COMMENTARY: Planned Parenthood's lengthy 'rap sheet'
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Christian Examiner) -- There have been 27 botched abortions at Planned Parenthood's St. Louis clinic in the past five years. It is considered among the most dangerous abortion facilities in our land. The clinic may have been involved in Planned Parenthood's latest scandal: selling body parts of aborted babies.
None of this should surprise us. Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading provider of abortions, has a "rap sheet" longer than your arm – all the while benefiting from millions of our tax dollars. Consider the following provided by the Heritage Foundation:
• Multiple Planned Parenthood counselors advised underage teenage girls as young as 15 years old to engage in risky sexual practices like asphyxiation and beating each other, as long as it was consensual, according to an undercover investigation by the pro-life group Live Action. The counselors told the girls they could learn more about it by watching Internet pornography and visiting sex shops — without parental guidance.
What about all the dead babies? There will be no life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for them — victims of atrocities.
• Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains was sued in 2014 for failing to report a sadistic relationship involving a 13-year-old girl sexually abused by her stepfather, who forced her to have an abortion. Planned Parenthood, according to the complaint lodged in the case, knew about the on-going abuse and provided the child with the abortion and birth control before sending her back home with her stepfather without reporting anything to authorities.
• Alisa LaPolt Snow, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, defended infanticide in 2013, spouting that it was the choice of the "woman, family and physician" whether an infant — who survived an abortion — should be allowed to live, according to The Washington Post. It was not until after the firestorm caused by Snow's calloused remarks that Planned Parenthood issue a public statement saying it would provide medical care to both the woman and baby in such cases.
• The pro-life group Live Action released a video of a Planned Parenthood employee in Austin, Texas, advocating for a sex selective abortion, as her client described wanting only a boy. The employee told her to wait a few weeks to see what gender the child would be. "I see that you're saying that you want to terminate if it's a girl, so are you just wanting to continue the pregnancy in the meantime?" the counselor asked. After the video surfaced, The Huffington Post reported that the employee was fired.
• According to a Feb. 2, 2011 report by ABC News, Planned Parenthood fired a manager after she explained to a sex-trafficking pimp and prostitute how to avoid detection. Their inhumane operation used undocumented, underage immigrant girls.
• A 2012 report by Alliance Defending Freedom showed that Planned Parenthood affiliates were the source of at least $12.6 million in waste, abuse and potentially fraudulent overbilling of taxpayers.
Former Republican Gov. Matt Blunt waged war on Planned Parenthood a decade ago and — with the help of a Republican majority in the General Assembly — nearly run the cruel organization out of the state. There were about a half dozen abortion clinics in Missouri. Now, only the St. Louis and Columbia clinics remain (though the Columbia facility's ability to do abortions may face legal/regulatory challenges). Southern Baptists and Catholics have partnered with pro-life groups like Missouri Right to Life to successfully push for abortion restrictions, making Missouri staunchly pro-life.
Lawmakers were on the verge of passing a bill last year requiring abortion clinic inspections. After the House passed the measure, it stalled in the Senate and died. Lawmakers have promised a thorough investigation of Planned Parenthood in Missouri. Perhaps government will fulfill its Romans 13 obligation and punish the evildoer. We should pray toward that end. Passing the abortion clinic inspection law should be the first order of business when General Assembly members return in January.
On the national level, Congress should defund Planned Parenthood. It gets more than $500 million annually in taxpayer funds, while making as much as $58 million a year in profits. Some 49 senators have asked Health and Human Services to investigate Planned Parenthood. Missouri Congresswoman Ann Wagner has called for the same in the House. It needs to happen. It is a disgrace that Americans pay for such subhuman cruelty.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats and the Obama Justice Department are calling for – of all things — an investigation of the Center for Medical Progress, which exposed Planned Parenthood's body parts barbarity. Unbelievably Planned Parenthood's president whines they are the victims.
What about all the dead babies? There will be no life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for them — victims of atrocities.