By now, you have probably heard about the Center for Medical Progress' undercover project investigating Planned Parenthood's fetal tissue procurement and sale. If you have not, essentially the videos show discussions between people posing as tissue procurement representatives and high-ranking officials at Planned Parenthood. Thus far, two videos (have been released, with sourced indicating that there will be several more to come. To protest these videos and to call for an end to taxpayer funds for Planned Parenthood, I hope that you will join Greater Columbus Right to Life, Students for Life of America, Ohio Right to Life, and many others at the#WomenBetrayed Rally on Tuesday, July 28th at 11:00 am.
As Ohioans, we are fortunate that a longstanding law enacted in 1974 prohibits the sale of fetal organs and tissue after an abortion (as does federal law), and also prohibits using any donated aborted fetal organs and tissue from being used in research. As an aside, if you have ever had an abortion in Ohio and were asked to donate that tissue for research or if you are an abortion clinic employee reading this and you've been asked to participate in such a scheme, Attorney General Mike DeWine has announced an investigation into the abortion industry, and we would invite you to come forward.
The reality is that as gruesome as these videos are, they are certainly no less horrific than abortion itself - the practice of destroying innocent human life. For all that we decry the tone and attitude that these Planned Parenthood execs have taken when referring to the discarded tissue of unborn babies, perhaps it simply mirrors our own tone and attitude when talking about abortion itself.
There are many ways that we, the prolife faithful, can respond. First among them should be prayer and an examination of our consciences. Are we doing what we should in response to this national tragedy? Are we doing all that we can? Really?
Second among them is that we need to properly identify the evil that we fight. It is not simply the perception that "Planned Parenthood is more than just abortion," nor is it as easy as identifying certain abortion employees and declaring them public enemies, but it gets to the very root of what we as Americans believe about human nature and truth.
Third is that we need to stand as witnesses against that which is wrong and in favor of that which is right. We live in a world where words seem to no longer have meaning. At this moment, thousands - maybe millions of people are discussing the ethics of how and when and why and under what circumstances it is ok to intentionally dismember a living human with the end-goal of scientific advancement. Sadly, history is full of atrocities in the name of medical advancement. Many bring to mind the accounts of Mengele's experiments at Auschwitz, but many others come to mind far too quickly. Lesser known, but possibly more horrific was another war-era human rights abuse, Japan's Unit 731. In some the US government was complicit, for example in the case of the Tuskegee Syphilis studies or the Guatemala Syphilis studies. Children, naturally incapable of defending themselves, have frequently been subjects of cruelty in the name of scientific advancement, such as the so-called "Monster Study" on stuttering. Since we are speaking of Planned Parenthood and other "women's reproductive health" organizations, I would be remiss if I did not at least mention Dr. J Marion Sims, whose legacy as the "father of modern gynecology" is incredibly complicated by the reality that his medical advances were derived by numerous painful, unanesthetized surgeries on slave women - several of whom he purchased and kept for study.
Each of these horrors is the natural consequence of one of two thought processes. The first is a systematic dehumanization of a broad category of innocent human beings such that they can be disposed of in whatever way those in power see fit. The second is ends-justified reasoning - to elevate the value of scientific advancement such that we are willing to place anything - including selling the souls of our children, as subservient to that goal. Abortion itself, alongside the macabre act of procuring fetal tissue remains, are essentially no different.
Edmund Burke once rightly observed that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. He also observed that, Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
It is time to stop standing by and letting evil happen. It is time to stop failing to do anything because we fear that our best is not enough. It is time to expose abortion for the evil, destructive, affront against human life that it is. We must stand against contributing even a single dollar of taxpayer funds to an organization that benefits from the destruction of a human being, much less one where high ranking officials contract to sell of the resulting tissue and organs to buy a Lamborghini.
There are many ways that you can help reverse this evil. Next week, on Tuesday July 28th, at 11:00 am, we will be hosting a #WomenBetrayed rally at the Ohio Statehouse. Rain or shine, we will be on the West Lawn. I hope that you will join us, not only to show the world just how offensive these videos are, but to stand up for life and be part of the solution.
As Ohioans, we are fortunate that a longstanding law enacted in 1974 prohibits the sale of fetal organs and tissue after an abortion (as does federal law), and also prohibits using any donated aborted fetal organs and tissue from being used in research. As an aside, if you have ever had an abortion in Ohio and were asked to donate that tissue for research or if you are an abortion clinic employee reading this and you've been asked to participate in such a scheme, Attorney General Mike DeWine has announced an investigation into the abortion industry, and we would invite you to come forward.
The reality is that as gruesome as these videos are, they are certainly no less horrific than abortion itself - the practice of destroying innocent human life. For all that we decry the tone and attitude that these Planned Parenthood execs have taken when referring to the discarded tissue of unborn babies, perhaps it simply mirrors our own tone and attitude when talking about abortion itself.
There are many ways that we, the prolife faithful, can respond. First among them should be prayer and an examination of our consciences. Are we doing what we should in response to this national tragedy? Are we doing all that we can? Really?
Second among them is that we need to properly identify the evil that we fight. It is not simply the perception that "Planned Parenthood is more than just abortion," nor is it as easy as identifying certain abortion employees and declaring them public enemies, but it gets to the very root of what we as Americans believe about human nature and truth.
Third is that we need to stand as witnesses against that which is wrong and in favor of that which is right. We live in a world where words seem to no longer have meaning. At this moment, thousands - maybe millions of people are discussing the ethics of how and when and why and under what circumstances it is ok to intentionally dismember a living human with the end-goal of scientific advancement. Sadly, history is full of atrocities in the name of medical advancement. Many bring to mind the accounts of Mengele's experiments at Auschwitz, but many others come to mind far too quickly. Lesser known, but possibly more horrific was another war-era human rights abuse, Japan's Unit 731. In some the US government was complicit, for example in the case of the Tuskegee Syphilis studies or the Guatemala Syphilis studies. Children, naturally incapable of defending themselves, have frequently been subjects of cruelty in the name of scientific advancement, such as the so-called "Monster Study" on stuttering. Since we are speaking of Planned Parenthood and other "women's reproductive health" organizations, I would be remiss if I did not at least mention Dr. J Marion Sims, whose legacy as the "father of modern gynecology" is incredibly complicated by the reality that his medical advances were derived by numerous painful, unanesthetized surgeries on slave women - several of whom he purchased and kept for study.
Each of these horrors is the natural consequence of one of two thought processes. The first is a systematic dehumanization of a broad category of innocent human beings such that they can be disposed of in whatever way those in power see fit. The second is ends-justified reasoning - to elevate the value of scientific advancement such that we are willing to place anything - including selling the souls of our children, as subservient to that goal. Abortion itself, alongside the macabre act of procuring fetal tissue remains, are essentially no different.
Edmund Burke once rightly observed that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing. He also observed that, Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
It is time to stop standing by and letting evil happen. It is time to stop failing to do anything because we fear that our best is not enough. It is time to expose abortion for the evil, destructive, affront against human life that it is. We must stand against contributing even a single dollar of taxpayer funds to an organization that benefits from the destruction of a human being, much less one where high ranking officials contract to sell of the resulting tissue and organs to buy a Lamborghini.
There are many ways that you can help reverse this evil. Next week, on Tuesday July 28th, at 11:00 am, we will be hosting a #WomenBetrayed rally at the Ohio Statehouse. Rain or shine, we will be on the West Lawn. I hope that you will join us, not only to show the world just how offensive these videos are, but to stand up for life and be part of the solution.
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