Anti-abortion activists are trying to destroy Planned Parenthood in order to take away a woman’s opportunity to exercise her legal right to choose an abortion. Those distorted videos and attempts to defund Planned
Parenthood provide excellent case studies illustrating how fanatical devotion to a bad cause leads people to use reprehensible tactics to gain their goal.
Of these misleading, heavily edited videos made public by the “Center for Medical Progress,” Kim Spears (writing in Mankato Free Press, Aug. 12) says anyone distrustful of them can watch the full, unedited versions.
Problem: That involves about 12 hours of viewing.
Even without full versions, a perceptive person should recognize manipulation in the edited versions simply from the captions, additional commentary and music. A caption reads: “Planned Parenthood Uses Partial Birth Abortions to Sell Baby Parts.” Then, we find this from Spears: “I find it disturbing to think of babies that could survive
outside of the womb being pulled from that womb and dissected so that their organs might be sold.”
I find it disturbing that Spears should get and pass on this terribly false impression. The facts: (a) Abortions are performed because of the personal reasons the woman has for legally choosing an abortion; (b) Her choice to donate fetal tissue for worthwhile medical research is an additional decision; (c) Fetal tissue for medical research is
acquired through abortions at an earlier stage of pregnancy than viability; and (d) Planned Parenthood, quite legally, tries to cover the costs of providing the fetal tissue, not to make a profit.
