The recent expose of Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider selling baby parts reinforces what many in the pro-life field have been saying for a long time. Abortion has nothing to do with “rights”; it is driven by profit. Unimaginable to think that human beings would handsomely benefit off a fellow human especially in this so-called age of an ‘enlightened’ society. To consider that the most defenseless of all is violently torn apart and their body parts sold off, signifies the level of depravity that humanity has descended to. One could argue that the (outlawed) slave trade epitomized the profiteering off a fellow human though it is undeniable that slaves were not dismembered and their parts sold off for profit. Abortion is worse. Much worse.
Whilst many are outraged and rightly so, an obvious question needs to be asked; should we be shocked at the recent expose? If then people are shocked now, what did anybody think the abortion procedure entailed? Is it more likely that the human mind finds it difficult to process certain thoughts/images until confronted by the undeniable reality – such as these gruesome videos; or do we wish to be deceived under the guise of “choice”? What “choice” does the unborn child have? Lambs to the slaughter indeed.
Although these highlighted atrocities occurred in America, many questions have to be asked about Family Planning NZ who have been working closely with Planned Parenthood of America. Both organisations are affiliates of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Showing the oneness of mind between the two organisations, Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood was invited to New Zealand as recently as 2013 to speak at the Family Planning conference.
Among all the graphic evidence of profiteering off the wholesale slaughter of the innocents, the New Zealand media remains largely silent. To be fair though, much of the press within the USA refuses to report on these atrocities as well. Need one ask why?
The Centre for Medical Progress has released a number of videos in which senior staff of Planned Parenthood nonchalantly chat about the sale of body parts. In one of the admissions, the director of research at a facility says that abortionists can modify their [abortion] procedure to obtain “intact” fetuses. Within the same gruesome video, we see a box containing body parts such as arms and legs of a human being – clear enough proof that it is not a “clump of cells” that is being ‘aborted’ but a human, a child of God.
What is striking about these videos is that the employees are ‘normal-looking’ women. In fact, the Director of Planned Parenthood could be described as attractive. Today, when image has been elevated to an unprecedented level, one wonders whether ‘believ-ability’ or even levels of evil a person is implicated in, is perhaps mitigated by that person’s appearance. After all, some of the Nazis ‘looked scary’ so it probably is not too difficult to look back and identify evil. On the other hand, many looked like the person next door; a good family man.
Fast forward to contemporary society; a society that is largely media-driven. Attractive-looking, smart, sophisticated people are probably more ‘believable’ than others who may be less so. But that is part of the deception; to present an attractive ‘front’, an everyday sort of person; a professional such as a doctor whose profession we still regard (and rightly so) as noble. In one of the videos released by the undercover investigators, a doctor over lunch in a restaurant, calmly speaks of how she takes the lives of unborn children for profit – harvesting their body parts to order. Underpinning the deliberateness of her actions, she explains how they decide from which mum they will harvest the organs to fulfil customers’ orders for the required body parts. Mind-numbing indeed.
While calls are underway to defund Planned Parenthood in the USA, it is difficult to imagine that this will happen. Why might this be so? Simply because large sums of money are being made from the death of unborn children. Will the release of these videos turn the tide against abortion; probably on an individual level but not en-masse simply because large parts of society have been de-sensitised and would consider it their ‘right’ to do what they will; so effective has been this ‘rights campaign’, a neat fit within a selfish society. However, hope is always to be found especially among the youth. In addition, many women are publicly speaking up about the damaging effects of abortion; they refuse to be silent anymore.
Many of us know that abortion takes the life of an innocent child. Many choose not to know; to turn a blind eye. The womb of a mother, a sanctuary; the safest place for any child, has become a place of desecration. This has not happened overnight. Rather, it’s been a well-managed campaign of diabolical sophistication to reach the level it’s reached today. The most natural relationship; that between a mother and her unborn child has been under sustained attack, to the point that too many mothers (and fathers) view their child as the enemy; one who should be destroyed.
We were privileged to have Abby Johnson, a former director of a Planned Parenthood facility in Texas, visit us here in New Zealand. Abby shared her story of being involved in this industry for many years somewhat oblivious to the evil in which she was submerged. When constantly asked the obvious question as to how she could not see that what she was doing was plain evil, her answer is simply “I don’t know”. But through the grace of God, and the commitment of people praying outside the abortion facility, Abby quit the industry and now shares her amazing conversion story to countless people. Perhaps Abby’s story reminds us of the direction we should be taking to convince mums to keep their unborn children; to convince the abortion workers that they do not have to be working in these death camps.
The answer is education, prayer, fasting, and action. However, all these ‘activities’ must be underpinned by the virtue of courage. It takes courage to stand against the tide; against a society that has become somewhat immune to the death of innocent children. “Every child a wanted child” rings hollow when you consider the horrific alternative to this empty, meaningless slogan.