Man Bites Blog

Elizabeth Nolan Brown tries to make the case that Planned Parenthood isn’t so bad:

So … 5 percent of Indiana Planned Parenthood patients go there to get an abortion. I’d wager a much larger percentage of people who go to gas station convenience stores do so to buy cigarettes or alcohol, yet no one accuses people giving gas cards of promoting drinking and smoking. People understand that, for the most part, people will use the gift cards to buy gas.

I would challenge that estimate; I suspect less than 5% of gas station patrons even walk in the building, let alone buy alcohol and cigarettes.  But perhaps the point would stand for grocery stores.

Nevertheless, I don’t find the gift certificates to be particularly scandalous, since it is consistent with PP’s agenda — normalizing abortion.  Make it just like any other consumer good.  Given their position, why shouln’t they allow git certificates for abortion?

What this does, though, is shed an undeniable light on them for those inclined to think that PP is a benevolent organization that is on net against abortion, as Brown attempts to do here:

Not that this current bellyaching about Planned Parenthood is surprising—I’ve seen many a folk who can manage to work up a tizzy at the mere mention of the organization (Margaret Sanger loved the Eugenics, don’t ya know!??1! Planned Parenthood wants to kill babies~!!!). Which is funny (as in, eye roll funny, not laugh funny), because Planned Parenthood has probably done much more to prevent abortions than most of those that protest it—according to its Web site, 81 percent of PP patients go there to prevent unwanted pregnancy.  PP’s biggest services are providing contraceptives and routine women’s health procedures. The Washington Times yesterday opined:

These justifications are disingenuous. Women do not need Planned Parenthood for their basic health care.

I think the 75 percent of PP’s clientele who are below poverty level and need PP in order to afford things like pap smears and breast exams—services that detect and prevent cancer and infections—might beg to differ.

Does Brown really think that if Planned Parenthood ceased to exist tomorrow that these women would have to go without these services?  Nobody would step into the breach to provide them?  Really?

And is it possible that PP has an ulterior motive in providing these services — namely to create goodwill for the remainder of the agenda.

An agenda brought into focus by them doing things like accepting gift certificates for abortions.

Let’s remember that Barack Obama’s statement supporting FOCA was done at Planned Parenthood.  Indeed some have argued that we shouldn’t take FOCA seriously, since it was just a pander to PP.   So, Planned Parenthood is this nice, benevolent, apolitical organization, yet it’s necessary for presidential candidates to commit himself to terrible unpassable legislation in order to win its support.  Right.

We’re also supposed to ignore little things like Planned Parenthood’s eugenic roots.  Or covering up statutory rape.

I’d be interested to see how many of those who call people who have a problem with this sort of thing hysterical would have responded if it came out in September that Sarah Palin’s second cousin’s kindergarten teacher’s husband was a member of an organization that had its roots in getting rid of black people and and was founded by a racist eugenists, and worked to shield statutory rapists.But Planned Parenthood can do no wrong.  Don’t you know they do cancer screenings?  How dare you utter a word against them!

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