Leading pro-life advocate Lila Rose is the latest to chime in with her thoughts about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s continued praise for Planned Parenthood — despite saying repeatedly that he favors defunding America’s biggest abortion corporation.
Last week, Trump praised the nation’s biggest abortion conglomerate. Trump dismissed the notion he is not a true conservative because he supports Planned Parenthood, insisting he is “just doing what’s right.”
“Look, Planned Parenthood has done very good work for many, many — for millions of women,” Trump said in a news conference Tuesday night. “And I’ll say it, and I know a lot of the so-called conservatives, they say that’s really … cause I’m a conservative, but I’m a common-sense conservative.”
Trump said he would not fund Planned Parenthood “as long as you have the abortion going on,” but noted the “millions of people — and I’ve had thousands of letters from women — that have been helped.”
“And this wasn’t a set-up. This was women writing letters. But I’m going to be really good for women, I’m going to be good for women’s health issues, it’s very important to me. Very important to me,” he said.
In recent months, Trump has shifted from taking a consistently pro-life stance on abortion and opposing Planned Parenthood funding to opposing funding but praising the nation’s biggest abortion company.
Now, Rose has a message for Trump — that Planned Parenthood is an abortion company and not a place that does “good things” or “wonderful things helping millions of women.” She says women needing the few legitimate services Planned Parenthood offers can get them at thousands of other places that don’t also do abortions.
Here’s what Rose has to say in her op-ed about Trump at NewsMax:
Donald Trump has clarified that, as president, he would defund Planned Parenthood because it commits abortions. At the same time, however, he insists that “We have to look at the positives also for Planned Parenthood.”
No matter how many “services” Planned Parenthood says it provides, nothing changes the fact that almost 900 preborn children die each day in America’s largest abortion chain.
If one is opposed to the intentional taking of innocent human life, one can’t turn around and praise Planned Parenthood for the other things it does. That’s like excusing child labor in the 1800s and 1900s by saying, “I’m opposed to child labor, but those textile companies do produce nice clothes.”
It’s also a false choice that we must accept that Planned Parenthood kills over 320,000 children each year because it also provides other services. The real choice is between Planned Parenthood and over 13,000 community health care clinics and hospitals across America that provide better and much more comprehensive health care to women but that don’t kill children in the process. (Women can find the centers closest to them by visiting GetYourCare.org.)
Mr. Trump also echoed Planned Parenthood’s talking point that abortion is a “fairly small part” of what it does. Planned Parenthood has long stated that abortions “only” make up three percent of its services.
But even abortion advocate the Washington Post has noted that Planned Parenthood’s calculation absurdly equates the major procedure of an abortion with a minor service like a urine test. The Post gave the claim a “three Pinocchios” rating — acknowledging how misleading the abortion group’s “three percent” line was. While many of Planned Parenthood’s services are taxpayer subsidized, the abortion business is a moneymaker for the chain, and it charges several hundred to over a thousand dollars per abortion.
The fact is, Planned Parenthood is neither good nor necessary.
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Rose isn’t alone in her feelings.
Like some pro-life voters, Susan B, Anthony List president Marjorie Danenfelser has had enough. She’s tired of listening to Donald Trump, who had ostensibly run a reliably pro-life campaign up until recently, praise the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
“Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that, as President, he will defund Planned Parenthood so long as they continue to do abortions. We applaud him for this stand, but ask that he reconsider his repeated assertion that the group does ‘wonderful things’ beyond abortion. According to the group’s own annual reports, this could not be further from the truth. Planned Parenthood is a profit–driven, abortion-centered business – and a bad investment for taxpayers,” she said.
Dannenfelser continued: “A new Center for Medical Progress video released this week showed once again that Planned Parenthood’s highest executives are willing to engage in the harvest and sale of the body parts of aborted children. We ask Mr. Trump to watch this video series and urgently take off the rose-colored glasses he wears when talking about Planned Parenthood. Mr. Trump’s silence on this horror at the core of Planned Parenthood needs to end.”
