Since it got no media coverage on the evening news broadcasts, there was a House Judiciary Committee hearing into the alleged human trafficking that’s occurring within Planned Parenthood. The Center for Medical Progress conducted an extensive investigation into the organization and detailed the grisly business of selling human body parts from aborted babies. Their activities were recorded in a series of videos that are quite awful to watch. Cortney was at the hearing yesterday, where Democrats professed their love for the non-profit, and embarrassed the anti-abortion representatives that agreed to testify.
Abortion survivor Gianna Jessen paired her testimony with a shocking photo of her body as a baby born alive after a failed abortion.“I was never supposed to hold up my head or walk, but I do,” she declared. "I forgive my biological mother."
She continued to challenge Planned Parenthood for its inhumanity.
“Planned Parenthood is not ashamed of what they have done or what they do,” she said. “How many lives have been lost while we make sure we are lauded among men?”
“How many baby parts have been sold for our ego, or our promiscuity,” she continued. “How many Lamborghinis were purchased with the blood of innocent children?”
The final witness, Melissa Ohden, stated she “should have just been another statistic.” Yet, she appeared before Congress today as a wife, a mother – and abortion survivor.
Ohden provided medical records of her mother’s unsuccessful saline-infused abortion. She weighed less than three pounds when she survived, she explained.
Of course, there was no love from the Big Three on this story; neither was there any from the Los Angeles Times, who oddly put quotes around “survivors” when referring to Gianna Jessen and Melissa Odhen. The article also focused on the fact that Planned Parenthood was not asked to testify, though Center for Medical Progress wasn’t there either:
“These hearings are not really hearings, they are political theater oriented toward taking away the right for women to access abortion in this country,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, said in an interview. “There was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.”Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr., the committee’s ranking minority member, called the hearing one-sided. His Democratic colleague Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia described it as a “show trial,” while another, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, went further and labeled it the “Benghazi of healthcare hearings.”
Still, the quotes around the word survivors in the headline are mystifying. Is the LA Times insinuating that Ohden and Jessen are not really survivors of abortion attempts? Are they trying to impugn their motives, or be purposefully dismissive of that fact that these women survived an instillation abortion attempt in the 1970s? Do these two women undercut liberal talking points on abortion, and make them come off as a bit insensitive or downright barbaric? Hey, you survived? Cool, but I still support abortion. It’s certainly an awkward position.
What is disturbing was the testimony given by Priscilla Smith, Director of the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School, who Cortney said thought late-term abortion was a “humane” way for a baby (she kept saying “pre-viable fetus”) to be killed. She also called Planned Parenthood a “beloved” institution.
Yes, an institution that said in 2013, that it’s up to the woman (or family), and the doctor if a child was born alive as the result of a botched abortion in Florida. Yes, it’s up to them if a baby is struggling for life on a table as to whether the child deserves to live or die. That’s abhorrent. At the time, the Florida legislature was debating an Infants Born Alive bill:
Infants Born Alive; Provides that infant born alive during or immediately after attempted abortion is entitled to same rights, powers, & privileges as any other child born alive in course of natural birth; requires health care practitioners to preserve life & health of such infant born alive, if possible; provides for transport & admittance of infant to hospital; requires health care practitioner or employees who have knowledge of any violations with respect to infants born alive after attempted abortion to report those violations to DOH [Dept. of Health]; provides penalty; provides for construction; revises reporting requirements.
It was passed unanimously in the State House and Senate, and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Even pro-choice lawmakers, like Florida Rep. Mike Clelland, saw no problems with this bill.
“I've been pro-choice my whole life, and I can't think of a more sensible bill in this regard,” he said.
The same can be applied to human trafficking of baby parts, right?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member