not surprise me…any organization that celebrates the killing of the innocent will see nothing wrong about selling the body parts.
Jeff Clement
I have a question that I thought would have been answered by now through dissemination of news coming forth but has not so I guess I may pose it now. Does Planned Parenthood sells these “products of surgery” with the consent of their patients? Since they perform these procedures in the spirit of “choice”, it would be a tad ironic and fraudulent of them to all of sudden to not give the patient choice in these transactions.
Denny Burk
Yes, they get the mothers to sign a consent form to “donate tissue.”
Jeff Clement
Thanks for the info. Was curious.
James Harold Thomas
Straining a gnat, swallowing a camel.
Don Johnson
PP promotes a death ethic that dehumanizes the unborn. Once one accepts their ethic, everything else they do follows.
Ian Shaw
Agreed.
if we follow their ethic, we’d also be able to murder a toddler who was a product of rape, as the child serves as a daily reminder for the mother about that terrible experience.
James Stanton
Well, if we followed the ethic of many social conservatives and socially conservative politicians it is OK to have an abortion up to the 20 week point. That’s about as fair as your assertion here.
Ian Shaw
I don’t believe it’s ok regardless of timeframe. I’m saying that if PP was legally allowed to have no restrictions whatsoever, they’d murder at 9 months.But hey, it’s a free country and if people want to support an organization that was championed by a leader who believed that all black women should be sterilized, by all means, spend your hard earned money there….
James Stanton
I know you don’t believe that, Ian. I know most social conservatives don’t believe that either. But you can imply that from laws they support just as you say that pro-abortion people would support killing toddlers who are the product of rape. It’s enough to be against abortion which is something that actually exists.
Ian Shaw
A culture of death and a lack of humanity for what is human in nature is what PP stands for. Lack of value for human life at one end of the age spectrum has an impact on value (or lack of) for human life at any other time of age. You have to acknowledge it has an impact.
What PP does is abhorrent and I put nothing past them if they had the chance.
James Stanton
“The Center for Medical Progress video campaign is a dishonest attempt to make legal, voluntary and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear nefarious and illegal.”
vs.
“I believe there is evidence that Planned Parenthood has broken the law, but let us for the moment set aside the question of legality.”
It’ll be interesting to see where Congress takes this with its investigations. My guess is that defunding is possible but that PP is not doing anything that will be considered illegal. Arizona just passed a law banning sale of fetal tissue so that may be a continuing trend in response to this story. I find it strange that such laws were not already on the books.
Christiane Smith
if folks hate PP because of the abortion issue, it might be a really good idea to look around your community and find out where poor women go for their OB/gyn care. If they have no place other than PP to go,
it might be time to organize and fund such a place . . . a haven for poor women that offers good medical care for their pap smears and mammograms and follow-up care. If people want to end the ‘tyranny’ of PP throughout the country, then it will need to be replaced as a low-cost OB/gyn clinic for the poor and the working poor . . .
This takes money. This takes organization. This takes a LOT of work. And there is a saying in my Church, this: be the change you want to see happening . . . so get involved and begin
‘talk’? not effective on its own
‘votes’ haven’t accomplished anything yet
‘cursing the darkness’? please . . . instead imagine yourself as a young women in need of GYN care who has no real funds to get help . . . yeah, perhaps we would rather not, I know, but maybe it’s time to think about changing our OWN attitudes and light some candles in the darkness . . . why not? what else is working? think about it, folks
Ian Shaw
There are places for women to go for their OB-GYN care besides PP in my area. But I would agree that if you don’t like PP’s practices, open up a place to offer non-abortion care for women.
Brett Cody
This angers me to the core! Not just the ILLEGAL selling of murdered babies, but the outright lies of the NYT!!