Jennifer Hamilton's opinion column ("Controversy grows over Planned Parenthood", Gazette, Aug. 12) does well to at least mention the numerous "sting" videos that have been released by the Center for Medical Progress. However, she glosses over what the videos actually contain. She notes, correctly, that under U.S. law, “donated human fetal tissue may be used for research, but profiting from its sale is prohibited.” What she fails to mention is that the videos that have been released contain repeated admissions that Planned Parenthood is in fact selling fetal tissue and organs at a profit (in some of the videos, prices are negotiated; in one, a representative quips that she's flexible on price because she wants a Lamborghini).
There's also prima facie evidence, in at least two of the videos, which suggests that Planned Parenthood even provides wholly intact fetal bodies to some research firms, with the implication being that these infants may in fact have been delivered alive and then subsequently killed. U.S. law, under the Born Alive act, defines that as murder ... even if it happens in an abortion clinic.
Columnist Hamilton also notes that abortion constitutes just three per cent of the services that Planned Parenthood offers. This is a number reported by Planned Parenthood themselves, and they reach that number through statistical manipulation: if a woman comes in for an abortion, but also receives an STD test, some birth control pills, and a free condom, that is counted as four “services.” But does that mean that the abortion was really just 25 per cent of her visit to the clinic?
To put that in perspective: killing Cecil the Lion is less than three per cent of what dentist Walter Palmer does; he also offers teeth cleaning and oral cancer screenings. Does that make Cecil's death less of an outrage? Of course not. So too here.
Hamilton frets that taking public funding away from Planned Parenthood would do more harm than good, but this too is untrue; outside of abortion, there is no service the organization uniquely provides that women would not be able to obtain elsewhere. Planned Parenthood operates roughly 700 clinics in the U.S. that service 2.7 million patients yearly; there are over 9,000 community health centres in the U.S. that offer pap tests, mammograms, and other sexual health services and teaching to over 21 million patients each year. Planned Parenthood performs about 379,000 pap tests yearly; community clinics perform nearly 1.8 million. Planned Parenthood doesn't actually perform mammograms; they provide referrals only ... to the community clinics that perform more than 420,000 such tests annually.
The point being: no, defunding Planned Parenthood wouldn't cause more harm than good. Instead, it might finally put a stop to a criminal trade in human tissue. It might mean a few less women get abortions ... but you know what? The Berkeley-UCSF “Turnaway Study” found that 95 per cent of women who weren't able to obtain an abortion ended up being happy with the outcome (i.e. with the resulting baby). That's not a terrible thing.
Kenneth Kully, St. Albert
