On November 8th, we will choose from two of the least popular presidential candidates in history — our nation is more polarized than ever and there will be major repercussions regardless of who wins. Over the past year, we’ve seen political discourse turn into a political war. We’ve watched crises unfold within our communities and watched battles ignite between civilians and police. Lately, it feels as though brother is pitted against brother, and that terrorism, racism, and hatred have infiltrated our society and our lives. But, how did we get here? All of these are symptoms of the real problem — which is that we have lost respect for the dignity of every human life.
I came to this realization a few weeks ago when abortion-giant Planned Parenthood was celebrating their 100th anniversary and proclaiming “100 Years Strong.” I found myself reflecting on how those 100 years have affected our society. It’s no secret that Planned Parenthood has aborted more than 7 million unborn children and is responsible for 30% of the abortions in our nation. We have 7 million people missing from our society and more than 7 million mothers and fathers who have been deprived of their children. How can a society respect any human being when we don’t respect the dignity of the most innocent among us — children in the womb?
Planned Parenthood receives about half a billion in taxpayer dollars annually but it doesn’t want the public to know how much of their business is abortion – that’s because a majority of Americans oppose their tax dollars going toward abortion. So Planned Parenthood spins false claims saying, for instance, that only 3% of their services are abortions. This fabricated statistic is used constantly to downplay their abortion numbers because they don’t want the public to know that abortion is an integral part of their business model and comprises of much more than 3% of their business.
Planned Parenthood comes up with this number by counting every service they offer as equal to an abortion procedure, including every pregnancy test, ultrasound, blood test, STD test or birth control given out at Planned Parenthood — regardless of cost. So an abortion, which can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars, would be weighted the same as a pregnancy test, which costs about ten dollars at a pharmacy. In this way, Planned Parenthood claims abortion makes up only 3% of the services they offer. But a closer look makes it easy to see why Planned Parenthood’s business model revolves around abortion – that’s where the money is. Last year alone, Planned Parenthood performed more than 320,000 abortions, and it’s much more than 3% of their services.
Planned Parenthood has committed millions of abortions, and that number continues to rise. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “If we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” This profoundly captures the correlation between the turmoil of our society and abortion in America, much of which is committed by Planned Parenthood. Since abortion was legalized in 1973, child abuse, domestic violence, and other forms of violence in our nation have skyrocketed. When we live in a society that accepts violence towards the most innocent among us — the children in the womb — it’s no wonder that we experience violence erupting all throughout our nation.
Ken Blackwell, is a Senior Fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council. He is on the Board of Directors of both the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Grove City College.