I’m going to do something antithetical to the purpose of an opinion column and withhold my opinion. I believe the following conversation should be held free from the moderation of a student newspaper writer. Its urgency, however, cannot ?be mitigated.
Specifically, I’m referring to the most recent Planned Parenthood controversy, involving a video of a sting operation conducted by an anti-abortion think tank called the Center for ?Medical Progress.
The footage shows a senior Planned Parenthood doctor detailing how abortionists can conduct their operations in such a way as to preserve financially lucrative organs.
Controversy has ensued, first, because the video is graphic in detail, and second, because it implies Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted fetuses.
Important things to note about this scenario are that the video has been clearly edited, making it hard to tell whether the captured dialogue is in context or not, and that the sale of human material is illegal across the United States.
Reimbursement for the transportation and acquisition of the organs, however, is not. You can recuperate your costs so long as you don’t make money.
Planned Parenthood has released a statement saying there is never a financial benefit to patients or the organization in these transactions, and the tissue donations hold up to standard medicinal ethics.
This hasn’t stopped Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal from calling for a federal investigation into Planned Parenthood or from stopping the construction of a Planned Parenthood clinic in New ?Orleans.
I have many opinions on this, most of which I’m going to withhold. This is partially due to the fact there’s no combination of 500 words in the world that would convince either side of the ideological fence to change position. This is also because I don’t want my own stance to color this column. What’s important and objective is the need to engage this difficult, complex issue.
I mentioned earlier the released video is heavily edited. This glaring lack of context undermines most of the CMP’s claims. Also, there’s the unyielding truth that, even with the edits, there’s no evidence Planned Parenthood is doing anything illegal. As their statement said, compensation is fine so long as it doesn’t net ?them a profit.
What is troublesome is the language the doctor uses. She talks about which parts of the fetus abortionists crush and which parts are preserved.
She talks about salvaging lungs, livers, kidneys. She gives numbers and dollar signs, and it’s no wonder this discomforts much of the populace.
But this is the reality of abortion — like most medicine, it is icky, involving skin and guts and blood and body bits not working properly.
This language has to be used if we are to converse honestly with one another. We can’t afford to be ?squeamish about this topic — since 1973, the health of 54.5 million babies and mothers has been at stake.
We can’t afford to maintain the status quo because it’s easy, or to be anti-abortion because that’s what all your friends believe. The reaction from this video suggests Americans haven’t been wholly honest with themselves about the reality of this procedure. Out of this whole fracas, perhaps that’s the most disturbing ?realization.
awurdema@indiana.edu
