Editorial

Onward and downward

The casualness Part II, but maybe not for long

"As each old ethical line is crossed, as each Thou Shalt Not becomes another Thou Mayest, each such 'advance' becomes easier to understand, then accept. Can you believe there was a time when abortion on demand was considered unacceptable, a barbaric assault on the most innocent of us, even a crime? Now we're selling its by-products. At whatever prices the market will bear. Hippocrates' ancient dictum--First Do No Harm--gave way long ago to the law of supply and demand.

"There was a time when we looked down this slippery slope and shuddered. Now we find ourselves looking up. And fewer and fewer of us may shudder."

--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 26

The videos keep popping up on television. Repeatedly. With employees from Planned Parenthood discussing how to come up with fetal remains for research. And how much to charge. Until shuddering, for most of us, becomes the mildest of our reactions.

Out of context? Tell us, Planned Parenthood, how some of this stuff could sound satisfactory in context? In the latest undercover video taken by an activist, some "doctor" explains how the bigger the fetuses, the easier it is to pick out the parts. That comes after the videos in which other employees talk about the prices for organs. And the videos aren't without the unfunny jokes that we'll spare our morning readers.

Now it appears as though Republicans in Congress will take some sort of vote (maybe soon) on axing federal funding for Planned Parenthood altogether. Which sounds about right. And about time. Word around the campfire is that, after these videos came out, Planned Parenthood sent out the word that it was being attacked. And donations for the outfit went up. Which is fine with us and one more reason tax money can go elsewhere.

Under one plan that might be voted on as early as this week, all those tax dollars would go elsewhere: to community hospitals and health-care centers that offer mammograms and emergency care and tests for sexually transmitted diseases--things that Planned Parenthood said it did with its federal funding.

Of course, as sensible as all that sounds, Planned Parenthood has gone apoplectic. Via press releases, of course.

One statement by its PR folks say the attacks on it have been Widely Discredited.

By whom, it didn't say.

Also, they use the old bromide that those awful right-wing politicians are rolling back health-care for women.

No need to mention those politicians say they just want the money going to different outfits that offer health care to women--outfits that don't get caught on tape laughing it up about baby organs.

Planned Parenthood gets $500 million from the federal government every year. That's taxpayer money--your money. As a U.S. senator from Arkansas, one John Boozman, put it last week: "The cavalier attitude that was displayed [on the tapes] as they were talking about how to salvage body parts . . . . I think that the majority of the public just don't feel like their taxpayer dollars need to go toward that direction."

Amen, senator.

Let's have that vote. Soonest.

Editorial on 08/03/2015

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