Weekly Opinion Editorial
DEFUND &
INVESTIGATE!
by Steve Fair
Human life begins at conception. Even some pro-choice advocates agree with
that. Jodi Jacobson of Reproductive
Health Reality Check says she believes life begins at conception but that a fertilized
egg is not a person. “The development of a potential human life
requires conception as a first step. But that is not the same as either
pregnancy or personhood,” Jacobson says.
Peter Singer, professor of Bioethics at
Princeton, says, “The fallacy in the
anti-abortion argument lies in the shift from the scientifically accurate claim
that the foetus is a living individual of the species Homo sapiens to the
ethical claim that the foetus therefore has the same right to life as any other
human being. Membership of the species Homo sapiens is not enough to confer a
right to life.” To the liberal the issue is not whether life exists in the
womb, but whether that life is worthy of the right to live outside the womb?
The more
fundamental issue in the abortion debate is ownership: who actually owns the
unborn life in the womb? Pro-choicers
believe it is the woman carrying the child.
After all, it’s her body- she has a right to do with her body what she
wants. If she wants to terminate an
unwanted pregnancy, it’s her choice.
Pro-lifers believe that only God, as the Creator, is the giver of
life. Through creation, He owns His
creatures and can therefore do with His creation and creatures as He sees
fit. The abortion debate has been spawned
from Darwinism. If God didn’t create,
then He doesn’t have any right to ownership. Now to the Planned Parenthood controversy.
Planned Parenthood (PP) was started in the
early twentieth century by Margaret Sanger to educate families on birth
control. Since 1970, Planned Parenthood
has received federal funding to provide contraception and family planning information
to Americans. Through the years, the
mission of the organization has changed.
Planned Parenthood is the largest
provider of abortions in the U.S. About one third of PP’s funding comes from a
combination of federal, state and local tax dollars. By law, the federal monies given to PP are
not supposed to be used to provide abortions.
PP has 85 offices with 27,000 staff and volunteers across the U.S., including
five offices/clinics in Oklahoma. Recently PP has come under fire when a
secretly recorded video was released showing a Dr. Deborah Nucatola, PP’s
Senior Director of Medical Services, talking with actors posing as medical
researcher about selling aborted fetus parts.
After the video was released, elected
officials scrambled to lead the charge to defund Planned Parenthood. U.S. Senator James Lankford, (R-OK), said in
an emotional speech on the Senate floor: “I
would tell you that child has value. And that every single adult that can hear
me right now was once 20 weeks old in the womb and we can look at each other
and understand the difference between that child in the womb and any of us now
is time. That's a human being we're talking about.” Senator Lankford led the charge to defund
Planned Parenthood in the Senate. The
measure failed to get the necessary 3/5 (60 votes) in the Senate, falling short
53-46. Both Senators Lankford and Inhofe
voted yea. Senate Majority leader Mitch
McConnell (R- KY) and Mark Kirk, (R-IL) voted with 44 Democrats to kill the
bill. Senator Inhofe says defunding isn’t enough- PP
needs to be investigated.
One issue that has been overlooked in the
PP controversy is the fact PP is a non-profit organization. They enjoy tax exempt status as a
501-C-3. While they get tax dollars,
they don’t pay taxes. Two years ago
during testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, a pro-life
group from Iowa testified they were told by the IRS they would be required to
sign a letter promising to not protest at PP facilities in order to get a 501-C-3
status. No such restrictions are placed
on PP. They operate with impunity, no
matter which political party is in power. They promote their liberal agenda and their
activism is celebrated. If a church
takes a political position, they run the risk of jeopardizing their non-profit
status.
Inhofe is right- PP should be
investigated. It is very likely they are
selling fetal tissue without consent.
Their liberal agenda should be exposed for what it is and their tax
exempt status revoked. Americans should
be outraged their tax dollars are going to an organization intent on killing
our next generation and selling their body parts.
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