In the aftermath of the horrific shooting in Colorado Springs, Planned Parenthood intensified efforts to silence Americans who wish to protect human life, calling pro-lifers and lawmakers seeking to hold the abortion giant accountable “extremists” who contribute to a “toxic environment” that fuels “domestic terrorism.”
In a statement, Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens attributed criticism against the abortion business as “rhetoric” that contributes to violence.
“It is offensive and outrageous that some politicians are now claiming this tragedy has nothing to do with the toxic environment they helped create,” Laguens wrote.
“One of the lessons of this awful tragedy is that words matter, and hateful rhetoric fuels violence. It’s not enough to denounce the tragedy without also denouncing the poisonous rhetoric that fueled it. Instead, some politicians are continuing to stoke it, which is unconscionable.”
Planned Parenthood’s rash politicization of the tragedy is both faulty and unjustified. Indeed, words do matter, and Planned Parenthood is no stranger to this truth. Its attempts to squelch pro-life speech —and using a tragedy to smear Americans who wish to protect life — is politicking at its worst.
The abortion industry has long shrouded its horrific practices against children in euphemisms dehumanizing its helpless victims. Those wishing to protect human life have boldly used the language of life to reaffirm the dignity and humanity of the preborn child, speaking to the reality of abortion and unmasking the true face of the industry. This is the inconvenient truth. Americans must face the tragic reality of abortion, or continue to cover up the gruesome nature of abortion procedures in flowery euphemisms.
While Planned Parenthood seeks to cast blame onto the pro-life community for creating violence, it fails to see the devaluing of human life that the violence of abortion has wrought these forty-plus years. An unjust act of violence— whether against an innocent preborn child, a civilian, a Planned Parenthood staffer, or an abortionist— is unconscionable. Censoring speech that speaks to the reality of abortion, however, allows Planned Parenthood to continue to cover up its crimes against women and children, something that is tragically business as usual at the abortion business.
While Big Abortion seeks to delegitimize the atrocities uncovered in abortion facilities, including the trafficking of baby parts, the cover-up of child sexual abuse, the aiding of sex-traffickers, among many abuses, the tragedy of Colorado does not discount Planned Parenthood’s crimes against human life. In fact, it heightens the truth that unjust violence against human beings —born and preborn— must be condemned.
At Live Action, we are working to exposing the injustice of abortion to the American public. Our undercover videos give individuals a firsthand look into what really occurs inside abortion facilities — the brutality against human life, the cover-up, manipulation, and the callous disregard for helpless children. These videos are shaking the conscience of America to the humanity of preborn babies and the inhumanity of abortion, shifting the national debate on the issue. Every day, hearts and minds are changed about abortion after individuals see the gritty reality of what occurs daily behind closed doors.
Martin Luther King, Jr. powerfully stated in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail why the face of injustice must be exposed. He writes:
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”
Until the injustice of abortion is exposed to the “light of human conscience” and to the “air of national opinion,” it will perpetuate in the darkness. Pro-lifers are not the creators of violence, but the ones who expose it and condemn it. We stand together in affirming the dignity of every person and the value of human life, from the moment of fertilization until natural death.
