If you’ve ever wondered why Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards rarely gives on-camera interviews, here’s why:
Remember, Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion chain. And yet their president of the past eight years can’t give coherent answers to basic questions related to the topic. Richards stops and starts so often that one might guess that this is the first interview she’s ever done.
But enough about style, and onto substance.
Does anyone actually believe that at the time Cecile Richards was pregnant with her own three children, she actually believed they weren’t alive?
If she does, she’s rather at odds with Dr. Alan Guttmacher, her predecessor and namesake of the the Guttmacher Institute, who served as president of Planned Parenthood from 1962-1974.
In his 1933 book Life in the Making, Guttmacher wrote:
We of today know that man is born of sexual union; that he starts life as an embryo within the body of the female; and that the embryo is formed from the fusion of two single cells, the ovum and the sperm. This all seems so simple and evident to us that it is difficult to picture a time when it was not part of the common knowledge.
Oh, how times have changed!
What’s more, a pamphlet published by Planned Parenthood in 1952 clearly stated that abortion “kills the life of a baby after it has begun”.
But fast forward 62 years, and here’s how Planned Parenthood now deals with the question of when life begins:
My friend says that life begins when the egg and sperm join together. I say that it begins when a baby takes its first breath. Which of us is right?
All kinds of people — theologians, philosophers, scientists, lawyers, legislators, and many others — hold very different views about when life begins. In fact, both the egg and the sperm are living things before they meet and join. There’s no real argument there.
The really hot question is, “When does being a person begin?” Most medical authorities and Planned Parenthood agree that it starts when a baby takes its first breath.
Some of our oldest religions have changed their views about this question many times over the centuries. Today, some people sincerely believe that being a person begins when the egg is fertilized. Some, just as sincerely, believe that it begins with birth. And lots of others believe it begins somewhere in between.
What we are all sure about is that a pregnant woman is a person. We know for sure that she has morals, feelings, human needs, and a conscience. Because of this, we know that she is the only one able to make a decision about her pregnancy options. She does it based on her own needs, ethics, and religious belief about when being a person begins. It would be wrong to force her to observe someone else’s religious belief.
Note how Planned Parenthood completely avoids answering the question about when life begins — just as Cecile Richards attempted to do in the interview above.
And notice also how they shift the discussion to “the really hot question” of personhood, which they claim “most medical authorities” agree begins when a “baby takes its first breath”. (Really, Planned Parenthood? “Most medical authorities”? And yet you can’t name even one? Your own former president, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, begged to differ.)
Interestingly, Cecile Richards isn’t even on the same page as Planned Parenthood itself. Richards says the life of a child begins at delivery, but Planned Parenthood officially says it’s not until a baby takes its first breath — which often doesn’t happen until several seconds after the baby has been delivered and the umbilical cord has been cut.
This prompts the question: If a newborn baby is completely outside of her mother’s body but has not yet taken her first breath, is it morally permissible to kill her? What say you, Cecile Richards?
LifeNews Note: John Jansen writes for the Pro-Life Action League.
