Media

Live Action Addresses U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky

“You don’t cremate and bury ‘tumors’ – you cremate and bury people. The Supreme Court acknowledged humanity after death but stopped short of fully recognizing the humanity of the preborn child before death.”- Lila Rose, Live Action

Washington, D.C.  – Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. The court upheld an Indiana law ensuring a proper burial for aborted preborn children but declined to address an Indiana law that protects preborn children from discrimination.

Statement from Live Action Founder and President, Lila Rose:

Pro-life Americans should be encouraged that the Supreme Court acknowledged the humanity of preborn children by affirming Indiana’s right to legislate that babies  receive the basic dignity of burial, instead of allowing abortionists to throw away their broken bodies like trash. You don’t cremate and bury tumors – you cremate and bury human beings. The Supreme Court acknowledged these babies’ humanity after death but stopped short of recognizing the humanity of the preborn child before death.   

The Court should have taken this opportunity to address the 7th Circuit unjust ruling that allows lethal discrimination on babies in utero. Federal law prohibits employment or housing discrimination based on age, sex, race, disability – but allows the killing of innocent human lives for the very same reasons. The brutal reality of abortion should be enough to stop anyone from aborting any child, let alone aborting a child because of her disability, sex, race, or any other factor.

“I applaud Clarence Thomas’ assertion that ‘Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the [c]ourt will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s…. Enshrining the constitutional right to an abortion based solely on the race, sex, or disability of an unborn child, as Planned Parenthood advocates, would constitutionalize the views of the 20th Century eugenics movement.’ Live Action has seen first hand how the abortion industry targets vulnerable and minority demographics.”

BACKGROUND:

On race-based abortion: Live Action undercover investigators documented the abortion industry willing to accept race based donations. A Planned Parenthood in Oklahoma told Live Action, “You sure can donate specifically to the abortion of a black baby.” Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data shows that abortion is one of the leading causes of death for African American children in our country. Population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2015 show that although Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population, they obtained 36% of abortions reported by race to the CDC that same year.  

On sex-selective abortion: Live Action undercover investigators documented the abortion industry engaging in sex-selective abortion. A Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Austin, TX encouraged a woman to obtain a late-term abortion if it was confirmed that the baby she was carrying was a girl, rather than the boy she wanted. Arizona is one of the few states in the nation that has laws protecting preborn girls from sex-selective abortion — committing one is a felony in Arizona. Despite these protections, however, Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix, and Tucson Women’s Center in Tucson, promised to ignore the law and coached a woman to lie on official paperwork to conceal the illegal abortion.

Sex selective abortion (female feticide) is defined as ‘an abortion undertaken for the purpose of eliminating a child of an undesired sex.’ Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen estimated that as early as 1990, approximately 100 million women were missing worldwide due to sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, and other such barbaric practices. Current estimates now put that number at as many as 200 million missing women and girls globally.

Many people may think that gendercide or sex selection only takes place in China and India, which have been known for feticide and infanticide of girls because of a cultural preference for boys over girls. But studies show that this horrific practice is happening right here in America.

U.S. Census data and national vital statistics show that indeed, sex selection is a growing problem in America, with studies showing that some Americans are employing sex-selection techniques in their family planning decisions. A review of census and birth records by Professor Jason Abrevaya of the University of Texas showed that Americans have sex-selected thousands of baby girls.

Sex-selective abortion represents the most violent form of discrimination against women, often victimizing two women at one time: mother and daughter. Many women are coerced or forced by family or cultural pressure to have sex-selective abortions, and their daughters suffer the fatal consequences. Many countries, such as the UK, have bans on sex-selective abortion. However, even though a majority of Americans oppose sex-selective abortion, and some states have enacted their own prohibitions, abortion based on gender is not illegal at the federal level in our country.”

On abortions for disability: A disability shouldn’t disqualify you from the human race. Those who say so are ableists, a close sibling of sexists and racists. The only difference is that instead of color or sex, one’s abilities are seen as the determinant for whether we will accept that they have human dignity and rights. Abortion is not a solution to disability and has never cured a child – it only destroys precious children who have love to share with the world and who deserve our love and protection.

In the United States, the vast majority of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome, for example, are aborted. Some estimates say it’s 67 percent or more. In other countries, like Iceland, almost every baby diagnosed with Down syndrome has been aborted. In an age where we go out of our way not to offend whole groups of people, apparently, people living with Down syndrome and disability are fair game. The message many abortion supporters send to them is: We judged that your life wasn’t worth living, and the world would be better off if you weren’t here. My hope is that more people see those with Down syndrome — as well as those with other genetic, physical, intellectual, or behavioral differences — as people who have rights and dignity simply by the virtue of their existence, not because of their features or abilities, or lack thereof.

Live Action is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the truth about abortion and affirming the life of every child. Live Action exists to change hearts and minds about abortion through compelling educational media, human interest stories, and investigative reporting that exposes the lies and corruption in the abortion industry. With the largest online following in the pro-life movement, Live Action’s videos reach millions of people every week. Find out more at http://www.liveaction.org.