Are humans as valuable as animals?
Watch a video from the Senate floor July 2015:
On July 16, 2015 Senator Lankford (R-OK) spoke on the Senate floor regarding a video exposing the fact that Planned Parenthood harvests and sells/donates aborted baby body parts and organs.
Aug. 6 Update from the NY Post:
On August 3, Senate Democrats successfully blocked a bill proposed by Sen. Lankford and others to de-fund Planned Parenthood…. A measure to re-direct about $500 million from the group to community health centers passed 53-46 — but short of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance. (Find out how your Senators voted at GovTrack)
Prompting the vote was the release of disturbing videos from pro-life activists that show Planned Parenthood executives negotiating with undercover agents posing as business people trying to buy aborted fetal body parts for research.
Planned Parenthood maintains the videos were edited and insisted they handled their fetal tissue donation program in accordance with the law without making profit. [Democrats and most media outlets say the videos were heavily edited, but the Center for Medical Progress has released the videos in their entirety (find the videos on the group’s Youtube page or go to the group’s website.) Watch the full videos to decide for yourself. [WARNING: The latest video is very graphic/disturbing.])
But the graphic images of fetal body parts being poked in Petri dishes – including one staffer exclaiming, “Another boy!” – spilled over into the Senate floor debate.
“This is the beginning of the fight to regain America’s conscience,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) exclaimed. He condemned the “caviler attitude” of Planned Parenthood staff toward harvesting fetal body parts and the “abhorrent and disgusting practice that we cannot ignore.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) added: “It’s a baby. I cannot support an organization that would put a dollar amount on body parts.”
But Democrats and the White House defended the organization as a vital provider of women’s health services such as annual exams, contraception and cancer screenings. Republicans say the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood should be given instead to other women’s health clinics and medical facilities.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called the effort at de-funding a “right-wing attack” to take away a woman’s right to control her own body.
“Women everywhere are sick and tired of it,” Warren said.
“A vote today is not a vote to de-fund abortions, it’s a vote to de-fund … basic health care for millions of women.”
After an impassioned floor speech from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on valuing human life and childbirth, Sen. Barbara Boxer chimed in.
“I gave birth to two premature kids and I just don’t like lectures by men about what it’s like,” Boxer (D-Calif.) said.
“Keep Uncle Sam out of my private life. … Families will make these decisions.”
Lankford retorted: “I’m a dad of two daughters. I had something to do with the birth as well.”
While Planned Parenthood’s funding survived another day, the real fight could come when the House returns from August recess and must pass budget bills to keep the government open.
House conservatives are threatening to tie Planned Parenthood de-funding to spending bills.
Critics of the videos oppose the pro-life organization’s method of making an undercover video of the Planned Parenthood executives. Animal rights groups use the same method for filming treatment of animals (e.g. chickens). Is taking an undercover video as an attempt to reveal the truth to the public right or wrong? Explain your answer.
