By now you may have viewed the two hidden camera videos of representatives of Planned Parenthood negotiating the sale of fetal tissue to a supposed bio-medical research firm. It is illegal to sell human fetal tissue, which may lead to legal problems for the organization.
Already, politicians are calling for a full investigation, and there is a call to defund Planned Parenthood, which received about half of its total funding (45%, 540 million dollars) from government grants in the fiscal year ending in June 2013. In 2012, the organization performed a self-reported 327,166 abortions.
In an attempt at damage control, Planned Parenthood distanced itself from the women on video, and also claimed that the video was “heavily edited”, was illegally obtained, and was the product of an organization of “extremists” that opposed women’s reproductive rights.
With the present social antipathy toward morality, I must confess doubt that anything substantial will change as a result of this “scandal.” The people want abortion, much as they want sexual freedom, freedom to ingest recreational drugs, and a tolerance of any similar behaviors, no matter how grievously evil they may be. In such a moral climate, truth and righteousness seldom have a significant effect.
What is most evident in the videos is the callous disregard for human life. The two ladies negotiate prices for each specimen, and discuss abortive methods that will allow for intact specimens to be sold. (Yes, the terms “tissue”, “specimen”, and “case” are used as euphemisms to describe the unborn child). And yet, the intellectual dishonesty is evident as the ladies talk about the possibility of attaining, from an “procedure” that takes place between 10 and 12 weeks (2nd trimester), intact organs such as the “heart”, “liver” “thalamus” and “brain hemispheres.” Further, one of the women discusses a “less crunchy” procedure, preferable to the common practice of suction, to ensure that intact “specimens” might be obtained.
There is a reason why these organs are desired. They are human organs, and Planned Parenthood contends that such research is extremely important to medical progress, (though that contention is sharply disputed by others in the medical community). Regardless, it is disingenuous to at one point deny that the fetus is a human child, and then contend that the harvesting of organs from that fetus is important to those researching human disease and cure.
Politicians do it to. How many times have you heard a candidate or seated official say that they are personally opposed to abortion, but support the woman’s right to choose? If the fetus is not human, there is no logical reason to be personally opposed. If the fetus is human, there is no moral rationale to support a woman’s right to kill a living child, whether born or unborn.
Such intellectual dishonesty is a consistent presence in discussions of our moral conflicts. Each feels entitled to his own view on each matter, regardless of whether there is any actual intellectual or logical basis for it. It has reached the point where any appeal to the Divine is castigated and ridiculed. I am reminded of the prediluvian world: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). In the midst of ungodliness, may we continue to preach God’s grace and love for men.
