Guest commentary by Erik Whittington
I’ve seen a number of surveys asking which profession you trust the least. The one that consistently ranks at number one is used car salesman. Yes, just the mere mention conjures up memories of car purchases gone wrong. Maybe you think that you were lied to or that you paid too much. Maybe promises were broken. I know the negotiating process itself can be worse than getting molars pulled.
However, if I were asked, I would rank another profession at the top of the list: Planned Parenthood abortion salesperson—whoops, I mean “counselor.” Hopefully, with LiveAction and Lila Rose unleashing one undercover video after another, Planned Parenthood will be exposed for what it really does best: Break laws, manipulate young mothers and flat-out lie. And someday, with your help, maybe the rest of the nation will catch on.
On Monday, April 12, LiveAction struck again. This time, the action took place at a Milwaukee Planned Parenthood during an undercover sting on September 9, 2009. In this video, we hear a compassionate Planned Parenthood health care counselor give accurate, human fetal development facts and consistently refer to the child in-utero as a human person with the basic human right to life. You will also hear this same counselor tell the young mother about all the side effects associated with abortion—even pleading with her to consider the loving choice of adoption for one of the thousands of families who are waiting right now to adopt.
Ouch! Did you just pinch me? Oh, thank you! I was having a dream in which Planned Parenthood was a caring, truthful, pro-woman, pro-family organization and, as you and I know, that is about as far from the truth as the end of time is from the beginning of time.
So for the rest of this column, let’s try something fun and different. Watch LiveAction’s undercover video while I provide color commentary. As you can already tell from the tone of this column, I promise more scathing sarcasm and truth. Fast forward to about the 50-second mark, press play, pause, read below and repeat.
First, the Planned Parenthood “counselor” lies. Do you really think she believes the words coming out of her mouth? Maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt. Nope. Sorry. I can’t. It’s just too awful.
Here are the young mother’s questions that she desperately needs help understanding: “What comes out [during an abortion]?” “So, you see a baby?” “What’s a fetus?”
And here is Planned Parenthood’s lie #1: “There’s not a baby at this point.”
Really? Dictionary.com defines a baby as a “very young child” and “a human fetus.” It also defines a fetus as the stage of development near the eighth week of gestation, “after all major body structures have formed.” So the correct answer is—drum roll, please—a human person!
Lie # 2: “There’s no legs, no arms, no head, no brain, no heart.”
Wrong again! Maybe she was referring to herself when she said no brain and no heart. (Come on, you were thinking it, too.)
Just like a good used car salesperson, the Planned Parenthood “counselor” is now ready for some manipulation. After peppering the conversation with some half-truths and outright lies, it’s now time to play with the young and scared pregnant mother’s emotions.
Here’s your list of manipulative statements:
• “[T]here’s still midnight feedings, diapers, money …”
• “[B]abies do cost a lot …”
• “[R]ight now, the economy’s pretty bad …”
Wait—so before the economy was this bad, did Planned Parenthood salespersons actually skip this part of the sales pitch? I doubt it. OK. Continue.
• “[So] … if you don’t feel financially stable …. I would go with abortion.”
Well, duh, of course you would. You are trying to sell her the abortion! Your continued employment depends on it. What do you think she is going to say? Imagine the car salesperson convincing you that you don’t need a new car: “I think you’d be better off not buying a car right now. Your old car works just fine.”
• “But if you feel that you can wing it … that’s something that you’d really have to think about, you know.”
Now “wing it” is a very offensive term. I “wing” many things, such as writing assignments … No, really. I’ve been asked to “wing it” when playing live with a band. Yes, I usually butcher that song, but it’s a song, not a life! Your Planned Parenthood abortion salesperson is talking about life and death here. “Hey, if you can’t ‘wing’ life, we are offering death instead. It’s the much easier, simpler and cheaper choice.” God help us.
Next comes the guilt trip statement: “What I say to the people that are against abortion, I say, you know, are you willing to take in all these aborted children and raise them yourself.” First of all, lady, once the children are aborted, you can’t really take them in and raise them. They are dead. Interestingly enough, she does call them “children.” Why didn’t you tell the young, scared mother that earlier when she asked you, “So, you see a baby?”
And, just for her information, yes, pro-lifers would like to adopt children being threatened with abortion. LiveAction quotes a figure of about 550,000 married couples in the United States who are waiting to adopt children right now.
Since the Planned Parenthood abortion sales “counselor” has fed the young, scared, abortion-minded mother with disinformation, half-truths and outright lies peppered with some scare tactics, she is now ready to close with the big sales pitch. You see, like the used car salesman, she has a special card up her sleeve to seal the deal. Are you ready?
“The earlier you make the decision [abortion], the better, you know. It won’t stress you out as much … and actually it does affect the price of the procedure, too. It’s cheaper the earlier along you are.”
Oh man, what a deal! No pressure there. I mean, why go home to think about it and weigh all of your options? The clock is ticking. And with every tick, your stress level goes up and the price increases. Heck, let’s get ‘er done right now!
And don’t listen to those silly pro-lifers out there with their signs telling you we dump aborted babies in the dumpster. It’s nothing like that.
Right. You actually label dead babies as medical waste or “sell” the baby parts for medical research. But back to the sales pitch …
“[I]t’s a quick procedure … there is no real … fetal matter,” meaning no arms, legs, head, brain, heart. Wow. This is one sick organization. But I guess it shouldn’t surprise us. After all, it does kill children.
So here’s my sales pitch: We need to fight for our children’s lives. Support local, state and federal efforts to defund this abortion goliath, Planned Parenthood (www.stopplannedparenthoodtaxfunding.com). Make your voices heard. Educate everyone you can in your sphere of influence. Send this video and other LiveAction videos to your friends. Get involved in the personhood movement, an effort to restore personhood to all human beings, born and preborn.
We are counting on you. The vulnerable babies are counting on you. And the future of our country depends on you.
No pressure.
Erik Whittington is the director of Rock for Life, a network of bands, musicians, artists and their fans who use their talents to provide life-affirming solutions to counter the assault on the right to life.