It’s amazing what a difference a few weeks can make.
On July 4th Planned Parenthood was as powerful as ever defending women’s rights to have abortion. Today a little over three weeks later they are sending threatening letters to reporters claiming the leaked videos were claimed under identification (1) and violated patient privacy (2).
But all the letters in the world couldn’t change the fact that Planned Parenthood is quickly losing power, with the Senate voting as early as today to decrease as much as $500 million funding (3)
Now it’s easy to say this change came from the shock value of seeing Planned Parenthoods Senior Director of medical services talk about selling baby parts while casually eating a salad (4) but I personally think it’s involves more than that.
Last month I started reading Persuasive Pro-Life, a very interesting book written by Trent Horn, a young man who has spent many years debating Planned Parenthood and it’s pro-choice defenders on college campuses.
One thing that I’ve learned from this book is what Trent views as the “core issue” or abortion is different from what many people think it is.
In reality, this is exactly where the pro-life advocate wants the conversation to go, to the one question that matters most: “What are the unborn?”
He proceeds throughout the book to equip the reader with many tools that can bring a conversation with pro-choice advocates back to the question “what are the unborn?”
Mr Horn has a really good point here, because if the unborn are a person (living being) then abortion is taking of a life. But if they aren’t a person (what planned parenthood calls a “fetus”) then there isn’t a real problem.
Of course planned parenthood knows “what are the unborn?” is a crucial question, so they go out of their way to use terms other than “person” or “human.” The recently leaked videos emphasize their play on words as babies are referred to as “products of conception.”
There’s just one problem with that…
We don’t view unborn babies as “products of conception” or “fetuses” but a baby.
Yesterday Joe Carter wrote an excellent article for The Gospel Coalition entitled “She’s Having a Fetus” (5) pointing out planned parenthoods attempt to change our viewpoint of things by using euphemism (6). He begins by sharing a direct quote from the pregnancy Q and A portion of their website (7).
I’m pregnant. At what point in my pregnancy is it called a baby? Women have different feelings about when to call it a baby. For some women, it is a baby from the first moment the pregnancy is confirmed or even suspected. For other women, the pregnancy doesn’t become a baby until much later. What’s most important is how the woman feels about it.
Most medical authorities, including Planned Parenthood, agree that it becomes a baby after birth when it takes its first breath. But we value women’s differing feelings about when to use the words embryo, fetus, or baby.
Mr. Carter continues by writing a fictional conversation between two women who meet at the mall using the words:
- Fetus instead of baby
- Selectively reduce instead of abort
- Harvest donor tissue instead of a child who is born only so their organs can be used to save another child
- Designer baby instead of genetic engineering
- And took a trip to Holland instead of Euthanasia
I love this article (8) because it highlights how women would never use words like this in a normal conversation after learning they are pregnant. And the words used don’t change the fact that what they’re doing is the killing of children.
It all comes back to the question…what are the unborn?
As Christians wrestle with this very challenging issue it’s important that we stay on track focusing on that one question. Yes there are many other things that come into the abortion discussion, but in order to change our culture we must constantly return to “what are the unborn?”
6. a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
svgmissionary.com 