Planned Parenthood's Inflammatory Rhetoric

The pro-life community abhors and flatly rejects vigilante justice. Regardless of what led up to the shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, one thing should be stated clearly: we do not solve the problem of violence against babies by violence against women. 

We are not to take justice into our own hands. Justice is government’s responsibility, not ours. According to Romans 13, it is the duty of civil government to use the authority God has delegated to it to punish those who take human life without just cause. Our aim in pro-life activism is to get government to do its job and give maximum protection to the most innocent and vulnerable human beings among us, babies in the womb. 

In the wake of the shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, which left three people dead and nine injured, we have a heard a lot of rhetoric about, well, rhetoric. 

Colorado’s governor, John Hickenlooper, blamed “inflammatory rhetoric” from the pro-life community for the shooting, while Planned Parenthood execs, not wanting to let a good crisis go to waste, blamed the whole thing on “hateful language, hateful speech.” 

Now authorities will be the first to tell you that they do not know what the shooter’s motives were. He evidently muttered something about “no more baby parts” to someone, but law enforcement isn’t talking any more. They’ve sealed all the records involved with this incident, which typically is an indication that the facts do not support the narrative which Colorado officials like the governor have been eager to push. We may have to wait days to get more information about what drove the shooter to commit this terrible deed. 

The shooter is likely mentally ill to a disturbing degree, and has a criminal record to boot. He once shoved his wife out a window, once shot a neighbor’s dog, and was once arrested as a peeping tom. He is not a Republican, but is registered instead as an independent. He’s also registered to vote as a female. He lived part-time in a ramshackle mountain cabin without running water or electricity, 15 miles from civilization. In other words, he’s far more like the Unabomber than any pro-lifer I know. 

But in the all the conversation about rhetoric, one salient fact is being overlooked. All the most disturbing rhetoric in this entire affair has come from Planned Parenthood executives themselves. 

The videos from the Center for Medical Progress feature Planned Parenthood doctors and bureaucrats speaking in their own words. There is no running commentary from a pro-life voice telling us what we should think about what we are seeing and hearing. The only time pro-life voices are heard on the tapes is when questions are being asked. Planned Parenthood execs are shown using their own words to answer them. 

• Who talked about “striving for” an intact baby’s head? Planned Parenthood.
• Who talked about cutting a baby’s face with scissors from its chin to the top of its head to get at its brain? Planned Parenthood.
• Who talked about buying a Lamborghini with the sale of baby body parts? Planned Parenthood. 
• Who talked about selling intact baby corpses? Planned Parenthood.
• Who laughed about warning labs that an intact corpse was on the way so lab staff wouldn’t freak out when they opened the box? Planned Parenthood. 
• Who talked about harvesting baby lungs and hearts and livers? Planned Parenthood.
• Who talked about putting baby brains on ice within five minutes of extraction to keep them fresh? Planned Parenthood.
• Who talked about harvesting baby spines? Planned Parenthood. Who talked about how easily a baby’s eyes pop out of his head? Planned Parenthood. 

Bottom line: to find someone to blame for incendiary rhetoric, Planned Parenthood executives only need to pop in the latest CMP video and listen to themselves talk.