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Planned Parenthood, Be Proud of Who You Are
I recently read an article on National Review that reflected on a recent episode of Scandal, which featured the main character aborting her baby. The description of the scene – a woman on an operating table, prepped for an abortion, while Silent Night plays in the background – was more than enough for me to read. I have not watched, nor will I watch, this or any other episode of the show.
What caught my attention was the quote from Planned Parenthood’s official statement praising the show:
Tonight, the millions of people who tune into Scandal every Thursday night learned that our rights to reproductive health care are under attack. Never one to shy away from critical issues, Shonda Rhimes used her platform to tell the world that if Planned Parenthood lost funding for contraception counseling, STI testing, cancer screenings, and safe, legal abortion — millions of people would suffer. And this episode wasn’t the first time one of Rhimes’ characters had an abortion, yet tonight we saw one of our favorite characters make the deeply personal decision that one in three women have made in their lifetime.
We applaud Shonda Rhimes tonight — and every Thursday night — for proving that when women are telling our stories, the world will pause and watch. We just hope those in Congress — and throughout the nation — who are steadfast on rolling the clock back on reproductive health care access are taking note.
You know, good for Planned Parenthood. It is nice to see them embrace who they are, what they do, and what they stand for. You remember, I’m sure, that they and their supporters were much shier about their role in providing abortions following the series of videos exposing their clinical directors negotiating the sale of fetal body parts. In perhaps the most notorious of these candid videos, Planned Parenthood director, Faust Dr. Mary Gatter joked “I want a Lamborghini,” while haggling over the price for intact organs.
In the wake of that scandal, we heard all about their mammograms, birth control, STD testing, cervical cancer screenings, etc. We were told repeatedly that Planned Parenthood was just a place for women to get standard medical care. In the midst of this PR crisis, proponents only mentioned abortion when pressed, and defensively explained it away as an uncommon practice.
It seems this organization has found heart again — figuratively, of course; they’re sold out on their stock of human hearts — and is embracing the image and implications of all their services. In this little gem of pop culture, we see a black heroine get an abortion, and Planned Parenthood couldn’t be happier. Why should they hide their support? There is no doubt or confusion about what their organization does or what their stance on life is. Planned Parenthood’s founder, the eugenicist, racist Margaret Sanger, would be thrilled to see the killing of a black baby normalized and promoted on a national scale. So why hold back, Planned Parenthood? Cheer loudly for this moment and don’t be ashamed of who you are. We’ve all known your character from the beginning anyway.
I wonder if on the next episode of Scandal they’ll show this brave character struggle with the depressive grief that many women suffer after aborting their babies.
Published in Culture, Entertainment
Don’t hold your breath.
But as you note, those of us “who are steadfast on rolling the clock back on
reproductive health care access(abortion) are taking note” and are happy to see PP show their true face.Thanks for posting this.
As PP continues to get exposed as the evil organization it is, we will see more and more of this: people leaving the abortion industry.
And yet, when a state proposes new restrictions or even just regulations on abortion, hundreds of PP
abattoirsclinics are threatened with closure. Why should abortion restrictions make them unable to operate if it’s only 3% of their business?Glad to see this on the MF
Apparently abortion is big business. Whether the 3% claim is accurate or not (I doubt it), abortion generates over 80% of their earned revenue http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/29/rep_lummis_to_planned_parenthood_you_say_3_of_procedures_are_abortions_yet_86_of_your_revenue_is_from_abortions.html
I heard about the Silent Night episode too. Completely turned my stomach, without even watching it. I think there’s a philosophic shift in the pro-abort argument. It used to be that they rationalized abortion as a sort of necessary evil given a personal freedom, and it was only a blob of cells anyway. They realized that they were failing. It clearly isn’t a blob of cells and it’s not necessary. Even the Libertarians were whittling away. So now I think I’ve seen a shift where they are trying to justify abortion as a moral choice, even a Christian choice. Here is I think an example of this new justification. It’s even more repulsive than the original argumentation. It will fail dramatically because there is nothing in Christian tradition that would support abortion. There is nothing moral and nothing Christian in killing an unborn child.
The Left is completely unable to form coherent moral judgments. Like Ninevah:
“…that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 person s who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Only without the cattle (unless you’re counting collegiate Social Justice Warriors).
I am libertarian. I think there is a general intellectual sloppiness that cuts across all political parties when it comes to “social issues.” The category is really too broad to apply one accepted set of positions across all issues that fall within that label.
Abortion is very different than drug legalization; drug legalization is very different than gay marriage; gay marriage is very different than issues surrounding transsexuals wanting accesses to the opposite gender’s restroom. You can’t just say “I’m conservative/liberal on social issues.” Well, you can, but you’re not being consistent in your application expressed political principles.
I’m pro life and I think my libertarianism and love of individual liberty supports that stance, not undermines it. I’m sure many libertarians support a woman’s right to choose on the grounds of such individual freedom. However, mothers don’t have a “right to choose” — just finish that phrase and you know why. A right to choose… whether your baby has personhood and individual rights? A right to choose… whether your baby lives or dies? No. No one has the right to make that choice for another. This choice argument is a claim to a right to violate another’s rights. It’s invalid.
I’ve never seen the show. But I have some Christian friends who think it’s fun. I wonder if this episode will change their minds at all.
Out. Standing, Matthew. And you look so young which gives me even more hope and satisfaction reading your bold words. We must continue speaking the truth and continue praying for the lost, blind souls being led to despair and destruction by the lies of PP and our increasingly toxic culture. It’s a miracle anyone escapes the dragnet of deception these days.
I give thanks fot this refreshing and unexpected blessing and encouragement. Love and life to all this holiday weekend!
I keep wondering what kind of meetings went into creating this script at all, this is not inadvertent , this is going way out of your way to insult, this is ‘Lets really rub their faces in it, lets add a religious song to it’ . Are these the same people who twist themselves into knots in order to avoid offending Muslims, blacks, Gays and whoever else is on this weeks list of the perpetually offended.
I wonder if on the next episode of Scandal they’ll show this brave character struggle with the depressive grief that many women suffer after aborting their babies.
Or, down the road, if they’ll follow up and see if she gets breast cancer.
One in three women??!! Where do they get their figures? I know that millions of women are choosing abortion, but one in three women doesn’t sound right to me. If the figure was correct, would we have so many young single mothers around us?
We have an unmarried mother in our family; she has rejected God, but she did not reject her unborn child. We have another 24-yr-old single mother and her child living with us because she didn’t have a place to go. A friend of mine is mentoring another unwed single mother the same age.
Wouldn’t it be inspiring if the person’s sign had said “My Uterus, My Responsibility”?
Like Matthew I’m libertarian and pro-life. My reasoning is a bit different, though. I refuse to grant anyone the right to decide that a human being – much less a whole class of human beings – is not a “person” and therefore not worthy of basic human rights. People have done this too many times before: Slavery, the Indian wars, eugenics, the Holocaust. Now we seem to be intent on eclipsing all of those horrors by killing tens of millions of the most innocent human beings of all.
The last episode of The Good Wife was appalling, as well. The Democratic Party is out in force on this issue, attempting to reach as many people as possible to advertise the ‘good works’ of PP. Heaven help us.
It makes me think of the Hobby Lobby case and the protestors who wanted to keep their employer “out of the bedroom,” and simultaneously demanded that they pay for the birth control that they would use in the bedroom. Clearly, not much thinking goes into this signage.
It was a lie all along. They have always considered abortion an absolute good, but they knew that saying so made them seem psychopathic to the general public. The mask is slipping because people are starting to realize what’s actually going on, but they always felt this way. “Safe, legal, and rare,” was always 2/3 false.
The best take on that kind of thinking I’ve seen is “Get out of my bedroom; but leave your wallet.”
Sorry I had to cut back in your quote so I could have room to write. Yes there are Libertarians that do not support abortion. However, abortion has been argued by the left as a Libertarian right, and by and large Libertarians have supported abortion. When I said that Libertarians have been “whittled away” you and other such Libertarians are the perfect example. We on the pro-life side have convinced people that inside the womb truly is a human life endowed with civil rights.