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The Republican Effort to Defund Planned Parenthood Was a Good Start: Keep It Up
Planned Parenthood has not been defunded, and probably never will be. Republicans gave it a go, but, as Ricochet editor Tom Meyer explains, the votes were not there, Obama would have vetoed the measure anyway, and the Democrats would have another arrow in the quiver of their self-righteousness in their constant war on those who they see prosecuting the war on women. Practically speaking, the move was doomed before it hit the floor. As a sad and disappointed lifelong prolifer, I will concede the pragmatic point of view.
Nonetheless, the barbarism and unfathomable cruelty of Planned Parenthood (and other abortion factories) simply must be challenged.
Earlier this week, our local pro-life group met to plan the upcoming 40 Days for Life campaign. After working out the details, we turned, as we always do, to the abortion issues of the day. Planned Parenthood’s baby parts business came up, and all expressed disgust. But no one was surprised. We can no longer be shocked. Planned Parenthood’s baby parts business depravity falls right in line with Kermit Gosnell, sex/race selective abortions, and conspiracy to hide sexual assaults perpetrated on minors. All follow inextricably from the killing of innocent children. Why should the recent revelations surprise us? If a baby in the womb is just a clump of cells -– to the abortion industry cells of the lowest form (but ironically, of a high cash value) -– selling the bits and pieces to the highest bidder is no more morally significant than a garage sale.
That is why we demand that Congress defund Planned Parenthood. Sure, this would be nothing more than a symbolic gesture. But symbols are powerful weapons.
Planned Parenthood’s approximately 350,000 abortions per year would make an Aztec priest throw up, and the videos offer a golden opportunity to trigger nausea in the voting public. That means taking every opportunity to show the videos.
On Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on the Senate floor with a level of bellicosity that reveals the moral depravity of the pro-abortion movement:
The Republican scheme to defund Planned Parenthood is not some sort of surprised response to a highly edited video. Nope! The Republican vote to defund Planned Parenthood is just one more piece of a deliberate, methodical, orchestrated, right-wing attack on women’s rights. I’m sick and tired of it. Women everywhere are sick and tired of it. The American people are sick and tired of it.
One would think this odious woman would be sickened at the sight of an “intact” baby being picked over to find salable body parts. Instead, she tries to rally the troops while virtually ignoring the horror revealed in the videos. She is a coward.
But what if the Republicans and other pro-life organizations were to produce television spots juxtaposing Warren’s rhetoric with pictures of the babies harvested for useful organs after having been yanked from a woman’s womb? Would that put Warren on the defensive? Granted, she lacks even a modicum of human decency, and so may repeat her ludicrous arguments. But commercials would tell the tale.
The Republicans must seize every opportunity to expose Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. The effort to take away Planned Parenthood’s funding may be doomed, but even a pyrrhic victory has advantages. Particularly now, when Planned Parenthood is on the defensive.
Tom is right in arguing for Congressional hearings. However, too often such hearings result in moral grandstanding, with little done to get to the bottom of the issue at hand. Chances are the controversy will die down if Republicans fail to seize the day every day. Rod Dreher reminds us that the videos are an enormously powerful, and the defunding effort draws clear lines between abortion apologists and opponents:
It’s hard to get around the fact that a majority of the American people just don’t want to know, or rather, are prepared to live with it, in the name of defending Science and the Sexual Revolution.
Note well that the Democratic Party is the party that embraces these atrocities, and calls them progress. I am not accustomed to defending the Republicans, but when it came right down to it, and US Senators had to declare themselves, every one of the Democrats (except one) sided with the abortionists and fetal miners.
But the majority must know. As Fr. Frank Pavone, of Priests for Life, insists:
America will not reject abortion until America sees abortion. The video footage released today gives Americans yet another opportunity to do precisely that.
Planned Parenthood personnel, looking at the body parts they sell, talk about legs, spinal columns, kidneys and hearts, not “blobs of tissue.”
In order to sell baby body parts, there first has to be a baby. It is time for those who have been denying that fact to admit it, and for those who have been admitting it only in private to admit it in public as well.
Reality may break out all over if Americans are inundated with the images of baby bodies being picked apart. Republicans must force the truth on the public at large if the party has any chance of actually ridding the nation of the Culture of Death which, by the way, has now been exposed as the culture of unimaginable depravity.
One other thing. As I’ve said above, pro-lifers have come to expect inertia when it comes to abortion. But the Republicans should not forever mistake our calmness for patience. For us, abortion is the defining issue, and if Republicans are going to hide anyway, we have little reason to remain in the fold. A third party may win few elections, but if Republicans again defer real action, we may well depart. Even if we took away as few as two percent of GOP votes, the Republicans would suffer significant consequences. But we will not sacrifice children for thirty pieces of prosperity.
We must hammer on the issue relentlessly. And Republicans must prove themselves in the fire — at every opportunity.
Published in Domestic Policy, General, Politics
For me it is not a political issue at all, it is a human issue.
The culture is so steeped in individualist thought that I fear it will take a catastrophe before we awaken again to the idea of man is relation to man, not as atoms, but as members of an enduring community of love.
Why does this not sound like a conservative sentence?
I suppose it depends on what you mean by conservative. Scruton is not an absolute individualist, so if that is what conservative means, then I would say he is not a conservative in that sense. It’s impossible to sum up his point of view in a comment, but here is a sentence from The Meaning of Co0nservatism, that might help:
“In the intricate entanglement of individual and society resides the “will to live” that constitutes conservatism.”
I had a similar reaction at #21. It seems that “narcissism” — in the non-clinical sense — would be a better word than “individualism.”
Echoing points Midge has made before, one might also be a hardcore individualist politically, but an equally-enthusiastic communitarian socially.
I think that’s about right, although to live a truly human (blessed or happy life for the Greeks) we must live relationally, i.,e., in a community. Scruton is heavily influenced by Burke, but also by Hegel. Because Hegel is so damnably hard to understand, Scruton’s exact point of view can be a bit hard to grasp.
BTW Tom. I’ll give up half my salary if you can get Scruton to become a contributor.:-)
And we have been fighting and winning for just as long. Stare decisis is setting in. Young voters are more socially liberal than ever, and listen less to the dictates of organized religion. I only wish my side was doing as well on all the issues where I’m in sync with Republicans.
Did I hear Walker say he was against abortions in cases of rape or incest? To me, that’s extremism, and having it on video is an opp researcher’s dream. Did I hear candidates use term like “killing babies?” Extremist rhetoric: wins the Bible Belt primary, loses the general.
You asked for non-extreme: “I believe that most abortions are morally long, and I also recognize that in our pluralistic society others may believe differently. In accordance with my oath, I will enforce the Supreme Court’s constitutional interpretation on abortion law, even if I disagree with it. One of my goals as President is to reduce the number of abortions by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, especially among the very young, and the poor.”
The Democrats will tell young people that their support for pervasive women’s health services extends to singles as well as marrieds, just so everyone knows that they’re the political party which has no quarrel with recreational sex. This is the kind of thinking which can sway the 18-34 demographic.Be very wary of campaign promises to defund birth control clinics or make cuts in the Title X Family Planning budget.
What the country wants on this issue is to hear less about it. Birth control reduces abortions. Campaign against unwanted pregnancies. There’s your common ground.
Unfortunately, it tends to emerge quadrennially as a political issue. I do consider it a private human issue of individual conscience and choice.
Jim, you ignorant slut…. ;-) /sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Theoretically, “birth control” reduces abortions. In practice, the prevalence of contraceptives and the increase in abortions coincides. It’s more like an illusion of (birth) control.
Also, what you’re suggesting is the political utility of condescending to voters the way Democrats do — as if they have no moral agency, just appetite. For those of us for whom this is a matter of bioethics (indeed, cultural survival), that’s not gonna fly.
This is wishful thinking. Yes, young people are less religious and more liberal on issues like gay marriage: they are also more pro-life. We now have generations of young people who have grown up seeing ultrasounds from a very young age. All of the polls show young people are more pro-life than their parents, not less so.
Just because someone is liberal on one issue does not mean they will automatically be liberal on all issues. Do not mistake support for gay marriage as support for abortion: it isn’t.
If those who support legalized abortion are so confident that they are winning and will continue to win, then why hold on to Roe v Wade? Why not turn the issue back to the states? Are the people who support legalized abortion afraid that voters will make the wrong choice?
I think abortion is in most instances immoral at best, and utterly selfish at worst. I certainly do not intervene into my neighbors’ privacy, and I’m not sure making abortion illegal will stop abortion from happening.
At the very least the abortion procedure, (along with every other medical procedure) should not be on the government dole. Nor should anyone be forced to support medical procedures that violate their conscience.
Our federal government has created a universally paternalistic web of services and programs such that responsibility and consequence for deeply private choices have been shifted away from being private, and dump right into the realm of community.
It is unconscionable for my government to demand that I, as a citizen, carry, without complaint, the financial and moral responsibility for deeply private and personal acts supposedly chosen privately through individual conscience.
I guess that may make abortion political, but not by my invitation.
Abortion is only political because of government intrusions into areas that are by their very nature deeply personal, individual, and private.
Government and government funds are not private. They are a public concern.
Nope, your side is engaging in wishful thinking. According to Gallup, 53% of 18-34’s are pro-choice, up steadily over the last three years as millennials entered the demo.
This is the highest percentage of any adult demo, and usually is. The 55+ demo is now 47% self-described pro-choice, up from 40% in 2012.
I am not good with with statistics, but encourage anyone reading to google “Are young people more pro life?” Then, you can compare the polls and judge for yourself, if you have the head for it :) My understanding is that most polls since the early 2000s have shown a decline in young people’s support for abortion; the poll Jim refers to is an interesting blip. It is based on roughly 1000 people: I don’t know if that is standard or not, but look at the polls yourself, and come to your own conclusions. :)
Just for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the poll Jim refers to is accurate: after 40 years of Roe v Wade, 53% of young people is the best those who support legalized abortion can do? That’s all they’ve got? After 40 years?
If abortion is really the settled issue that some want us to think it is, then way more that 53% of young people should support its legalization. If I were looking at that poll, I would not feel confident, I would feel nervous.
This whole discussion points to fundamental personality differences between those who support abortion and those who don’t. Those who support abortion tend to have way too much confidence in themselves, and those who oppose it tend to underestimate themselves. I mean really: people accuse Planned Parenthood types of being Dr Mengele and they don’t bat an eye, but many pro-lifers get traumatized when people call us fanatics. Pro-lifers need to do some self evaluation: things are not nearly as bad for us as some would have us believe. The only hope for those who want unrestricted abortion is for pro-lifers to just shut up and go away.
Interesting choice of words, “live inside a bubble on this issue.” That is followed by the consideration that people who are not conservative on “social issues, will oppose [our] agenda with more commitment than [we] might expect.”
Noting that there are about 60,000,000 dead children at this point in time, what is it about dead children that is so appealing?
What makes you think that losing the pro-life vote will lead to a Republican victory?