Recently I was asked why I am so opposed to Planned Parenthood. Yes, abortion is wrong but they “do a lot of good including trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies through contraception.” What, after all, have I done to prevent unwanted pregnancies?
Implicit in these statements is an acceptance of PP as being both good and bad, much like every organization and every person. As such, one is tempted in fairness to weigh the good against the bad to make a personal judgment. This is the same faulty logic some professed Catholics use to justify voting for pro-abortion politicians.
If instead of abortion, they were engaged in kidnapping, human trafficking, rape, slavery, torture, or other horrible crimes against human dignity – no one would want to balance any good against the bad. Yet when the crime is against life itself, many feel such balance is warranted.
The problem is one of weight. Abortion is always, 100% of the time, with no exceptions – an intrinsic evil. This is Catholic doctrine. Polite company might use more gentle words, but it is nothing less than murder. Absolutely no amount of good could be done by Planned Parenthood that would justify any Catholic’s support, as that support yields complicity in the unjust termination of human life.
Listening to Planned Parenthood and the politicians who fanatically support them, one might believe that they are really all about maternal health. That is partially true. However, do not let that distract you. A central portion of their “core business” is the taking of innocent life. In FY2006-2007, their gross revenue was over $1 billion dollars, including $357 million from clinics and $336 million from the government. They offered abortions at 287 locations across the country (expanding to 55 new abortuary locations in 2007 alone).
Perhaps you heard that Planned Parenthood also arranges adoptions. Also true, but for every baby they refer for adoption, they kill 120 more. In the US, an innocent life is lost every 26 seconds to abortion. The market for this “health service” is huge and PP does not have it all to itself. Make no mistake however, they are the 800-pound gorilla in this industry – or more accurately, they are our Auschwitz in this holocaust.
Interestingly, it was also the Nazi’s who practiced and promoted eugenics on a large scale. It is an undisputed historical fact that Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was an ardent supporter of eugenics. According to the CDC, US black females ages 15-44 comprise 12.3% of the population. They receive 38.2% of the abortions. Those numbers speak for themselves.
Planned Parenthood is a provider of contraceptives, including abortifacients. It is estimated that in addition to the 1.37 million surgical abortions annually in the US, there are an additional 14 million chemical abortions via abortifacient contraceptive methods.
A business the size of Planned Parenthood is a fierce “competitor.” They lobby extensively and have the unwavering support of some of our top politicians. This paid-off handsomely in the recently passed ObamaCare legislation. $7 billion dollars is earmarked for “Community Health Centers” which specifically requires gynecological and obstetrics care and does not include any restrictions on abortion. The President suffered a minor tactical defeat in being forced to temporarily restrict abortions by executive order. Not only can that be reversed, at his pleasure, anytime – but it is widely expected to fall when challenged in the courts (which PP and others are certain to do). At that point, Planned Parenthood will be free to fully exploit the biggest windfall in their history in furtherance of their misguided, immoral mission.
In the interest of brevity, I have not discussed how Planned Parenthood vigorously fights every attempt to show pregnant women the truth of the life inside them, how they mislead pregnant women, the unconstitutional “bubble zones” they get cities to pass to keep pro-life people away, their legal attacks on pregnancy crisis centers, how they push to keep parents out of the decision, how they push abortion in every corner of society, and so on. Planned Parenthood is relentless in their pursuit of frequent, common, widely available abortion.
To the question that opened this piece, the answer to unwanted pregnancies is neither the slaughter of the innocent nor the promotion of recreational sex via contraception. Both have proven, serious physical and emotional consequences. The answer, boring as it is for some, is morality. There is no better teacher on the topic than Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae and the teachings that followed on the Theology of the Body. For just a glimpse of this, see the videos by Jason Evert featured aspect in my 7 Quick Takes Friday post last week.
So, what can you and I do to prevent unwanted pregnancies?
- Expose the truth about abortion and contraception.
- Promote and explain Catholic teaching on family, sex and life.
- Insure that charitable donations do not go to immoral organizations such as Planned Parenthood either directly or indirectly (e.g. through another charity like Susan G. Komen who financially supports Planned Parenthood).
- Support and vote only for officials who are pro-life, as all faithful Catholics are obliged to do.
I will conclude with some remarks from Abby Johnson. She was a Planned Parenthood director who resigned in 2009 after watching the horror of an abortion procedure guided by ultrasound. In her position, she knew the Clinton’s and tells this anecdote:
PP can't prosper in an open market of ideas. As long as the anti-abortion position is free to express itself, PP will continue to wither.