Wow. I start writing about Planned Parenthood (PP) and they pop up all over the place. I was in New York City these past few days, walking up Broadway Avenue, and lo and behold, there were two college aged women wearing PP t-shirts and handing out flyers to all passersby. They were also drumming up a good story at the same time.
I wanted to play dumb and go challenge them, but my friend held me back. (Ok, I let her.) Do they really know what they are espousing?
My friend jokingly told me not to get into a fight with them. She is ProChoice. We got into a rant, me about them killing babies and her about them saving people from destroying their lives by giving them contraception and an open door for abortions. I went numb. I forget that people, people I know, really believe it is okay to end the life of a human being. They justify it.
"It's not a baby," she said.
"So if your mother chose to get rid of the zygote from which you came, that would have been okay?" I asked.
"That's different. My mother was established in her career and had a house, etc. Of course it wouldn't have been okay for her to have aborted me, but most PP clients are poor, not established in their career, maybe living with a husband who abuses them. Never mind the kids," she said. "They grow up to be drug addicts and prisoners. They shouldn't be brought into this world."
She told me about some study done on crime sometime after abortion was legalized. The study showed an amazing drop in crime from before Roe v. Wade to the time the study was done. The drop was attributed to the legalization of abortion.
"So, of course we should keep abortion...get those hoodlums out of our society," she quickly and unfeelingly summed up.
I reminded her of the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, who wanted to weed out that bad crop of humans, the African-Americans, among others. Click here.
I told her how Margaret Sanger's attitude pervades Planned Parenthood right up through today, and then we were interrupted. I wish I would have been able to tell her that her very desire to get rid of those hoodlums is a form of eugenics, a weeding out of those deemed to be "bad" seeds in our human race....to leave only the "best" behind.
I wonder who gets to decide which social circumstances are good and which ones are bad. Would it be those same people who wanted to keep slaves? And who determines that a particular child born out of wedlock or in poor neighborhoods is not worthy of having life? Not us.
As I recount this, I am still startled with my friend's zealous belief in Planned Parenthood. I imagine those college age women on the sidewalk would be just as zealous, just as ignorant, just as misled. Maybe next time I will feel more prepared to talk to them all. In the meantime, please pray for them - and stay open for your own opportunity to enlighten others.
Good Wishes In Christ,
Kathleen
* The conversation presented here is not a verbatim recount of the actual one that occurred. I did my best to capture the essence of the exchange while maintaining confidentiality.
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images - http://blog.oneofkarma.com/2009/07/22/shit-list--stratus-building-solutions-inc-st-louis-missouri.aspx
http://www.ewtn.com/series/2005/good_evil.htm
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