The largest zoo in the nation is under an enormous amount of public pressure because they were caught torturing baby animals in the name of research. PETA was up in arms. Protests were held at the entrance of every zoo in the country. The environmental lobby demanded federal funding be pulled from the zoo immediately. Taxpayers were shocked that this horrible treatment was going on and that they were being forced to fund it. The pictures that came out of these poor little animals were heart-breaking, and it was reported that the zookeepers couldn’t care less, they just wanted to make a quick buck and hand over the animals for research.
It wasn’t but a month after the story broke that Congress had stopped federal funding and the zoo was shut down over their unsavory business practices. After all, the environmental lobby is powerful.
Have you heard about this story? Likely not, because it doesn’t exist.
But a similar story does exist, although the outrage is different. This month marks one year since the release of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) videos that showed Planned Parenthood executives not only callously discussing the harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts but then laughing in the “products of conception” lab as they picked through the clear remnants of the baby that was just aborted.
Gruesome and heart-wrenching does not even begin to describe these videos. The pro-life movement immediately swung into action following the release of the videos and protests were held nationally, presidential candidates declared they would defund Planned Parenthood if elected, and special committees in Congress were formed to investigate Planned Parenthood.
Yet, today, a year since the release of the first CMP video, Planned Parenthood is still being funded by American taxpayers, forced donors to this criminal organization who whines and complains about spending money to meet health and safety regulations but has no problem spending millions of dollars to elect sympathetic legislators and win the presidency.
In Ohio and South Carolina, investigations already found that Planned Parenthood facilities are cooking up the parts of aborted babies and illegally dumping them in landfills. Of course, Planned Parenthood immediately filed a lawsuit in Ohio, preventing the state from trying to enforce the laws that ban this type of irresponsible and disrespectful behavior.
It is failure of Congressional leadership. It is a failure of voters. And in some parts, it’s a failure of the pro-life movement that Planned Parenthood remains fully funded.
If the situation about the zoo was even close to reality, federal funding would have been stopped so fast, it would make heads spin. But no, Congress gets a chance to question Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards for the first time in history last September and the first question is about money Planned Parenthood spends in the Congo.
That was embarrassing. It’s embarrassing that Congress can’t automatically take taxpayer money away from an unsavory government contractor.
The one bright spot is the incredible work that the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives is conducting. They have uncovered documentation that shows the intricate network of the abortion industry collaborating with companies to sell the body parts of aborted babies.
Planned Parenthood executives will celebrate this year not as their worst, although it may have given Cecile Richards weeks of sleepless nights, but rather as their best. They beat back the tidal wave of bad publicity and helpless taxpayers who could do nothing to take away their millions.
Here’s hoping these next twelve months is the year where celebrating an organization that takes the lives of innocent children, cuts them up, and sells them for parts will come to an end and voters elect a pro-life president who will defund Planned Parenthood.
Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America.
