A Really Bad Plan
Clip, clop, clip, clop. The first horseman rides a white horse and brings pestilence. The second horseman rides a fiery red horse and brings war. The third horseman rides a black horse and brings famine. The fourth horseman rides a pale green horse and brings death. So it is written. But when John wrote of this apocalyptic vision in Revelations he must not have paid close enough attention or he would have noticed the fifth horseman of the apocalypse. He rides a purple horse and arrives just in time for the thoughtful Christmas shopper. He brings $25.00 gift certificates for abortions. Now there’s a new one for the old letter to Santa.
Planned Parenthood in Indiana has been selling the certificates since November 25th both online and at their 35 clinics statewide. Planned Parenthood in Illinois plans to begin sales of similar certificates on December 8th. Betty Cockrum the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Indiana said sales have been pretty robust although as is the case with most of the things said by Planned Parenthood that description is open to interpretation. In actuality they have sold less then a dozen and in my own mind I wonder how many of those were purchased as bad gag gifts.
I am certain however that sales will increase with the recent publicity. The news story that I read opened with the line “What do you get the person that has everything – except adequate health insurance?” Yes, what do you get them indeed?
Aside from the obvious fact that a person who indeed has everything likely also has adequate health insurance, I find the whole idea of giving a gift certificate for an abortion as a Christmas present to be bone chillingly disgusting. As they explained in their statement, Planned Parenthood would have you believe that they “see 92,000 patients each year at Planned Parenthood of Indiana, and 5,000 of them opt for an abortion”. What they fail to mention in their statement is how many of the patients are actually pregnant, how many are looking for morning after medical miscarriage pills, or how many chose to seek an abortion elsewhere after they discover they are pregnant. Cockrum says that “95 percent of what we do is provide basic health care.” I was unaware that a Planned Parenthood clinic would treat a sore throat or stomach flu. In their mission statement Planned Parenthood states that their mission is “to provide comprehensive reproductive health care – confidentially, compassionately, affordably”, proving my point for the necessity to interpret anything they say as that complete description was left out of the press release.
What Planned Parenthood provides is abortions and abortion counseling and contraceptives to whoever walks in the door regardless of age. A grade school or high school student can’t walk into their school with a Tylenol tablet but they can get birth control pills at the Planned Parenthood clinic with absolutely no parental notification. Parents can be criminally prosecuted for not properly caring for their children, but when it comes to their involvement with an abortion clinic the parents have no rights at all. Speaking as somebody familiar with parenthood that is something I certainly had not planned.
Planned Parenthood’s intent in selling these death certificates at Christmas is beyond obvious. It is their attempt to infect every aspect of the Christian community including involving their insidious practice into one of the most joyous Christian holidays. If it was their intent, as they claimed, to provide health services rather than abortions they could have made these certificates limited to that alone. They intentionally chose not to do so. Trying to switch the focus now is just a ruse. These certificates are only available at Christmas time so, once again, spare me the sanctimonious explanations.
Besides somebody with a warped sense of humor, who would give this as a Christmas gift? And who would be grateful to receive it? Is this something Grandma’s going to buy and include with the new pair of socks she knitted?
Planned Parenthood proudly proclaims that they are fighting the good fight to protect a woman’s right to chose whether and when she will be a mother. In reality women have always had the right to chose if and when they would have children. But that choice was based on taking responsibility for one’s actions and accepting the possible ramifications of one’s actions. Men also had this right of choice based on responsibility and ramifications. A man can however, head for the hills afterward if he wants to escape his responsibility. A woman can head for the hills too but she will be bringing the baby with her. Planned Parenthood doesn’t give women the right to chose whether or not they will have a baby, it gives women the right to chose if they will accept personal responsibility for their actions or not. Please don’t try to confuse this fact by arguing about the poor unfortunates that are the victim of rape or incest. They make up less than one percent of those considering abortion. I will be happy to focus on the 99 percent for the time being.
I consider this Christmas offering of gift certificates by Planned Parenthood as an intentional affront to my beliefs of what this holiday is actually all about. I can see no other reason for them to do this but to incite a reaction.
My reaction will be to make sure that my children, my grandchildren and anybody else who will listen, know the truth about what Christmas is really all about. If they know and understand that they will never have to know what the inside of a Planned Parenthood clinic looks like.
