Roots of the Planned Parenthood Debacle

In addition to the outrage, Americans are downright dumbfounded as to as to how our civilization could sink so low that Planned Parenthood professionals engage in the selling of organs of aborted human fetuses.

Even worse, a large portion of the general public actually supports Planned Parenthood’s efforts, and the U.S. Congress chooses to continue to allocate U.S. taxpayer money toward the organization.

We’ve sunk so low in part because of three long-festering falsehoods that have pervaded our culture: that pre-born babies are not human beings, that humans are just another animal, and that abortion is a solution to overpopulation.

Most of us have no problem with the prospect of cutting up and selling body parts of pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals.

The folks at Planned Parenthood and their supporters have no problem with doing the same to pre-born humans because they don’t look upon them as human beings. Using the word fetus helps condition people to not regard pre-born humans as actual humans.

But their DNA indicates that they’re human in every way.

Ask any biologist, and he or she will tell you a dog is a dog, regardless of whether it’s a fetus or a puppy. The DNA indicates this. Similarly a human is a human, regardless of whether it’s in the form of a fetus, baby, toddler, or adolescent.

The only difference between a developed human fetus and a newborn baby is the way each gets its oxygen and nourishment. In the womb it’s via the umbilical cord; out of the womb it’s via the mouth.

To deem a human fetus not to be human is absurd.

Consider another falsehood that likely helped shape general attitudes enabling the acceptance of Planned Parenthood’s heinous practices. Many believe we humans are mere animals that happen to be a little more advanced along the evolutionary scale.

For the past several decades a common refrain (to which I subscribed) has been that humans differ from chimpanzees by only 1 percent genetically. Since we’re so similar to other animals, one may reason, how is killing a human so different from killing any other animal?

But research, such as presented in a 2007 Science article titled “Relative Differences: The Myth of 1%”, reveals that we’re much more different biologically from chimps than previously thought.

The 1 percent figure doesn’t take into account many sections of DNA that have been inserted or deleted in the respective genomes.

Gene duplications and deletions represent a 6.4 percent difference between chimps and humans, according to researchers. Dr. Ann Gauger of the Discovery Institute’s Biologic Institute writes that by one measure, 17.4 percent of gene regulatory networks in the brain are unique to humans.

And regardless how similar or different we are genetically from chimps and other animals, this much is clear: we’re the only species that has free will, and the ability to reason abstractly. These attributes make all the difference in the world.

So humans are unique, exceptional, and vastly more biologically advanced than any other species after all. We’re far from being just another animal. No fetus of such an extraordinary species merits being aborted, let alone sold for parts.

Now let’s address a third falsehood: it is commonly thought (and I used to think) that population growth is outstripping the carrying capacity of the planet. This prompts academics and many others to champion abortion.

One academic paper states, “No nation desirous of reducing its growth rate to 1 percent or less can expect to do so without the widespread use of abortion.”

Just as deer starve when their numbers grow too large for the local environment to support, so can people. But people differ from animals in that the human brain is so advanced that we have the ability to manipulate the Earth's resources for our sustenance.

Unlike all other animals, we can increase the land's carrying capacity by growing crops, mining raw materials, building factories and transporting goods. Education and free markets greatly facilitate this process.

As countries become more adept at carrying out these endeavors and prosperity increases, the environment typically improves (albeit perhaps after some time) even as the population grows.

Even if one thinks the world is overpopulated, the killing of human beings whether born or unborn should not be a population control mechanism. And from abortion, it’s a slippery slope to organ harvesting. And then on to infanticide. And then, genocide?

Three reasons America has sunk so low, therefore, is that so many Americans have become conditioned to believe that human fetuses are not fully human; that humans have no more intrinsic value than any other animal; and/or that abortion should be a means to curb population growth.

If aborting pre-born babies is fine, goes the thinking of Planned Parenthood backers, then selling their body parts is fine as well. They’re tragically wrong on all counts.

Patrick D. Chisholm is a writer and editor whose articles have appeared in many publications including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, and Christian Science Monitor. Previously he worked for financial and business publications, and in the State Department's Office of Mexican Affairs. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.