An end to innocence

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

When I began contributing this column nearly six years ago, I made a private vow not to write about abortion.

My reason was abortion is a personal, inflammatory, and emotional issue to which I could not contribute a new perspective. It had all been said, I thought.

I’m not going to keep my vow.

The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood’s practices have changed everything. A new level of depravity has been found that must be exposed at every opportunity.

I am referring to Planned Parenthood’s negotiations with individuals whom they believed were representatives of tissue procurement companies but were actually investigators for the Center for Medical Progress. Said investigators were there to gather evidence of illegal sales of fetuses and fetal tissue by Planned Parenthood, an abortion mill that nevertheless has cultivated a passive image under the carefully selected generality of Women’s Health as adopted by the Left and ObamaCare.

There are several tapes of negotiations for parts, one conducted over wine and salad in a manner that should make your blood run cold. Another shows Planned Parenthood personnel ghoulishly picking over the remains of an aborted fetus and identifying marketable parts.

I have seen these recordings as they were reported, and there are others. There is no question about the intention of those participating. There is no doubt in my mind that what was being done is deeply wrong in any context: political, social, or merely human.

My personal view of abortion has not changed since Roe v Wade. I regard abortion as the willful destruction of human life that can only be done in the absence of love, empathy, and the principles that separate human beings from other species. Abortion is a dark practice and destructive not only to life but to our collective soul as Americans.

Even so, I am not unsympathetic to women who bear the brunt of the decision. Abortion should be an option of last resort in life-threatening situations for mothers and for rape and incest.

Men who father children without regard for their well-being should be accountable. They should also be consulted before any procedure, and that should be documented and appropriate pressure applied.

I realize many men just don’t give a damn. They are too immature, too self-centered, too indifferent.

But too often they just don’t know.

Can we admit that abortion in modern America has long stopped being a procedure of last resort? It is now a practice of convenience that has narrowed the need to be careful, to choose responsible partners, and to think about consequences.

Abortions are politically correct, protected, and justified by heartless political positions. Why bother with good decisions when there is Planned Parenthood, generously subsidized by a federal government that has forced what should be a rare practice into mainstream acceptability.

Things have changed since Roe v Wade. Birth control options are numerous and effective. You have heard the argument that no birth control method is perfect, and that’s true. Use two.

Any form of birth control is less expensive than an abortion; therefore, the argument for not using protection due to cost is fallacious.

We know DNA is present at conception and that it is only there to establish the development of a human being. We know now fetal development is more complete at earlier stages than was once thought.

My conclusion is this: If those early cells are growing, there is life. If there is life, the fetus will develop into a person. Since that baby is a human being, then he/she should be protected in every way possible.

Non-living things don’t grow, folks, no matter what the stage of development or argument to the contrary. The position that if you nail the fetus early enough, there is no loss beyond a few cells is false, but now it is profitable.

Ponder this remark by Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood, Gulf Coast, taken from a conversation about the pricing for intact fetuses and for fetal tissue and organs:

“Yeah, and so if we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, then we can make it part of the budget, that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. I mean it’s all just a matter of line items.”

Chilling.

And representative of the pro-abortion position.

The abortion issue has always been as political as it is medical. Expressing shock at the discovery of the fetal market now exposed, conservatives in Washington have demanded investigations and the termination of federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Some states have stopped funding.

By contrast, I have seen little remorse on the part of liberal politicians who sanction abortion and/or the sale of fetuses or fetal tissue. They want the practices to continue and Planned Parenthood to receive its funding, which, by the way, makes taxpayers complicit by force, no matter their position on abortion.