And here we go.
You know those Planned Parenthood (which will further be referred to as PP) videos that Republicans are flipping out about? Maybe you were swayed to tears by Carly Fiorina's vivid imagery of a fetus on a table with it's heart still beating and legs kicking. Well, that didn't happen.
"The video also includes unrelated stock footage of a fetus outside the womb that purports to be from an abortion, although the Center for Medical Progress, the group behind the videos, was also caught using, without attribution or permission, a photo from a woman’s stillbirth as if it showed an aborted fetus. No one in the videos has even alleged that a fetus was kept alive to harvest a brain, nor is there footage of it." From this article.
Before we go further, there is one thing you need to understand. You need to recognize that Fiorina lied, on live TV, to get support for her point of view. And do you know why she so easily could? And everyone ate it up. Including the adult women posting about how awful and horrible what she said is. The adult women that should be intelligent enough to fact check before believing something just because a GOP candidate said it.
And this is going to be a common theme in this post. Please, be educated about what Planned Parenthood actually does, do not gobble up information because it suits your point of view and you are unable to think differently.
Now let's move on to what the videos in question were trying to do. In case you are unaware, the PP videos in question were created by a pro-life group trying to "catch" Planned Parenthood selling aborted fetal tissue for profit. And do you know what they found out? That PP wasn't doing it. But if you went through all that trouble to pose as someone you weren't, and then find out that the organization you hoped to expose wasn't doing anything illegal, well I guess you'd be a little upset to. Which led The Center for Medical Progress to heavily edit and doctor their videos, using footage spliced together which leads you to believe that PP is selling aborted tissue cavalierly. You can get people to believe anything with cleverly edited footage. Anyone seen Blackfish? (But that's for another time...)
Let's get one thing clear here. Selling aborted fetal parts for profit is illegal. Donating aborted fetal parts for scientific use it not. And if anyone is going to say that they think donating fetal parts for scientific research is wrong, then please abandon most of the modern medicine and medical practices that you use, which are a direct result of advances made using aborted fetal parts for research.
Please read this article for more information on this subject. But since I gather that most of you won't, allow me to copy and paste a few key points.
"Over the past several weeks, Republicans lawmakers have seized on Planned Parenthood’s practice of facilitating fetal tissue donations — which abortion opponents have characterized as “selling aborted baby parts” — to push for defunding the national women’s health organization."
Do you see the problem here? Abortion opponents have characterized donations as "selling aborted baby parts". Donating and Selling are not interchangeable. One of these things is legal, one is not.
“Virtually every person in this country has benefited from research using fetal tissue,” Charo writes. “Every child who’s been spared the risks and misery of chickenpox, rubella, or polio can thank the Nobel Prize recipients and other scientists who used such tissue in research yielding the vaccines that protect us (and give even the unvaccinated the benefit of herd immunity). This work has been going on for nearly a century, and the vaccines it produced have been in use nearly as long. Any discussion of the ethics of fetal tissue research must begin with its unimpeachable claim to have saved the lives and health of millions of people."
Self- explanatory. Moving on.
And now we come to the conclusion regarding the videos. Several of the candidates talked about the illicit practices of PP selling the fetal parts for profit, and how "It is a felony with 10 years' jail term to sell the body parts of unborn children for profit."- Texas Sen. Ted Cruze.
And do you know what's super interesting about that? No one from PP is in jail! Furthermore, investigations have yielded NO evidence that the clinic is doing what they are accused of. See link. State Investigation Results
""In every state where these investigations have concluded, officials have cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation, told the Huffington Post. "We've said all along that Planned Parenthood follows all laws and has very high medical standards, and that's what every one of these investigations has found."
Weird! Turns out accusing someone of doing something doesn't mean they actually did that thing. Who knew? Apparently not the House, since they just voted to defund Planned Parenthood based off these videos. I guess if you really want to believe something, no amount of evidence to the contrary will change your opinion, huh?
Moving on again.
Now, at this point I assume you have seen reason, and that you will not use these ridiculous videos to back up your views on abortion. Good. If you are still all for defunding PP because it provides abortion services, consider this chart.
I have been to PP clinic in T.O. several times. And do you know why? To get birth control, and to have my annual women's exam. And all of these services were of no cost to me, because PP works on a sliding income scale to account for low income persons. Planned Parenthood is not simply an abortion clinic. They also seek to prevent abortions by providing birth control and other reproductive services. Also, that 1% you see listed above in the graph accounts for adoption services.
Now let's talk logic. You are a person that opposes abortion. How do you prevent unwanted or unintended pregnancies? Well logically, you provide comprehensive sex education (not abstinence only- it doesn't work), and you provide reliable and affordable birth control (even condoms are expensive). Taking away a clinic that provides both of these things, as well as women's exams and cancer screenings to those who are not able to afford it doesn't help prevent abortions. Taking away safe abortion does not guarantee that women simply won't have abortions. All it does it guarantee that they will find ways that are unsafe and illegal. Back alley and home abortions aren't a myth or a joke.
This is entirely my problem with the GOP and supporters: If the GOP was against abortion, against Planned Parenthood, and then sought out to implement other measures to make birth control available to all women through other means- that would be good. Not great, but a good start. However, that isn't the case. No, the GOP does things like oppose and defund PP, then say that employers can deny their employees birth control. So now we have situations where women can't get birth control, and can't get safe and legal abortions. And do you know which political party is all about shaming people on welfare, saying things like "they shouldn't have had babies that they couldn't afford!"? You guessed it!
And if you're very right wing and still think that people just shouldn't have sex out of wedlock and that would solve everything, please consider that just because one is married, it doesn't mean that one can afford a child.
Now, to all you LDS girls I know who have been married for years and do not have children, I'm pretty sure you've been on some kind of birth control. So why aren't you fighting this? Why aren't you vocal for your fellow sisters? Why are you seeking to shut down an organization that provides birth control, cancer screenings, women's exams and seeks to help women who can't get help otherwise? Why are you affiliated with a party that seeks to take away women's reproductive rights?
I support Planned Parenthood.
