Planned Parenthood video revelations, shock and aftershock

Like an earthquake, they keep coming, and keep fraying nerves and alerting people to pay attention.

They’re paying attention. Nationwide rallies were held last weekend to rattle the consciences of Planned Parenthood workers, and everyone else complicit in dealing in killing babies and dealing in selling their body parts. A California Planned Parenthood security guard quit over the realization of “the atrocities” happening in the clinics. While most of the media ignored the story or barely mentioned it, the video revelations have had major consequences. They can always and quickly be found here.

The Washington Post reported on the rallies at more than half of the country’s Planned Parenthood clinics, though written in different language.

Thousands of antiabortion [pro-life] activists descended upon Planned Parenthood clinics on Saturday to participate in a nationwide protest aimed at cutting off federal funding for the controversial health-care organization.

Why should the abortion giant receive taxpayer dollars when they make a huge profit from abortion and now we know they continue to profit from selling baby body parts? If that’s not controversial, nothing is.

The demonstrations unfolded at about 320 clinics around the nation, according to organizers, with some gatherings drawing a few dozen protesters and others drawing hundreds and perhaps thousands more.

They’re calling for investigations. (Warning: Raw reading here.)

On Monday, August 24, Live Action and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to California’s top government officials. The letter described the likely illegal actions of Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, as recorded in the Center for Medical Progress’ seventh video.

The video recorded the testimony of Holly O’Donnell, a StemExpress whistleblower who detailed her experience working for StemExpress in the San Jose Planned Parenthood clinic. O’Donnell was instructed by her supervisor to use scissors to cut open the face of a baby boy to harvest its brain. After an attempted abortion, this baby boy was born alive, as evidenced by his beating heart. Nevertheless, the boy was not provided with the medical care required under law. Instead, he was killed, after being born alive.

(More on that latest video here.) States are being petitioned to investigate. When Congress reconvenes, they will too.

Live Action and ADF assert that Planned Parenthood needs to be immediately defunded, as its barbaric, unethical conduct does not deserve one more cent of taxpayer money – especially since approximately 13,000 health centers stand ready to serve the real healthcare needs of women around the nation.

ADF Senior Counsel Mike Norton pointed out:

No organization that traffics in the hearts, lungs, heads, and livers of unborn babies is entitled to taxpayer dollars. The only thing it’s entitled to is a federal and state investigation. Taxpayer money should fund local community health centers, not a scandal-plagued billion-dollar corporation. Thousands of community health centers can be trusted with our hard-earned money, while Planned Parenthood has proven for decades that it can’t be trusted.

At National Review Online, Kathryn Jean Lopez and other writers and contributors have been covering that part of the story extraordinarily well, saying the weekend rallies were protesting inhumanity.

This is an opportunity. We all find this disturbing, right? Even Hillary Clinton said so. So lets do better. Four decades into Roe, this is where we are. Let’s end this. No late-term abortions. No supply and demand for aborted body parts. No sending our loved ones to clinics that kill. Encourage, support, demand something better.

And she follows that with examples of “something better“.

“Women need to know they have a choice.” They don’t have to go to an abortion clinic to verify their pregnancy, she says, and she adds, “We’re free. And we give women what they want and what they need.” Fundamentally, if a woman Googles “pregnancy testing” and comes up with Avail, she has found a place that will give her “time” and “space” to think through her decision. If she is asked some strategic questions, Bishai explains, her “values” are likely to rise to the surface. Avail works to be “the safest place for making decisions,” as its staff provide a listening ear and “holistic” support. Avail wants a woman to be able to carry her baby to term if that is her decision. Women’s empowerment is very much in the air here.

And here.

The legislation that would defund Planned Parenthood instantly makes that money available “to other eligible entities to provide such women’s health care services” — entities like community health centers, or CHCs.

As a former medical director and family physician at two different community health centers in the Washington, D.C., area, I understand women’s health-care needs, especially those of the poor and underserved. I have witnessed firsthand how CHC medical professionals and staff provide comprehensive health care for women, as well as for men and children of all ages, including those yet to be born…

For all these needs and more, CHCs are there. Today, they serve the primary health-care needs of 23 million patients in over 9,000 locations across America. That’s about nine times more than the 2.7 million women and men Planned Parenthood serves at its 700 health centers. And CHCs provide all kinds of health care, including everything that Planned Parenthood does and then some — except abortions. For example, as a family physician, I cared for women whether they were seeking prenatal care or wanted to postpone pregnancy. I provided the full range of preventive health services and helped patients manage chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. I also cared for children from their very first newborn visit to their school physicals and visits for acute and chronic illnesses. My colleagues and I cared for adults of all ages, addressing their physical and mental-health needs.

This is where the funding needs to be, and the publicity. Read the whole piece, it’s written by a doctor in the trenches.

I’m proud to be a family physician and to have had the privilege of working at CHCs providing truly life-saving care for women and men of all ages. With more funding, CHCs could do even more to expand access to comprehensive health care. Rather than give federal dollars to Planned Parenthood — an organization tainted not only by abortion but now also by its unethical and possibly illegal trade in human body parts — let’s give the money to CHCs, which can truly care for the full range of women’s health-care needs.

This is what people really want, and they need to know where to find it and where to avoid dangerous traps. It’s becoming clearer. Before Congress is even back in session, there will be much more information pouring out. People are engaged. It’s about time.