File photo/The Cougar
The clockwork of political campaigning is almost too predictable. Every election always has some “sudden” controversial event that politicians will exploit to try and shape societies’ political party preference.
Recently, videos showing less than moral intentions from Planned Parenthood have surfaced, and it’s making anti-choice groups bust out their pitch forks and torches.
Republicans are even moving to try and cut funding Planned Parenthood entirely.
These videos have smear campaigning written all over them.
While these videos at first glance may seem “legit,” diving deep into the relation of whom they were released from proves its intention of smearing the Planned Parenthood organization.
According to an interview on ABC News, Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, was confronted on the scandal and said that, “The folks behind this, in fact, are part of the most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement that has been behind, you know, the bombing of clinics, the murder of doctors in their homes, and in their churches. And that’s what actually needs to be looked at.”
The government is aware that this anti-abortion movement is being raised by a horrific group. But why is it not taking time to seek justice for the invasion of privacy of the clients and the danger that it poses to the doctors who provide women basic healthcare?
Richards gives great descriptions into the services that Planned Parenthood provides.
“We do more at Planned Parenthood every single day to prevent unintended pregnancy than any organization in the country,” she said. “One in five women in the country have been to Planned Parenthood for health care.”
Looking at the big picture, the movement against abortion just won’t go away. Republicans are utilizing society’s reactions to these videos to surface a campaign that plays heavily on the emotions of others to dictate how this next presidential campaign will run.
Let’s leave it up to the Republicans to seek financial gain rather than render it for the benefit of women’s health. The decision should be to remain up to the individual. It is easy to make someone have a child by revoking abortion rights, but it isn’t easy to watch that child possibly suffer due to an unwanted pregnancy.
Whether an individual is pro-choice or not, your own values should not be imposed on to others.
Opinion columnist Phylicia Sneed is an english senior and may be reached at [email protected]
You got to be kidding ! Cutting up babies and selling body parts is totally immoral ….if you have any morals . Repubs have to speak up for the babies .The Dems won’t .
This isn’t a political issue. It’s a HUMAN issue. Are we supposed to accept that Planned Parenthood is willingly dissecting those babies, that never even got to breathe by the way, and essentially scrapping them for parts? Why should my taxpayer dollars go to a company that clearly has another alternative means of revenue?
To believe that anything that comes out of the mouth of Cecile Richards is anything more than propaganda is ludicrous. Americans of all persuasions are outraged at these inhuman and illegal acts performed in conjunction with PP, doctors and purchasers of the baby parts.
Nothing in this article debunks the videos, you’re just regurgitating their damage control rhetoric without evidence.
Despite where you stand on the issue, the video was produced and edited by The Center for Medical Progress, a staunchly anti-abortion group, which makes the accusations curious at best. There really should be an independent investigation before everyone gets up in arms, but reactionism seems to be a driving force in this land.
Nothing was added in though.. soo your argument is flawed .
My argument? I’m merely stating the steps that should be taken before people formulate an opinion, period. There is no argument in the previous comment.
But let’s argue now.
Each of the five videos put out by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) so far is roughly 8 – 15 minutes long because it’s more “consumable” for the watcher. However, what CMP fails to convey is that these videos are very well edited to be more conducive to their agenda. In fact, some of these edits do very well to make the Planned Parenthood (PP) representatives seem like they’re saying something they’re not.
Let’s take the most recent video released by the CMP for example; set in our fair town of Houston with footage taken from the PP campus we can see from our own campus: If you care to read the whole 119 page transcript of the entire conversation CMP had with PP ( http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PPGCtranscript04092015_final.pdf ) and compared it with the sections discussed in the video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egGUEvY7CEg ) you would find there are discrepancies a few of which take the PP rep completely out of context and misconstrue what she is saying.
The word for it is lying by omission. So sure, you’re right, they didn’t add anything per se, but they removed a lot. By the way, both of the above sources were produced by the CMP and some of it is self-contradictory. Much of the transcript lends proper context to what the PP rep. saying and makes what she seems to be saying in a lot of the video less heinous whereas the video focuses heavily on buzz-words to enrage the simpletons who don’t actually analyze the situation for what it is.
Construing context is not an ethical form of investigative journalism, which is something CMP is most certainly guilty of which is why I do not put salt behind their claims and why I criticize those who blindly react to whatever they are shown.
Its wrong regardless of what they showed. Im glad the public is finally stepping up against these fuckers . There is a thin line between planing a parenthood and a last ditch attempt to fix your life by killing a fetus . IF pph was doing such a great job women wouldn’t need to get abortions period.
Im also pissed at the church for condemning safe sex and then bitching about abortions later on.
Right or wrong in this context is a matter of perspective. I have no opinion on the subject namely because I do not believe I deserve an opinion on abortion. I am not a woman. I will never have to go through pregnancy or suffer through the decision of getting an abortion or potentially giving birth to a ward of the state. In fact, I find it a little ironic that not a single woman outside of the original columnist has cared to share their opinion on the subject. It’s all men. Men who will never have to make these decisions. Fancy that.
All I’m trying to convey is that people should do more to be informed, especially when the purported information is so incredibly biased, inaccurate, and/or false.
I find it a little ironic that every one for abortion has already been born..
If you think killing people because they get in your way then fine.
Again if a woman is so concerned about her body, get fucking spayed!
The children are mens children to . And the children are humans , yes even the zygote is human..
Women are capable of evil… if a man killed his child after he was born because its to much of a burden, we would toss him in jail, but a woman can kill a child before its born and no one bats an
Its not about “choice” its about killing a human , a non sentient human but a human none the less ..
That’s a very tired argument, Ronal… I mean Dan. It’s also a basic logical fallacy. Anyone who is for/against anything has already been born. The fundamental basis of that argument implies that with abortions no one will be born, but in case you haven’t noticed, even with legal abortion, humans are born by the hundreds of thousands daily.
Again, it’s not about what I think, it’s about how people tend to only be able to ever see one side of things without really ever paying any mind to another way of thinking. Dull minded people tend to think in absolutes without recognizing that there is no such thing. Nothing is inherently good just as nothing is inherently bad. Anyone who thinks that all abortion is bad may as well think that all priests are good. Sure, there are abortions done for the wrong reasons just as there priests with benevolent hearts, but there are just as many abortions done for the right reasons as there are priests with wicked hearts. Does that mean that you or I get to be the judge of whether someone else has an abortion or becomes a priest? The simple answer is no.
As to a zygote being human, that’s debatable. A human zygote is indistinguishable from a platypus zygote.
And on a final note, why don’t you get neutered? If you’re so dead set on abortion being illegal, stop it at the source. Then you will not ever have to worry about an “evil” woman going off and aborting your kid.
Wow… Spaying?
We’re done here.
It is distinguishable AND 1000% NON DEBATABLE THAT THE ZYGOTE IS HUMAN , look at its human DNA , one grows up to be a human, the other grows up to be a platypus. I only think abortion should be legal if the mother is at risk of dying due to complications or if the child has a sever deformity that would cause it to die within hours or weeks being born . I’m not against abortion totally, but abortions are pretty early on..
Morally I think a woman should be able to abort due to rape , but I can already see them accusing men of a rape that never occurred.
And no i wont get Neutered because #1 i don’t have sex with strangers and 2 I only plan on ever having one sexual partner , we are civilized ” sentient” beings bale to keep it in our pants.
If you want to have sex recreational , go ahead, but don’t play with a human life due to your irresponsibility.
should i kill the guys at mc Donalds for making my body ugly , no cause I chose to eat their, same with women, they chose to have sex knowing full well the risks. how many contraceptives exist and a UTI basically makes pregnancies impossible ! I think is kinda funny gays and lesbians are asking for sperm and ova doners when were aborting kids left and fucking right.. and the whole ” its their kid ” argument is flawed , its only one persons kid ..
Actually, it is very debatable that a zygote is a human. In fact, calling a zygote a single human is wrong. In between the fertilization of the zygote and embryonic implementation it can split into two or more embryos producing twins, triplets, etc.
As far as the rest:
Is a star automatically a black hole just because it will end up becoming one? No. It’s properties are different, and each are capable of very different things. A star has to go through an entire metamorphosis before it can be classified as a black hole, and until then I’m very content in called our sun a star. Same goes for gametes, zygotes, and embryos for that matter. The ingredients for a human are there, but much more needs to happen before it is to become one. This is a classic pile-of-wood philosophical debate that’s been had for a few millennia now, and it’s easily applicable to this scenario.
At least you can admit that not all abortion is bad, and for the record, nothing makes pregnancy impossible. A girl can be on 8 kinds of pregnancy preventatives, the guy can wear a condom, and they can STILL end up pregnant.
And by UTI I hope you don’t mean a Urinary Tract Infection, because that’s not true at all ( http://pregnancy.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Conception_and_UTI ). In fact, pregnant women are apparently more apt to experience UTIs during their pregnancy ( http://www.webmd.com/women/guide/pregnancy-urinary-tract-infection ).
Again, you act like abortion is this rampant thing that’s going to stifle population growth (not that slowing population growth is a bad thing anyway), and the ideology that “women just go and get abortions left and right” is so misinformed. Having had friends who have had the procedure done I can tell you it was no “spur of the moment” decision for them.
And your whole ‘holier than thou’ argument doesn’t justify suggesting that sexually active women should get spayed. That’s a childish justification for a childish solution. Sure, we’re a civilized species, but at the end of the day we are just another form of animal with instinctual needs, and one of those happens to be sex.
Speaking of childish, as someone who at one point in time thought I would marry the first girl I had sex with, I can tell you it’s a very naive sentiment.
who said I was going to marry?
Again that zygote will ALWAYS turn into a human or two or three or eight unless some crazy psycho scientist implants it with other non human DNA
33.3- % of women have abortions , and about 45% of those women have repeat abortions ( try arguing that’s not irresponsibility) .
And a i meant to say a BCI not a UTI ( birth control implant that looks a lot like a wishbone)
Also population is not a real issue considering stage 5 of social development begins when a country start to lose population naturally, such as in japan and in norway . Most of the earth is at stage 3 of development and china and India are near stage 4 ( population levels off) , the only dangerous country is the African country of Nigeria
There, you said it. A zygote will *turn into* a human, but it isn’t one.
And actually, the number of women having abortions is closer to 17.9% according to a CDC study done in 2011 and they’re on a downward
trend (
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6311a1.htm?s_cid=ss6311a1_e )
So you’re just going to hang around the first girl you have sex with for the rest of your life without marrying her? I’m sure she’d appreciate that as much as any girl would appreciate the suggestion of being spayed.
In fact, good luck finding that one ever sexual partner if you sincerely stand by half the stuff you have been spouting off in this thread.
Semantics morn , its already a human. and thus will grow up to be one!
Again, debatable.
By your logic, I should be able to hold a zygote in my hand and watch it develop into a human being, which cannot happen.
Also, I sure hope you weren’t trying to call me a ‘moron’ and then proceeded to spell it wrong.
Fuck politics .Its 2015 , no one needs to die cause a person fucked up.
You can’t justify this . Id rather my tax dollars go to raising a orphan than killing a unborn child.