One of the biggest tests of the incoming administration’s commitment to the preborn will be whether it investigates and prosecutes Planned Parenthood for its criminal activities relating to the for-profit sale of aborted babies’ organs. The Obama Administration’s reaction to revelations was to take the abortion giant’s spin at face value, with top administration officials admitting they didn’t bother to watch more than “snippets” of the Center for Medical Progress’s explosive undercover videos, Attorney General Loretta Lynch showing no interest whatsoever in doing her job and investigating the evidence, and President Barack Obama continuing to maintain that Planned Parenthood deserved Americans’ tax dollars.
Well, President-elect Donald Trump’s latest big announcement wasn’t an outright confirmation that such an investigation is coming, but it could be a good sign. To the enthusiastic approval of pro-life groups, he has revealed that he will nominate Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to serve as the new Attorney General:
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions has dedicated his life to public service. He has a distinguished legal career and has served as both the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and Alabama Attorney General prior to his service in the U.S. Senate. He has been one of President-elect Trump’s trusted advisors on the campaign and will now continue his service as our nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
“It is an honor to nominate U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as Attorney General of the United States,” said President-elect Trump. “Jeff has been a highly respected member of the U.S. Senate for 20 years. He is a world-class legal mind and considered a truly great Attorney General and U.S. Attorney in the state of Alabama. Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”
Why should this announcement encourage pro-lifers? Throughout his lengthy legislative career, Sessions has maintained a 100% pro-life voting record. Moreover, he led the effort to filibuster Obama’s very first pro-abortion judicial nominee, David Hamilton, has earned praise for his conviction that the rule of law should trump (no pun intended) any administration’s political preferences (a breath of fresh air, considering Planned Parenthood’s heavy financial support for Obama and other pro-abortion politicians who’ve returned the favor by covering for its crimes), was not intimidated by howls that defunding Planned Parenthood would shut down the government (he called them “ludicrous” and maintained that Obama lacked “the moral authority, the political clout, to tell the American people that the Congress shut down the government”), and is already on record demanding that Planned Parenthood be prosecuted—and now he’ll be in a position to make sure that it finally happens.
Bringing Planned Parenthood to justice is tremendously important on multiple levels. First, the only reason abortion apologists have been able to claim PP’s innocence is because the authorities in the best position to find the evidence have chosen to look the other way. A real investigation with the full force of the United States Department of Justice would be a game-changer in bringing the truth to light—not only about the facts of the case, but of Planned Parenthood’s true character.
Second, one of the bedrock principles of just, constitutional government is that every American must have the confidence that the law—both its protections and its punishments—apply to everyone with absolute impartiality. By refusing to investigate when officials are caught on video openly discussing how to break the law, just because the organization in question is a prominent and financially supportive member of the ruling party’s partisan coalition, the Obama Administration sent the message that the rule of law isn’t absolute or impartial—that political favoritism rules all. Doing so emboldened not only the abortion industry to continue its criminality, but any organization that thinks it can get away with their own crimes by simply cultivating the right political connections.
This needs to be reversed. Planned Parenthood must be held accountable, and its partisans must be taught that their ideological biases are not a moral license to ignore horrific crimes committed by groups they like. Here’s hoping that Attorney General Jeff Sessions gives them that wakeup call.
