5 Reasons Why Planned Parenthood Must Stop Receiving Our Tax Dollars
Planned Parenthood makes many lofty claims about its “services” critical to women’s health. But just digging a little deeper into its actual practices and history reveals something much less positive — and a lot more sinister.
As a pro-life blogger and speaker, who escaped abortion myself in Communist China, and chose life for my “imperfect” child, I feel called to expose abortion lies wherever I see them. This weekend, tens of thousands of people will protest Planned Parenthood nationwide; it’s a critical moment to raise awareness of the abortion giant and its misdeeds.
More than any organization in America, Planned Parenthood is responsible for perpetrating lies about abortion — and lies about its own “women’s health” services. There’s no doubt, the public relations strategy of the abortion giant is built on deception.
If the American public really knew the truth about Planned Parenthood, I truly believe most Americans would immediately stop supporting and defending it. That’s why my latest video gives five reasons why Planned Parenthood must stop receiving our tax funding — the entire $553 million dollars they currently receive annually.
In fact, Congress will soon begin debate over a budget reconciliation bill on this issue. We can expect mainstream media to go crazy over this bill, claiming it will harm women’s health. But the truth is, all it will do is halt abortion providers from receiving about 75 percent of their current taxpayer funding for one year.
I’d call that a good first step, and here are five reasons why.
1. Planned Parenthood has disturbing eugenics origins.
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist eugenicist. She wholeheartedly believed in weeding out the “undesirables,” as she called them — like blacks, minorities, the disabled, the poor, and the “feeble-minded.” She was a white supremacist. She proudly spoke to the KKK.
Sanger openly supported forced sterilization and birth control, especially for the black community. She started Planned Parenthood as a “non-profit” to funnel her eugenics goals. Sadly, the organization still honors its disturbing founder with its annual Margaret Sanger Award.
2. Planned Parenthood still targets blacks and minorities.
Seventy-eight percent of its clinics are in minority communities! This is evident in abortion statistics. Blacks are three times more likely to have an abortion than a white woman. Hispanic women are two timesmore likely to have an abortion than a white woman.
And tragically, more black babies are aborted than born alive in New York City.
Young mother and blogger Lisa Smiley raises her family in the Dallas area (Photo: Tracey Wong / The Image Talks)
3. The claim that Planned Parenthood does “so much good” besides abortion is a lie.
In reality, the business is built on abortion because it is its biggest moneymaker. Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson has shared at length about the organization’s disturbing abortion quotas.
Live Action has debunked the myth that abortion makes up only 3% of its services. In the past, the organization has shut down clinics that didn’t provide abortions.
4. Planned Parenthood does not provide comprehensive healthcare.
A practicing OB-GYN in Tennessee, Dr. Brent Boles has pointed out that these abortion centers actually offers women very limited healthcare — far less than what you get at a doctor’s office or other health clinic.
The organization claimed that it provided mammograms — that but turned out to be a sham. It recently scrubbed the phrase “prenatal care” from websites — because their abortion centers offer no such thing. It claimed that if it got defunded, millions of women would lose health care access — but that is another lie.
The $400 million it would lose in Medicaid funding (in the soon-to-come budget bill) would actually get redirected to 13,000 health care clinics that offer many more services than Planned Parenthood. Women have far better health care options.
Planned Parenthood currently receives over $553 million in taxpayer funding every year (Photo: Wikimedia)
5. Planned Parenthood is guilty of illegally selling aborted baby parts.
In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress led a huge undercover investigation to expose Planned Parenthood’s illegal activities. Their footage included scenes of executives bargaining over the price of aborted babies, workers admitting to selling “fresh” aborted baby eyes, hearts, and “gonads,” and abortionists illegally changing abortion procedures to get baby organs.
Corruption at the organization has gone on for years. Planned Parenthood has also been caught covering up child sexual abuse, committing Medicaid and taxpayer fraud, illegally dumping aborted babies in landfills, and has a history of violating health and safety standards.
No matter where one stands on the question of when life begins, this budget measure coming before Congress that affects the public funding of abortion providers is one we all should be able to support.
As Planned Parenthood faces greater scrutiny of its practices, women and children will benefit by receiving the care they need from legitimate health providers.
About Lisa Smiley
Lisa Smiley is a mother of four precious children, including one now with his Creator in Heaven. She earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of California-Irvine. Lisa blogs at LisaSmiley.com as well as for Bound4LIFE International, a grassroots movement to pray for the ending of abortion, carry the spirit of adoption, and believe for revival and reformation. Together with her husband James, they raise their family in the Dallas area.
100 Years of Planned Parenthood: Celebrating What Exactly?
One Planned Parenthood experience has remained seared into my memory like no other. I was standing outside of Planned Parenthood in downtown Birmingham, praying on my lunch break. There was a woman across the street at an apartment building, holding her toddler in her arms.
She stared at me for a few minutes before crossing the hot pavement. I saw nervousness in her eyes and a sort of longing that I understood later.
She immediately asked me, “Are you praying?” “Yes. Do you need prayer?” “Yes,” she replied emphatically. I was not prepared to hear the story that would stream out of her mouth.
She asked if I would pray that her husband would come back home. He had run off with a sex trafficking ring that frequented this Planned Parenthood—to perform forced abortions on the women who had become pregnant during their abuse. She explained she had done everything to try to find him and report his crimes to authorities, but there was no hope as of yet.
I asked her if she was certain that Planned Parenthood knew they were performing abortions for abused women held against their will. She responded, “Of course they know! And they never report it.”
My heart was broken in an even deeper way to realize yet another deeply horrific truth of this international abortion mill. There was no darkness too dark for them, no vulnerable woman too vulnerable as long as they were being paid—and I can only assume, being paid even more money to be quiet and not report to authorities.
I wept. The wife and I wept together and we prayed. We prayed her husband would have revelation for his deep sin of being party to these criminal acts and turn himself in. We prayed the ring would be exposed and the precious women rescued. And we prayed for Planned Parenthood to come to an end.
Natalie and Matthew Brumfield of Birmingham adopted their foster child Braxton (Photo Courtesy Bound4LIFE Birmingham)
This Sunday, October 16, will mark 100 years of Planned Parenthood—a century of the dark, twisted ideals and principles they were founded on, and still fully operate within. People are actually celebrating this morbid anniversary without understanding what they are celebrating. (If they did, they would know Halloween would be a more fitting day.) Without further ado, I will seek to unveil who and what is being celebrated.
In 1916, Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and full supporter of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, created her back alley birth-control establishment based on a racial genocide agenda—particularly towards African Americans and immigrants who were, in her words, “the unfit” of the population.
The stated goals of Margaret Sanger regarding planned, calculated population reduction fit squarely within the textbook definition of genocide: “Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group. Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the groups conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
It was with these ideas that Sanger created her illegal, back-alley birth control business in New York City. She strategically placed her first Planned Parenthood center in the Brooklyn borough, where she could get the most access to the people she hated most. She was arrested and put in jail for a month. But she didn’t stop. Today, New York has the highest abortion ratio of any state in the nation.
The birthplace of Planned Parenthood, New York has the highest abortion ratio of any state (Photo: William Gaebler / Flickr)
Here are a few of Margaret Sanger’s most famous quotes and ideals:
“The main objects of the Population Congress would be to apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring[;] to give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.” –Margaret Sanger (“A Plan for Peace,” 1932).
“Article 1. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies… and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit.
Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit.
Article 6. No permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth.” –Margaret Sanger (“America Needs a Code for Babies,” March 27, 1934).
“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” –Margaret Sanger writing on what she termed the ‘Negro Project’ (in a letter to Clarence Gamble, Dec. 10, 1939).
“I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan…I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses…I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak…In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.” –Margaret Sanger (Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography, p. 366)
Margaret Sanger and fellow eugenics advocate Charles Drysdale in New York in 1925 (Photo: Wikimedia)
The truth is, Margaret Sanger fashioned the eugenics movement in America in the 1930s and 1940s. Her beliefs and those in her communities’ belief in the movement contributed to compulsory sterilization laws in 30 U.S. states that resulted in more than 60,000 sterilizations of vulnerable people, including the people she superficially measured as “feeble-minded,” “idiots” and “morons.”
It’s shocking to realize that in 2016, such a woman as Sanger and her still existing dynasty of Planned Parenthood is celebrated. Four years ago, Sanger was named one of the “20 Most Influential Americans of All Time” by TIME Magazine. There are awards given to women in her name and I shudder to think of someone begin honored by receiving such a dark award.
Many supporters of Planned Parenthood believe the organization that it is today is far removed from Sanger’s early views. But to see that is frankly not the case, one only need hear the words of Dr. Alan Guttmacher, President of Planned Parenthood from 1962-1974, who proudly stated that, “We are merely walking down the path that Mrs. Sanger carved for us.”
Also, to ensure that Sanger’s ideals are maintained her grandson, Alex Sanger, is the current Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council.
Planned Parenthood currently receives over $500 million in taxpayer funding every year (Photo: Wikimedia)
How sobering. And with that statement my mind brings me back to that hot, brick-walled sidewalk outside of Planned Parenthood Birmingham. I think of the vulnerable women being trafficked with no voice coming to this dark place, only to be exploited all over again; their babies ripped from their wombs whether they want it done or not, because they don’t view the women as human anymore—they’re “unfit.”
In the twisted view of Margaret Sanger and those who carry her pro-abortion views, these women are “weeds of society” that should be sterilized and segregated. Not worth a call to the police or authorities. Not worth a rescue. How much less must they think of these women’s babies?
According to last year’s Planned Parenthood investigative videos, their babies’ parts were most likely sold to bring even more blood money into their pockets. They exploit women who are trafficked, then sell their babies too.
So I ask, after a century of hate, deceit, darkness, and racial genocide, what is there to celebrate? I pray you see that there is nothing in Planned Parenthood to commend. Instead, we must mourn and fast before the Lord.
Pro-life advocates pray for justice outside the Houston Planned Parenthood abortion center (Photo Courtesy of Bound4LIFE)
We must realize the detriment the past 100 years has wreaked upon our nation:
· 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of African American or Hispanic communities.
· Between 2007 and 2010, nearly 36 percent of all abortions in the U.S were on African American children, even though African Americans only make up 13 percent of our population. Also, 21 percent of abortions were on Hispanics and 7 percent on other minority groups. That is a total of 64 percent of U.S. abortions targeted on minority groups.
· Nearly 60,000,000 abortions in the United States were performed from 1973–2015.
· Based on Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report, an unborn baby dies every 96 seconds inside a Planned Parenthood clinic.
· Planned Parenthood’s revenues for 2013-2014 exceeded $1.3 billion. They report that 41 percent of their income came in the form of “Government Health Services Grants and Reimbursements.”
Planned Parenthood isn’t something to celebrate. It’s a disease that should be thrust out of our nation through prayer and fasting. It has had the wholehearted support of wealthy and influential organizations for far too long.
It has rooted its lies and sickly existence inside our government, receiving over $500 million dollars in U.S. taxpayer funding every year. It receives huge sums of donations, from hotel chains to charities. And year after year, mainstream news coverage turns awayfrom reporting their gross dealings.
It’s time for our moral outcry as a nation to rise up against this evil. And it’s time for Americans to say Enough! to the horrific tragedy of millions of women being exploited, men losing their fatherhood, children being slaughtered and sold, and families being destroyed. This anniversary is a time to mourn and cry. It’s a time to pray and fast.
About Natalie Brumfield
Since 2008, Natalie Brumfield has served as Birmingham chapter leader for Bound4LIFE – a grassroots movement to pray for the ending of abortion and for revival worldwide. She works as children's director at her local church and volunteers at a local pregnancy care center. Natalie and her husband Matthew live in Birmingham, Alabama; they love being adoptive and foster parents.
“If You’re Pro-Life, Be Pro-Adoption”: A Waiting Adoptive Mom Reveals a Powerful Truth
It’s a story too horrific to believe. This week, a 16-year-old teenager gave birth to her baby alone in her bedroom and then threw the newborn out of the second story window.
After telling her mother what she’d done, media outlets reported that the infant’s grandmother ran outside to try and save the baby—but it was too late.
A 16 year-old killed her baby by throwing the newborn from a second story window (Photo: Benjamin Josar / Flickr)
My shock and horror turned into crying…soft, at first, followed by loud, uncontrollable sobs. I found myself on the floor of the room containing nursery basics.
It won’t be complete until we get the call that we’ve been matched with an expectant mother who has chosen us to place her child with us as an adoptive family. Here is where I wail and lament over the death of this baby girl and over my own empty womb and empty arms.
This moment rushed back to me last night when I heard Governor Mike Pence speak passionately on the sanctity of human life at the 2016 Vice Presidential Debate. “God says, Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you,” he stated, quoting Psalm 139.
“I sought to stand with great compassion for the sanctity of life. The state of Indiana has also sought to make sure that we expand alternatives in health care counseling for women, non-abortion alternatives,” he continued. “I think if you’re going to be pro-life, you should be pro-adoption.”
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and his wife Karen have sought to craft pro-adoption state policies (Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Waiting for an adoption placement is hard. Stories like this tragedy of a baby thrown out a window make it even harder. Of course, this isn’t about us. It’s about a helpless, innocent baby whose own mother went through labor and delivery, only to end her life moments later.
It’s about a 16-year-old, a teenager—really, a child herself. She was going through this experience alone and, likely not knowing what else to do, panicked and acted irrationally. I am furious with her. But in my fury, I am also furious with others in her life.
What was she taught about sex? What was she taught about the risk of pregnancy? Or prevention of pregnancy? Did she turn to someone when she found out she was pregnant, or did she hide this? If the former, were they supportive (even if at first upset)? If the latter, why?
What about her teachers? Her friends? Is she alone responsible? I don’t think so. The baby’s father is responsible. Her parents are responsible. While the 16-year-old is the most responsible, she is not solely responsible.
This story is heartbreaking. I can’t help but think about the fact that this 16-year-old was able to conceive, while I cannot, and regularly beg God for a child—or for the desire to be removed from my heart.
I think about how I would have gladly taken in that baby girl, and my eyes swell with tears once again. Yet, other than being angry, horrified and heartbroken, what can we do?
Clearly education of the next generation is lacking. While school condom distribution programs are seen by some as a solution, research shows these programs actually increase teen fertility rates. And research on the medical risks of many contraceptive methods is beginning to pile up.
Teen sexual activity can be costly—not just for teens, but also for society (Photo: Chinny Buraga / Flickr)
Here are three steps to be fully informed, then engage in our spheres of influenc
First, we can be a part of spreading pro-life messages to students through organizations such as Students for Life—they even have a chapter at Harvard University.
Second, we can encourage our school districts to utilize sex education programs that emphasize abstinence and developing character traits, shown to be the most effective way to reduce teen sexual activity.
Lastly, we can get involved in local pro-life ministry such as reaching out to women (in love, kindness, and compassion) who are going into abortion clinics or by volunteering at crisis pregnancy medical clinics.
There are many ways that we can be involved, but the most important is prayer. We are facing a grave evil, but Jesus Christ will be victor in this and all battles.
About Dr. Laurel Shaler
Dr. Laurel Shaler is a Chair at Liberty University in the Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies. She is a former social worker for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Laurel writes on the intersection of faith, culture and emotional well-being at DrLaurelShaler.com. She and her husband, Nick, are in the adoption process; follow along with their journey via Facebook. They live in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“Crime Against Humanity”: 9 Pro-Life Leaders React to Supreme Court Ruling on Texas Abortion Law
On June 27, in a 5-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down two of the four provisions in HB 2—a Texas pro-life law that passed in 2013 by bipartisan majority vote. In a win for abortion providers who sued the State of Texas, the two provisions deemed unconstitutional by the high court established health and safety requirements for abortion practices.
Dozens stood silently in prayer outside the court, as hundreds of pro-life advocates gathered to await a decision on the Texas case.
Following the ruling, Matt Lockett leads a group in prayer and communion outside the Supreme Court (Photo: Josh Shepherd)
Several leaders involved directly in crafting and defending this law, many who have participated in the Texas Loves Life prayer coalition, react to the breaking news.
Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, Texas Legislator Who Authored Pro-Life Law HB 2
Outside the Supreme Court on March 2, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stands with State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg (center) and other leaders (Photo: Office of Ken Paxton / Twitter)
“This decision is bad news for women and a sad day for our nation,” said Representative Jodie Laubenberg, the Texas State legislator who authored HB 2. “Women deserve the same standard of care at abortion clinics as they would receive at a medical facility.”
“Obviously, the politics of abortion supersedes the health and safety for women,” she concluded. Her statement mirrors the disdain expressed in scathing dissenting opinionswritten by Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas.
Alito stated in part: “The court’s patent refusal to apply well-established law in a neutral way is indefensible and will undermine public confidence in the Court as a fair and neutral arbiter.”
Matt Lockett, Executive Director of Bound4LIFE International
Matt Lockett (L) appears on the front page of USA Today on June 28, 2016 (Image via USA Today / Newseum)
“Much prayer and God-inspired activism were behind Texas’ common sense law HB 2. Therefore, I know there will be good fruit produced from it in spite of the Supreme Court’s nonsense ruling,” says Matt Lockett, who has been praying weekly (or, at times, daily) outside the U.S. Supreme Court since 2005.
“The ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt sends a clear message to America: This Supreme Court is willing to protect abortion at any costs—even at the expense of quality health care that women deserve. What a clear majority of Americans call ‘common sense,’ the Supreme Court has bent over backward to call ‘unnecessary.’ Women lost in this case, and that is an unacceptable tragedy.”
Yet Lockett has hope for the future. “Too many miracles occurred along the way for this to be so easily dismissed. I await with eager expectation to see what will develop next in the efforts to save lives and protect women. I enthusiastically ask again today, ‘Where do I sign up?’”
Christina Marie Bennett, Pro-Life Advocate Serving in Pregnancy Care Center
Christina Marie Bennett leads a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court (Photo via Christina Bennett)
“As a woman of color whose people group is disproportionally affected by abortion, this decision is particularly disheartening,” said Christina Marie Bennett who has served for years at a pregnancy care center in Connecticut. “In an attempt to make abortion convenient, the Supreme Court is allowing women to pay the ultimate cost by sacrificing their safety and dignity.”
Bennett, who led a pro-life rally for this case outside the Supreme Court on March 2, continues: “In today’s decision, the Supreme Court chose access to abortion services over quality care for women. The safety regulations for abortion clinics protected women from abuse at the hand of a multi-billion dollar industry that profits from their painful circumstances. The common sense regulations for abortionists—to have admitting privileges to hospitals—ensured women received continuity of care.”
“Lest we forget, Texas’ HB 2 law was a response to the Philadelphia grand jury’s report during the trial of former abortionist Kermit Gosnell. In order to prevent further mistreatment of women, the grand jury suggested responsible and reasonable regulations. Those regulations were wrongly struck down today. Women deserve better and the Supreme Court has failed them with their decision.”
Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America
Outside the Supreme Court, Kristan Hawkins leads a pro-life rally on June 27, 2016 (Photo: Students for Life of America)
After leading a pro-life rally outside the Supreme Court today, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America spoke out in a brief interview: “Women lost today. The Supreme Court decided that the right to abortion is more important than keeping women safe and alive. They’ve ruled that states don’t have the rights to protect half their citizens. This is, once again, five unelected judges politicizing this human rights issue which is a travesty.”
Hawkins, whose network recently marked the launch of its 1000th local campus group, continues, “We’ve got to keep praying, because we don’t know how the Lord is working. We don’t know what His plan is. Even though today’s decision was a devastating blow—more women and children will suffer because of it—we know God ultimately has a plan and He is in control. We can do what He’s called us to do; we can be faithful to that.”
“We are changing our culture,” she says. “The majority of Americans agree with these common sense laws. We’re releasing polling data this week that shows 53 percent of millennials are in favor of making abortion illegal in all or most cases. This is huge. We’ve seen the tide turn; the problem is, we have antiquated thinkers in Washington, DC who’ve been here since the 1970’s and probably still haven’t seen an ultrasound. Laws are downstream from culture, so we still have hope.”
Jonathan Saenz, President of Texas Values
Jonathan Saenz with Nicole Hudgens (R) and Christiana Holcomb outside the Supreme Court (Photo: Josh Shepherd)
“Our main concern is the protection of innocent life and Texas women,” states attorney Jonathan Saenz who leads the Austin-based group Texas Values. “We will continue to stand for women to keep them safe so they are not maimed or die in abortion clinics.”
“Even though the number of abortions and abortion clinics in Texas are already declining due to women choosing life and public opinion growing in support of the value of the human child in the womb, the Supreme Court is attempting to control the ability of Texas leaders to keep women safe,” says Saenz.
He continues, “We want to specifically thank HB 2 bill authors Rep. Jodie Laubenberg and Comptroller Glenn Hegar, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Solicitor General Scott Keller for their leadership in defending this important law. This effort to protect the life of women and children is far from over.”
Dr. Alveda King, Director of Civil Rights for the Unborn
Dr. Alveda King, niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., leads a pro-life prayer gathering (Photo: Aaron Wong)
“This decision will hurt women and kill babies. The Supreme Court and the abortion industry cannot serve the public by killing the public. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” stated Dr. Alveda King, echoing her uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She serves as director of Civil Rights for the Unborn, affiliated with Priests for Life.
“In the end, natural law, God’s law will always trump common law. Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant,” continued Dr. King, citing Galatians 6:7. “Do not fear or be confused or deceived. Remain prayerful. Keep looking up. God will have the final word in this matter.”
Allan Parker, Attorney Working on Behalf of Women Harmed by Abortion
Allan Parker serves as President of The Justice Foundation based in San Antonio, Texas (Photo: Josh Shepherd)
President of The Justice Foundation based in San Antonio, Texas, Allan Parker has been engaged in pro-life legal advocacy for over 20 years. His public interest legal group submitted an amicus brief in the Texas case on behalf of 3,348 women injured by abortion.
“Having represented the ‘Roe’ of Roe v. Wade and the ‘Doe’ of Doe v. Bolton, in their efforts to overturn their own cases, which the Supreme Court refused to even hear, I believe today the Supreme Court committed another crime against humanity,” said Allan Parker, referencing his legal clients Norma McCorvey and the late Sandra Cano. “With the Texas decision, more women will suffer physical and psychological injuries and death from abortion.”
Parker is also a man of great faith, as evidenced by his statement which continues, “Without massive repentance, America is doomed as a nation. But God is still saying, ‘America, return to me and I will return to you.’ Time is very short. The abolitionists called the Dred Scott decision a ‘covenant with death and an agreement with the grave’ based on Isaiah 28, words that still ring true today.”
“His Word states in Isaiah 28:18: ‘Your covenant with death will be annulled, your agreement with the grave will not stand.’ We will continue to speak up for the poor and helpless, both women and children, and see that they get justice.”
Jeanne Mancini, President of March for Life
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, speaks at a pro-life summit prior to the annual march on January 22, 2016 (Photo: Aaron Wong for Bound4LIFE International)
“Being pro-life means wanting what is best for women and babies,” begins Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life, in reacting to the decision. “The Texas law was in the best interest of women’s health. Because of the decision today, beauty parlors, veterinarian clinics and public pools will be held to higher sanitary and health standards than abortion clinics.”
“As president of an organization that works for a culture where abortion is unthinkable, my hope is that no woman would choose abortion. But can’t we agree to care about safety and health standards?” Mancini asks, backed by her decade of experience defending women’s lives and health.
“For years, abortion advocates have equated greater access to abortion with improving women’s health. In doing so they have advocated for substandard health regulations. This is not pro-woman. Women and babies are the real losers of today’s decision,” she concludes.
Dr. Michael New, Associate Scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute
Michael New, Ph.D. has lectured at Notre Dame and served as a research fellow at Harvard (Photo via Dr. Michael New)
“Today’s Supreme Court ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt is both a disappointment and a setback for pro-lifers,” says Michael New, Ph.D., who teaches at Ave Maria University and authors research analysis at Charlotte Lozier Institute, a think tank committed to principles of human dignity. “After the Kermit Gosnell trial in 2013, I do not know how any serious person could think that abortion clinics need less regulation.”
“Furthermore Justice Breyer’s majority opinion is poorly argued. He claims that in the aftermath of HB 2, abortion would only be available in Texas cities. However, in many states, the only abortion clinics are located in cities. That is not unique to Texas. He also claims abortion is a safe procedure. However, reporting of abortion deaths and injuries is very weak—partly because clinics are so poorly regulated.”
“In light of this decision I would like to offer pro-lifers some encouragement,” New shares from his years of pro-life policy work. “Very often the judiciary has struck down pro-life legislation. However, in light of these decisions pro-life legislators have been able to re-draft legislation in such a way so that subsequent versions were upheld by the court. This was the case with partial-birth abortion bans, parental involvement laws, and informed consent laws. A revised version of HB 2 may well be upheld.”
“Overall, pro-lifers should hold their heads high. Every year, abortions are going down, more people identify as pro-life, and more states are enacting pro-life legislation. Today was a setback, but future victories await pro-lifers!”
About Josh Shepherd
Josh M. Shepherd serves as communications manager at Bound4LIFE International – a pro-life movement driven by prayer and advocacy. He previously worked on staff at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family. He earned a degree in Business Marketing from the University of Colorado. Josh and his wife Terri live in the Washington, DC area.