Why we need to defund Planned Parenthood...now

It says something very positive about our culture that tens of thousands of people in at least 300 cities across 49 states (and six foreign countries) protested on August 22 at Planned Parenthood clinics in light of recent undercover videos that show staff and officials admitting to committing late-term abortions and then selling the babies for profit.

But it says something very different about our culture that, despite the horrifying revelations, plenty of people still defend Planned Parenthood and instead condemn the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) -- the medical ethics group responsible for exposing Planned Parenthood -- and others who seek to defund it. But on what grounds are supporters defending it?

Thanks to its catchy PR campaigns, Planned Parenthood has convinced many that without it, women would have severely reduced access to healthcare.

But it should be noted that Planned Parenthood’s “healthcare” primarily focuses on sexual/reproductive health only, like birth control, abortion and treatment of STD’s. In fact, none of Planned Parenthood’s approximately 700 US clinics even offers mammograms.

In contrast, there are about 9,000 taxpayer-funded community health center locations that do provide more comprehensive healthcare services, regardless of one’s ability to pay (Planned Parenthood charges for its services). In other words, without Planned Parenthood, women would still have accessible, completely affordable, and more complete healthcare than what Planned Parenthood offers.

But what supporters don’t want to admit is that Planned Parenthood, according to its own annual report, is the nation’s largest abortion provider, having performed 516,000 “averted unintended pregnancies” through abortifacients and 327,653 direct abortions in FY-2014. The latter is more than 30% of the reported 1.1 million abortions performed annually in the US, the most by any one organization.

Supporters also like to downplay the fact that we taxpayers annually fund Planned Parenthood, paying over $528 million to it in FY-2014 -- all while the organization regularly opposes any compassionate or common-sense law that would restrict or make abortion safer (such as the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act after 20 weeks in the womb, or requirements that minors seeking abortions get parental consent).

Planned Parenthood also vehemently opposed Texas’ attempts to require that doctors committing abortions have privileges at nearby hospitals – a law that would actually protect a woman if an abortion goes wrong and she needs emergency medical treatment -- and it celebrated California’s new law that allows non-physicians to do abortions. (Yet pro-lifers are the ones accused of wanting to return women to the back-alley.)

But, as many of us know, it gets incredibly worse.

The videos released so far by the Center for Medical Progress -- which have been edited for length but not for context as some try to claim (the full videos are available on CMP’s website) -- show not only the brutal reality of what Planned Parenthood is doing, but the callous indifference of those doing it.

From video confessions that intact babies fetch higher fees and joking about buying a Lamborghini with the profits, to harvesting one baby’s organs while his heart was still beating, the videos are as extremely difficult to watch as the descriptions of them are to read.

But as Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life says, “America won’t reject abortion until America sees abortion.” It’s time that everyone see it. The innocents caught in the crosshairs of today’s culture of death have suffered long enough.

As ghastly as these videos are, though, there is perhaps one small silver lining that could change hearts: The abortionists themselves reveal the humanity of the unborn child. After all, when describing the market demand for their organs, it’s difficult to push Planned Parenthood’s claim that the pre-born child is “just a clump of cells.”

Maybe this is why President Barack Obama admitted he refuses to watch the videos, though he wasted no time attacking states that voted to defund Planned Parenthood while warning all other states not to follow suit.

Other defenders say the medical research being done with these babies outweighs any moral implication. But unlike adults who can consent to donating their body for future research, these voiceless human beings cannot.

Also, let’s not forget that no scientific discovery, no matter how great, in fact no desired good whatsoever, justifies one act of evil. Yet for Planned Parenthood -- with almost 45% of its annual revenue from taxpayers and $90 million in profit according to its latest annual report – moral issues don’t seem to be the concern.

Despite what the videos plainly show, however, supporters continue to claim that Planned Parenthood is all about helping women, and that the entire scandal is merely an attack on women.

Rabid Planned Parenthood supporter, Hillary Clinton, for example, admitted she found the videos “disturbing”, but who did she condemn? The “three men” in New Hampshire who voted to defund Planned Parenthood. “It’s appalling that three men…of the Executive Council would deny women the healthcare they need and deserve,” Hillary declared.

Knowing what we know about Planned Parenthood “healthcare”, apparently Hillary and other supporters are willing to overlook the human trafficking of babies as long as women can still get the birth control and abortions that Planned Parenthood depends on (in addition to taxpayer support) to stay in business – despite the documented physical and emotional harm these practices are causing women.

Meanwhile, Sen. Barbara Boxer blasted not Planned Parenthood, but the Center for Medical Progress as an “extremist group”, and Nancy Pelosi called for an investigation of CMP, which she said was “trying to ensnare Planned Parenthood in a controversy that doesn’t exist.”

Doesn’t exist? Watch the videos. It’s time the blinders come off.

Isn’t it amazing and so very sad that when Cecil the Lion was killed by a trophy hunter in July, major news broadcasters spent more airtime covering it in one day than they did the Planned Parenthood monstrosity over the course of three weeks that same month (or since)?

It says something very pitiful about our culture that a hunted animal evokes more publicized outrage than does the selling of deceased babies. But as English writer G.K. Chesterton noted, in these modern times we have weakened major morals in favor of strengthening minor morals. Hence we see the elevation of animals over humans, and evil presented as good, while those exposing the evil are the ones publicly condemned.

As for Planned Parenthood, it’s not about compassion for women. It’s certainly not about compassion for innocent human life. It’s about passion for money. When it comes down to it, in fact, the question isn’t what would women do without Planned Parenthood. It’s what would Planned Parenthood do without women?

When the innocent offspring of used women are sold like inanimate commodities to the highest bidder, there simply is no defending it. If we want to reclaim our culture for good over evil, not only must Planned Parenthood be criminally investigated, but at the very least, not one more dime of our taxpayer money should be used to fund this grisly house of horror.

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Police shouldn't arrest people who steal from Wal-Mart...and other liberal gems

Oh, the wisdom we receive from our college administrators and professors.

In a recent panel discussion on “Best Policing Practices", the Director of Community Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Everett D. Mitchell, said that "police should stop prosecuting individuals who shoplift from Wal-Mart and Target."

As reported by MRCtv.org, Mitchell said: "I just don’t think they should be prosecuting cases for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I don’t think that. I don’t think that Target, and all them other places – the big boxes that have insurance – they should be using the people that steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police behavior."

So as long as a company has insurance to protect itself against thugs, it should keep its mouth shut when said thug steals from it, thus driving costs higher for all consumers, not to mention breaking down the rule of law in general, which is what keeps a nation functioning.

To add to the anti-police ideas being pushed at this university, professors Sara L. McKinnon and Karma R. Chavez wrote a letter to the editor in which they call on the police force to stop patrolling certain areas of the city.

“We write this as a white lesbian woman and a light-skinned queer Chicana in solidarity with the Young Gifted and Black Coalition. ... We urge Koval to sincerely consider the demand for no police interaction. It is not an unreasonable request because for many of us in this city, it is already the reality. We also call on other non-black people in Madison to think about the privilege of living without an occupying force in your neighborhood.”

An occupying force? I call it having a police department, and I consider it a privilege that uniformed men and women put their lives on the line to keep law-abiding citizens like myself safe. 

It’s just not right for so-called educators to make police the bad guys, when all they’re trying to do is protect us from the bad guys, often at the risk of their own lives. 

Are there corrupt police out there? Sure. But if liberals keep pushing the narrative that the police in general are systematically racist and abusive, it will only further exacerbate existing tensions. 

And here’s an idea. If you don't wish to be on the receiving end of “aggressive police behavior,” then don’t steal from Wal-Mart or Target.

What do you think?  Click on the comments link in the bar below to share your thoughts. No registration necessary. 

Even PP supporters can't bear to watch the videos

When protesters gathered outside the governor's house in Louisiana to protest Governor Bobby Jindal's defunding of Planned Parenthood in the wake of revelations that it's selling dead babies for parts and profit, the governor had a great response: He had large movie screens erected on the lawn and played the videos from the Center for Medical Progress that show Planned Parenthood officials confessing to the heinous crimes.

The videos also show technicians rummaging through bins containing dead babies to find usable parts, and one technician is shown claiming she even saw a wholly intact baby whose heart was still beating as the dissection of his brain began.

Apparently the horror of these videos was even too much for the protesters, who moved away from the screens to huddle together behind a large tree that blocked the screens. 

But it begs the question: how can you support an organization that is doing the very things you cannot bear to look at yourself? On what grounds does one justify not only the slaughtering of an innocent, helpless human being, but also degrading him or her even further by chopping the body up and selling it to the highest bidder?

When presented with the truth that shows one's thinking might be wrong on something, an intellectually honest person will admit he was wrong. But when it comes to pro-abortionists and pro-human traffickers of innocent, murdered babies, no amount of truth can penetrate the ego that cannot admit a mistake.

So is that why we have the heinous, horrible, diabolical activities of Planned Parenthood being defended...because of ego? If so, how unimaginably tragic and evil that helpless human babies pay with their lives the price of someone else's conceit. 

What do you think?  Click on the comments link in the bar below to share your thoughts. No registration necessary. 

Rallies to protest Planned Parenthood - tomorrow, Aug. 22 - Please join!

The seven undercover Planned Parenthood videos released by The Center for Medical Progress have provided a wake-up call to many Americans about the gruesome practices of the nation's largest abortion provider.

To speak out against the atrocities, pro-lifers from across the country are rallying outside of Planned Parenthood clinics tomorrow, Saturday, August 22. 

Please find a location near you and then attend one of the Protest Planned Parenthood rallies in your area tomorrow!

The message is simple. Women and babies deserve better than Planned Parenthood. 

Moreover, our taxpayer dollars should not be going to the nation’s largest abortion business, especially not after they have been caught on tape trafficking in the organs of aborted babies. 

Please consider attending one of the rallies to help raise awareness about Planned Parenthood's barbarity. Someone needs to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Unreal nation*

*Due to a very over-extended schedule that's preventing me from posting lately, I'd like to share a magnificent read from Professor Anthony Esolen, who teaches Renaissance English Literature and the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College. He is a senior editor for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, and a regular contributor to Crisis Magazine, where this article appears. Click here to access.

If you like your religious freedom...well, too bad

A national survey by Democrat pollster Pat Caddell revealed overwhelming support for key provisions of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) - which is critical legislation to protect our rights as Americans.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), says that the federal government "shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage."

The poll revealed that more than two in three Americans are opposed to forcing an individual or business to participate in something like same-sex marriage against their wishes.

An even more staggering 82% of Americans believe that a wedding photographer who has deeply held religious beliefs in opposition to same-sex "marriage" should be able to say no to photographing the ceremony.

And seven in ten Americans believe that protecting gay couples from discrimination and protecting religious liberty can both happen simultaneously. 

Despite the overwhelming support of Americans, you can be certain that the current administration and other activists will be looking for opportunities to punish supporters of traditional marriage and will be actively seeking to force us to drop any opposition to same-sex "marriage."

Need proof? A top lawyer for homosexual activists already told the Supreme Court they'd be looking at whether Christian Colleges could continue to enjoy religious tax exemption if they don't recognize homosexuals as married even though doing so violates their deeply help beliefs.

And just yesterday, The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that a Denver baker who wouldn’t make a wedding cake for a homosexual couple cannot cite his religious beliefs as a defense because it would lead to discrimination.

This same baker, Jack Phillips, also refuses to bake Halloween cakes because he believes Halloween comes from Satan. So far, no devil worshipers have sued.

Like other bakers who have been caught in similar setups laid out by homosexuals, Phillips said he has no qualms about serving homosexual customers at his bakery, but he won't participate in a homosexual wedding.

A wedding is generally considered a sacrament in Christian churches, so to mock that sacrament is seen by many believers as a slap in the face to God.

Proponents of same-sex "marriage" try to tell us that allowing homosexuals to marry will not affect anyone else, but I don’t see that being the case as time moves on. It appears as though allowing for personal conscience is not in the cards. 

But I can’t help but think that, even if I were a protected class, I would never force someone to do something that violated his personal beliefs. How would a homosexual person feel if he were forced to do something that violates something in his belief system? Why do homosexual rights matter more than anyone else’s and since when can the government force someone to provide any service against his will? Isn't that called slavery?