When Skepchick Rebecca Watson wrote her now viral post on the Planned Parenthood scandal, no one had to guess which side she was defending or what she thought of the pro-life crowd. The article is worth considering – not because she's right, but because what is presented as fact is so woefully wrong in so many ways.
As I respond to her arguments, I will be quoting the shortened blog version of the video that she posted on her website. A lot of what I have to say will challenge her claim that nothing illegal is happening. The rest will hopefully point out why it shouldn't be legal in the first place.
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Planned Parenthood is in the news a lot these days thanks to a maliciously edited video making it look like they SELL BABY PARTS.
First, the
Center for Medical Progress released the
uncut video along with the edited one. All anybody has to
do – including all the journalists and bloggers who keep repeating this silly charge
- is
watch the whole video or read the transcript CMP provides on its website. If CMP were trying to deceive, they would have kept
the uncut video a secret.
Second, if you think the edited videos makes it ‘look like’
Planned Parenthood is selling baby parts, just watch the videos and see for
yourself. You will hear
the following:
- "We don’t want to get called on…selling fetal parts across states.”
- “If you have someone in a really ‘anti’ state doing this for you, they’re probably going to get caught.” Get caught at what? Obeying the law?
- “I think a per item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.”
- “I think for affiliates, at the end of the day, they’re a non-profit, they just don’t want to—they want to break even. And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that.” Every business would like to do a little better than break even. That's called profit. It's probably worth noting that In 2014, Planned Parenthood's revenue exceeded their expenses by $90 million.
- “The Federal Abortion Ban is a law, and laws are up to interpretation.”
- “Here’s the heart. My fingers will smoosh it if I try to pick it up. The heart is right there… A lot of times I‘ll get a full torso, spine, kidneys. You could send the whole thing or pick that apart… It’s a baby.” There's the baby parts.
- “If someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then they [the babies] are intact…” Which is good for those clients who want intact babies.
If you think I am trying to trick you or I am ripping quotes out of context, please go watch the videos or read the transcripts.
