(Submitted photo)
John Thompson
State Central Committee Member
Republican Party of Iowa
You don’t have to be Pro-Life to be upset with Planned Parenthood.
Last week a Pro-Life group released an undercover video of a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing the harvesting of fetal organs while drinking wine and eating lunch. This week another video was released of a planned parenthood advisor haggling over the price of baby organs removed during an abortion. During the interview she stated she wanted to make enough money to buy a Lamborghini.
Apologists quickly decried the videos as a hoax claiming that the payments were reimbursing expenses; the money they were receiving was a paltry amount compared to the price of hearts, lungs and livers on the black market. I think they miss the point on why people have a problem with this. In January, Marist released a poll showing that 84% of Americans want late term abortions banned. This video woke up a lot of people to the fact that these Planned Parenthood abortions were conducted on little babies and not little zygotes or masses of cells.
In 2012, Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican congressman was leading in the polls for a senate seat. When asked about abortion in cases of rape he ignorantly claimed that if it was a “legitimate rape” the body had a defense mechanism to prevent pregnancy. It was stupid, out of touch and showed both conservatives and liberals alike that the man was not fit to be a Senator. The Democratic Party quickly began propaganda that “this is how Republicans think.” It was not. It was a terrible thing Akin said and showed he had poor character.
Democrats have the opposite problem now. In light of these revelations of farming babies for organs they should question the Democratic National Committees platform that says an abortion should be available at any time during pregnancy for any reason. If you change your mind as you begin labor the Democratic National Platform advocates that a woman could choose abortion. Hopefully Democrats don’t embrace and defend their Todd Akin. Hopefully they do not pretend that the 16% of Americans who support unlimited abortion speak for the 84% of Americans who believe in a degree of restraint.
Last Saturday in Ames the Family Leadership Summit hosted a cattle call of Republican presidential candidates. Before the event I attended a Pro-Life rally calling on Gov. Branstad to defund planned parenthood. Despite the number of protesters the attending media focused on the small group of atheists across the street. During the presidential forum the moderator polled the 3 rows of reporters by a show of hands; he asked them how many of them attend religious services. Only 9 of about 70 reporters raised their hands. It was somewhat revealing to see that the gatekeepers to mass communication do not reflect the values of the population. It is enlightening to see why a view shared by 16% of the country appears to be the opinion of half.
I won’t join the rhetoric that “This is how Democrats think.” It clearly is not. The polls show otherwise. Democrats should not feel that being opposed to the vivisection and harvesting of organs is contrary to defending women’s health. They do not have to rationalize that they are working against their world view if they don’t dismiss this practice as “donation of fetal tissue for reasonable expenses.” They can join with the majority of pro-choice Americans and call out their own “Todd Akin” as being terrible, unsympathetic and out of touch with our nation.
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John Thompson of Jefferson is on the State Central Committee with the Republican Party of Iowa. He is a graduate of West Point and holds an MPA from Harvard University.
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