Believe it or not, Planned Parenthood has a Clergy Advocacy Board. And these clergy, in name only, claim Planned Parenthood employees are “doing God’s work.”
The Board released a statement (which has since been taken off of Planned Parenthood’s website) in response to what they describe is a Center for Medical Progress (CMP) “smear campaign” (planned-parenthood-clergy-advocacy-board-releases-response-to-smear-campaign”).
The video recordings expose Planned Parenthood employees discussing their enthusiastic efforts to illegally sell aborted baby parts. Some include whole baby bodies from partial birth abortions. One purchaser is Stem Express, “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to biomedical researchers.”
Federal and state laws outlaw direct sales of body parts for profit. However, companies like Stem Express circumvent the law by donating to Planned Parenthood and only charging customers interested in purchasing specific fetal tissue and body parts for “processing and shipping fees.”
Buying and selling fetal tissue and baby parts is an enormously profitable business. Fetal tissue provides “a uniquely rich source of stem cells” that university laboratories and medical research facilities buy for a variety of purposes. Fetal liver cells, for example, range in price from $488 to $24,250.
Last year, the National Institutes of Health spent $76 million on research using fetal tissue—through grants it gave to more than 50 universities. Grant recipients included Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale and several branches of the University of California (Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco).
As a result of CMP’s videos, more than 12 states and two U.S. House of Representative committees have launched investigations into Planned Parenthood’s practices. Recent efforts to halt federal funding of Planned Parenthood were derailed by Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
While the Advocacy board members (listed below) claim to be “faith leaders committed to justice, honesty, and liberty.” Their utmost concern, they emphasize, is “the decades-long campaign of harassment against Planned Parenthood and those they serve.” Harassment over what—dismembering babies or Planned Parenthood’s commitment to eugenics?
The board members write, “Our faiths demand care for those marginalized by poverty and other oppressions. Faith leaders have supported Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years because of our shared goals: every person — regardless of income, race, or religion — deserves access to safe, affordable, high-quality health care.”
Yet, faith in what? Faith according to the Bible asserts no such thing. In fact, it is well known among Jews and Christians that killing a pregnant woman is considered a double homicide requiring legal justice (Exodus 21:22-25). Shedding innocent blood is condemned throughout the Bible also requiring legal justice (Deut. 19:10; 1 Sam. 19:5; Psalm 94:20-21; Proverbs 6:16-17; Isaiah 59:2-7).
Even Common Law and the U.S. Constitution illegalized abortion. The Founders specifically inserted “unalienable rights” knowing that human rights came from God alone, not manmade laws, because God authored every life in the womb (Job 31:15; Psalm 22:9-10; Isa. 44:2; 49:5; Jeremiah 1:4-5; Luke 1:15).
Their “shared goal” that every person have “access to affordable high-quality health care” is nonsensical. How can dead people receive such access?
They also mischaracterize Planned Parenthood as an indispensable provider of “high-quality care.” Yet, Planned Parenthood’s own records reveal it as a profit centered abortion business, not a healthcare provider. Its own 2013-2014 annual report figures reveal that 94 percent of Planned Parenthood’s “pregnancy services” were abortions.
The advocacy board also purports a blatant lie: that abortion providers offer “the best of what religious traditions do.” Yet, the “best of religious traditions” have always promoted life-giving efforts that contribute to human flourishing. Christians were the first to found hospitals, schools, orphanages and later adoption and foster parenting services—to help people live—because they understand God’s directive to “choose life” (Deut. 30).
Christian faith demands that every person—regardless of income, race, or religion— deserves the right to live. The Planned Parenthood clerics are not among them.
Planned Parenthood Advocacy Board Members support death over life and everything that the God of the Bible and Christianity do not. God’s work involves saving babies, not killing and selling them.
Planned Parenthood Clergy Advisory Board Members include:
Chair
Rabbi Jon Adland
Canton, OH
Reform Jewish
Vice Chair
The Rev. Susan Russell
All Saints Episcopal Church
Pasadena, CA
Episcopal
The Rev. David A. Ames
Providence, RI
Episcopal
Rev. Tom Davis
Saratoga Springs, NY
United Church of Christ
White Plains, NY
Episcopal
The Rev. Kevin Jones
Greenacres, FL
Baptist
Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter
First Unitarian Church of Dallas
Dallas, TX
Unitarian
The Rev. Vincent Lachina
Seattle, WA
American Baptist
The Rev. Jeremy Lopez
Salem United Church
Tonowanda, NY
United Church of Christ
Rev Janet Maykus
Indianapolis, IN
Christian Church DOC
Rabbi Dennis Ross
Concerned Clergy for Choice
Albany, NY
Reform Jewish
Dr. Scott Sattler
Eureka, CA
Universal Sufism
Rabbi Peter Stein
Temple B’rith Kodesh
Rochester, NY
Reform Jewish
Ani Zonneveld
Muslims for Progressive Values
Los Angeles, CA
Muslim
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