So About Defunding Planned Parenthood
Cecile Richards greets participants at a Rally for Women’s Health on Capitol Hill.
A procedural vote in the U.S. Senate earlier this week defeated yet another bill to defund Planned Parenthood. This latest attempt arose after a series of undercover videos emerged suggesting that the organization may have been willing to sell fetal organs from late-term abortions to tissue companies. While Planned Parenthood provides a number of other services, nothing gets press like abortion even though it makes no sense why it does.
Abortion Is As American As Apple Pie
Abortion was legal at our nation’s founding, with the number of states dwindling from 1820 to 1910, and most laws against being passed around the turn of the 20th century. It was, even after prohibition, mainly a misdemeanor in many states (in New York it was legal until 1829, when it was then made a misdemeanor only). Liberalization campaigns to decriminalize abortion began in the 1930s, and at the time of Roe v. Wade (1972), it was illegal in about half our states.
So for the vast majority of the existence of our great nation, abortion was legal or at worst a misdemeanor in most states. This whole debate is purposely misconstrued by zealots and politicians for their own benefits which are most certainly financial. If there is no law making something illegal, then it is legal. There is never a law that makes something legal. All that is required is an existing law making it illegal be removed. Abortion has a rich tradition and certainly was not the invention of the Supreme Court.
Hopefully, one day we’ll recognize the reality that we can’t command women to gestate because they’ve had sex. Nine months of pregnancy, body alteration, possible long term health problems, and even death doesn’t have to be the penalty for copulation. A woman gets to choose what she wants to do with her uterus, and it isn’t anyone’s right to interfere with that decision as to what to do with it provided it’s legal. This also applies to opponents of surrogacy and in vitro fertilization as well.
Personally, my motto is “abortion yesterday, abortion today, abortion tomorrow” This will not be the last time Planned Parenthood is subject to defunding, but I suggest people heed the advice my mom gave me that has never failed me in life. Mind your business.
