A horrifying video has gone viral which records a business meeting between people posing as "clients" who purchase body parts and an official from Planned Parenthood. The video is stunning as they discuss parting out a dead baby as if they were buying parts off a 96 Chevy. I was appalled but not because they are selling baby parts, I was appalled that we legalized abortion.
Careful Response > Quick Response
Selling baby parts is an atrocity. But I was once again disturbed by our lack of careful, thoughtful, and patient responses. We wanted heads to roll. Immediately. I quickly saw all kinds of things like calling out the President, senators, and every possible major news outlet. I laughed when I saw people calling out news outlets for ignoring the story after the video had gone “hot” on the internet for somewhere around an hour. Can we take a minute, breathe and do a little fact checking before we roll heads? Quick adjudication of justice is rarely careful. We rightfully hold news outlets to high standards to be truthful and factual, we at least owe them a few hours to do their homework and proofread their work. By the way, The Washington Post ran a story, among other news outlets. "We the people" have a right to speak, but we also have an obligation to listen. Don't get me wrong, we can and should speak, but let's do so carefully. By the end of the day a few thoughtful pieces were out that really helped bring some clarity.
What are we Upset About?
Here’s the problem. What Planned Parenthood did/is doing is probably not actually illegal. See this article here. The video indicates that the rep from Planned Parenthood thinks it's on the line. It may be ruled illegal, time will tell. If it’s not illegal, what exactly are we up at arms about? Is this a call to end abortion? Then sign me up. If this is a call to put dead babies in a trash bag rather than a research lab, I’m not sure we have fixed anything. Maybe we hit the pocket books of the abortion industry which is fine with me, but on what legal grounds? Of course it disturbs me that this is government subsidized, but again, I'm disturbed because of abortion not simply disposal practices.
Abortions happen everyday. They are doing something with the babies. What did we think was happening? Now we know that at least some parts of them are being sold. Stopping the commodification of their bodies doesn’t make them alive. We have bigger problems.
Time will tell us more as lawyers have an opportunity to dig through this case and see where this leads us legally. I wonder even about the legality of videoing the conversation, but that sure isn't my expertise! I’m praying that this would be a step towards sanity on the abortion issue with the ultimate decision to reverse Roe v Wade. Truthfully, Carl Truman's classic piece yesterday hit the nail on the head. He congratulates Planned Parenthood for "having so perfectly summarized the spirit of our age."
If you have had an abortion:
If you are reading this and you have had an abortion and you now recognize that as a massive mistake, my heart goes out to you. Please know there is grace to be found in Jesus Christ. I would encourage you to read this story here of an interview with a friend who had an abortion 30 years ago.
UPDATE:
Shortly after posting this article, I saw this article from a pro-lifer which calls into question the "sting" operation itself and gives some insights into portions of the video that were edited out. While the video is still horrific, we need to be fair.
Grace and Peace!
UPDATE:
Shortly after posting this article, I saw this article from a pro-lifer which calls into question the "sting" operation itself and gives some insights into portions of the video that were edited out. While the video is still horrific, we need to be fair.
Grace and Peace!
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