Yesterday I put something out on twitter that was my reaction to the recently released video of a Planned Parenthood official discussing the harvest and sale of aborted babies’ body parts. I do not usually enter these sorts of things on social media as I find them counter productive almost all of the time. Furthermore, I do not want to alienate folks who have had abortions or have had girlfriends or family members have abortions. I actually am of the opinion that the woman is a victim in this procedure as well, and I believe that statics showing health and emotional risks more than bear me out on that.
Anyway, from time to time I feel that as a pastor I do need to try to offer some commentary on issues such as these, so I simply shared that the video literally made me feel ill.
Today there are articles written by media who seem to be acting as the mouthpiece for Planned Parenthood that are coming to the defense of the organization. Here is one such article.
I read the article. I believe I can briefly summarize it:
- There is an anti-abortion video out that is getting attention, but it was creatively edited.
- Planned Parenthood has made a case for the legality of the exchange of money for human tissue from aborted fetuses. But the organs and tissue were not “purchased,” instead Planned Parenthood was reimbursed for costs such as transportation fees.
- The video was ‘off-putting,’ but much of medicine is ‘gory and gruesome,’ or from earlier, ‘gross.’
- After all, it’s just linguistics. What to one person is a ‘head,’ is to a doctor a ‘calvarium.’
- The article then closes with a bit of an attempt at a pathos filled peroration (to use a rhetorical analysis) where the fallacy ergo decedo is used in an attempt to refute any arguments against abortion. The author grouped everyone opposed to Planned Parenthood using the most extreme ethical examples they could find, framing them in a way to beg the argument, and refusing to admit any nuance to the opposition’s position.
The defense only makes this situation more disturbing to me. My gut reaction to the video was not rooted in my delicate sensibilities in regards to US legal code. I’m not super duper concerned as to whether or not Planned Parenthood has the appropriate legal loopholes to slither through. Their practices offend me morally and ethically. It is a moral and ethical code rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, I grant you, but it is important to distinguish that from an issue with the legality of Planned Parenthood’s work according to US legal code which they donate large sums of money to influence and of which I am not an expert. Furthermore, I grew up with a father who hunts, and have helped him field dress many animals. I have worked in an anatomy lab at a medical school. I have worked as a custodian in an elementary school and cleaned bathrooms during flu season. When I listened to the Planned Parenthood official describe what was done in order to harvest organs with greatest efficiency, I wanted to vomit. It was not because it was ‘gross,’ or ‘gory.’ I have dealt with gross and gory just fine. I was ill with the knowledge of what we are doing to vulnerable human beings. Until people who fully support Planned Parenthood understand that, they will never really understand this debate. While some in the Republican party may use this as a political stunt, there are many folks who do not. This is not a stunt. This is not a talking point. This is akin to sacrifice to Molech and it makes me ill.