On the Fourth of July and throughout the month, Americans celebrate our nation’s history and founding. Planned Parenthood, however, used July 4th to display (yet again) on social media how extreme the abortion chain is compared to the rest of the country.
Today, we’re sending a clear message to Congress: don’t take our health care away. #4thOfJuly pic.twitter.com/5pGcrHb2lK
— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) July 4, 2017
Planned Parenthood manipulates any excuse for “sending a clear message,” and clearly, not even a national holiday is sacred enough for them.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident” ought to sound familiar to every American, as the statement begins the Declaration of Independence. Yet Planned Parenthood misappropriated the actual language in this historical document to promote an abortion-focused agenda. The Declaration of Independence has nothing to do with abortion, and in fact, promotes quite the opposite as it speaks of people being “created” equal, not “born” equal, and of the equal right to life:
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The Constitution also says nothing about abortion or even reproductive privacy. It was in the 1960s and 1970s that the U.S. Supreme Court misinterpreted language from the Fourteenth Amendment and misconstrued other portions of the Constitution to create a “constitutional” right to privacy, first with birth control, and then with the so-called right to an abortion.
The 1973 decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which legalized abortion on demand in all 50 states, throughout all nine months of pregnancy, have been regarded as extreme examples of judicial activism, overreach, and constitutional misapplication — even by those who are in favor of abortion, including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
A correct interpretation of the rights spoken of in the Fourteenth Amendment is that, rather than being the foundation for a “right” to abortion, the basic rights of human beings apply to all human beings, including preborn human beings. (This interpretation is explained in depth here.)
Yet, while the confines of Roe and Doe have put pro-life activists at a disadvantage, pro-life laws have still passed in record numbers amounts in recent years.
Planned Parenthood claimed a host of “rights” that are not explicitly constitutional at all. First of all, access to health care is not mentioned in the Constitution, and well-intentioned people of all opinions can debate whether the provision of all health care is actually a right that some people can be forced to provide for other people. Of course, Planned Parenthood considers “sexual and reproductive care,” fancy terms for abortion, to be the pinnacle of the “health care” the abortion chain fights for.
These so-called “self-evident” “truths” only get worse from here. It’s not merely that Planned Parenthood believes abortion is “health care” and “a right.” Planned Parenthood also uses the feel-good language of “safe and legal,” though unsafe abortions — includes ones resulting in the injuries or deaths of women and their preborn children — occur at Planned Parenthood facilities. These facilities are then not even truthful about such incidents, often downplaying them for the purpose of getting more business. Planned Parenthood is loathe to inform any women about the medical realities of what happen in an abortion, as explained by Dr. Anthony Levatino below:
Planned Parenthood is not only determined for Roe and Doe to remain the law of the land, but it is also opposed to virtually any regulation or restriction on abortion, even those that the majority of the nation agrees on — like late-term abortion bans. And, Planned Parenthood illegitimately assumes it is the spokesperson of all Americans, claiming the “right” to abortion on demand applies regardless of “zip code” and no matter “what politicians think.” The abortion chain conveniently forgets that politicians, not Planned Parenthood spokespersons, are popularly elected by the people to make decisions about abortion laws.
In its ill-considered tweet, Planned Parenthood used the code phrase “no matter what a person’s income” to re-emphasize its support for the taxpayer funding of all abortions. Planned Parenthood has not kept its distaste for the Hyde Amendment a secret. However, since the Hyde Amendment is federal, 17 states still allow the taxpayer funding of abortions — something Oregon recently expanded in a shocking way. Additionally, taxpayer funding bans that make exceptions for abortions that are “medically necessary” open the door to Planned Parenthood — which believes “medical necessity” includes all abortions.
If our nation’s liberty for all is to endure, every American ought to take our unalienable rights seriously, especially the first and most of important of these rights listed in the Declaration of Independence: the right to life. No such respect or reverence comes from Planned Parenthood, however. Instead, the abortion chain simply provides more distortion and a multitude of false talking points.
Editor’s Note: All op-eds are the opinion of the writer, and not necessarily the official position of Live Action.
