Wow. How does one respond to such glee?
General, National Politics, Personal, Privacy Comments (2)
I have tried to stay out of the fray regarding the op/ed by Jennifer Richards. I really have. The story is a week old now (it’s in the 7/18 NY Times).
But, thanks to Bill at INDC Journal’s blog post on the new Planned Parenthood t-shirt today, I can’t.
I am staunchly pro-life. I have certain beliefs that I never expect to change. One of those is that a unique life begins at conception and that a person has no more right to terminate that life than they do to kill their aged great-grandparents because caring for them has become too inconvenient, too time consuming, or too expensive. At the moment that the gametes combine and become a zygote that life carries on all of the functions of life. The DNA within it is as unique as it will ever be. The only thing missing is a certain level of change.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in choice. But I believe that choice ends with conception. In other words, when you make the choice to have sex you have made the only choice you have a right to make. You should bear the consequences of that decision just as you would have to bear the consequences of the decision to drive drunk, just as you would have to bear the consequences of the decision to get high, just as you would have the bear the consequences of the decision of driving out into the countryside and abandoning that four day old puppy.
Is it inconvenient if you didn’t plan it? You betcha, but you should have thought of that before “having a little fun.”
Is it life-changing? Of course it is, but it’s that even if you’re planning on it.
The decision to terminate two unique lives and write an op/ed piece about it? Stupid.
And the decision to terminate an unique life and get a t-shirt declaring your pride about it? Callous.
This says something, I think, about the state of our nation. Planned Parenthood has taken something that should be a difficult and horrifying choice involving the health of the mother and child, removed all consideration for the unborn life, and then made it into t-shirt fodder.
And I think it is sickening that more consideration is given to the mother’s social life or economic potential than is given to the fact that there is a life there, no matter how small, undifferentiated, or dependent. It is still a life and Planned Parenthood completely discounts that simple, basic fact. Why? Because if it is a life, if it is living, then it is deserving of protection and they don’t want that protection to interfere with their “choice.”
The end of that road? Greater callousing of the minds of people. “It’s not life, it’s a clump of cells.” But, an amoeba is? But that amoeba is considered “alive” even though it has only one cell.
“My body, my choice.” True, but you made that choice when you chose to engage in sexual intercourse.
It’s sad, it really is, that our society has sunk so low as to have people who think that the creation of such a shirt is acceptable.
So, how to respond to it?
Perhaps we should take a page from MoveOn.org’s recent filing about Fox News Channel’s use of the term “fair and balanced.” Perhaps we should file papers with the FTC saying that their name, “Planned Parenthood” is deceptive and misleading. After all, Planned Parenthood is all about abortion, not parenting.
MickC @ July 27, 2004