8 misguided – and dangerous – statements from Planned Parenthood and company

1) Restricting Abortion Does Not Protect Women

Vicki Cowart, Planned Parenthood New Mexico CEO:

Efforts like this [fetal pain bill in New Mexico] have nothing to do with protecting women.

Actually, fetal pain bills are very much about “human decency and public health safety,” as Representative Marsha Blackburn so eloquently put it in a Politco op-ed. And that includes safety for women. Blackburn details some of the grisly conditions in clinics where late-term abortions are performed.

LiveStrong.com (a partner of the LiveStrong Foundation) writes:

All abortions, like most invasive medical procedures, come with a certain degree of risk. Late term abortions can carry more dangers dependent upon the type of procedure performed.

LiveStrong’s article then goes on to detail risks to women, particularly when a D&E abortion is performed – a common late-term procedure. If you read about D&E abortions for yourself, it’s obvious how this procedure could cause great harm to women.

Several studies have found an increased risk of physical and mental health complications for women in abortions performed after the 1st trimester, though early abortions were found to have their own dangers.

U.S. mortality rates demonstrate the stark danger abortion poses to women. Since women can indeed suffer from shock, hemorrhaging, perforation, infection, instrumental injury, and death during and after abortion, it’s simply silly to state that restrictions “have nothing to do with protecting women.”

2) Lawmakers Can Play Politics With Children, But Not With Women

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood:

Lawmakers should stop playing politics with women’s health and lives.

But apparently, it’s fine and dandy to “play politics” with the lives of innocent unborn children. One thing we know about Planned Parenthood and company – they certainly don’t believe in true equality for all.

3) A Constitutional Government is Dangerously Hostile

Cecile Richards on the partial-birth abortion case, Gonzales v. Carhart:

The Supreme Court’s decision to hear this case is a dangerous act of hostility aimed squarely at women’s health and safety.

Ok, wait. The Constitution set our government up so that the Supreme Court has the right to review laws and determine whether or not they ought to stand, based on the Constitution. That’s the Court’s job.

How can Richards say that the Court doing its job – merely deciding to hear the merits of a case – is dangerous and hostile? I can guarantee you she hasn’t said that about the Court’s long-ago decision to hear Roe v. Wade. Again, there’s no true equality here – or even a respect for our basic system of government.

4) Abortion is Mainstream

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL on “The Rachel Maddow Show:”

Hogue said that a woman’s right to choose has been “successfully mainstreamed…into our culture.”

First, the majority of Americans are actually pro-life.

Second, slavery was mainstreamed in Southern culture. Discrimination against women when they were not allowed to vote was mainstreamed. Just because something is “mainstreamed” doesn’t mean it’s right. Often the worst human rights violations are mainstreamed for a time.

5) I Don’t Want My Children to Have Fewer Rights Than Me

Cecile Richards:

I can’t imagine that my children would have fewer rights, and less access to the safest, best health care.

While I realize that Richards probably means she can’t imagine her children having fewer rights to abortion, the statement is rather ironic. In fact, there is no way her children could have “fewer rights” than they already do – her unborn children, that is. Being deprived of the basic right to life is about the lowest one can go. I’m not even going to get into how you can’t have “health care” if you don’t even have the right to be born. Suffice it to say, first rights first!

6) Retraining, Retraining, Retraining

Leslie Kantor, MPH, vice president of education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, after Live Action investigations revealed that Planned Parenthood would willingly perform an abortion based on a finding that the baby was a girl:

…[A]ll staff members at this affiliate were immediately scheduled for retraining in managing unusual patient encounters.

Ah yes, this one. When Live Action releases revealing investigations into Planned Parenthood, the typical response is “retraining.” Odd, isn’t it, that so many forms of unethical conduct, misinformation, discrimination, and basic cruelty keep rearing their heads. I guess retraining never ends.

To check out what Live Action’s uncovered in our investigations, go here.

7) Abortion is Supported by Information and Counseling

Leslie Kantor:

Planned Parenthood works to ensure women and their families have access to high-quality nonjudgmental health services free of coercion, supported by information and counseling.

I almost can’t imagine a more false or dangerous statement. Women are coerced into abortions at Planned Parenthood. Women are not given the full picture of true information. And counseling? Please. What about the women who are damaged – mentally or physically – after abortion? Name me one Planned Parenthood clinic that provides them with post-abortion counseling.

For real information and the kind of counseling women actually need, check your local pregnancy resource center or one of these organizations.

8) Your Unborn Child Must be a Rock

Terry O’Neill, NOW president:

A fetus is not a life, sorry.

A rock or something else “unalive.” I’m not really sure how someone can grow, live, and develop and yet not be a life. For the real facts on when human life begins, check out these quotes from medical and science textbooks as well as this accurate information on human development.

The bottom line is that abortion sells much better when unborn children – real, live human beings – are dehumanized.

BONUS: Check out what a pro-abortion debater said: “In the state of Colorado they acquire those legal rights [including the basic right to life] when they are living and breathing and walking around like you and I are.” You can read more about that statement here.