Planned Parenthood’s day of reckoning is here

OPINION:

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case that exposes how Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, has become increasingly cavalier with not just promoting and performing abortions but also putting the lives of vulnerable women at risk.

In 2016, Dr. Phillip Hawley, hospice physician and former assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, wrote: “Reason alone tells us that human life is special and we have a duty to protect one another. And that duty is especially strong when dealing with those in a weakened and vulnerable state.”

For Planned Parenthood, human life is not special. It is merely a commodity to be disposed of to make money — and lots of it.

Meanwhile, a growing amount of evidence shows how Planned Parenthood has used the massive government funding it receives to promote abortion and “gender transitions” while financially starving its “clinics” and making them unsafe for the woman and her preborn child.

Even The New York Times, hardly an advocate of the pro-life cause, in a February article by Katie Benner, chronicled Planned Parenthood’s abuse of women at local facilities and its stockpiling of largesse from donors and the government.

Ms. Benner writes: “The lack of resources is startling: Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Planned Parenthood has enjoyed a fundraising boom, with $498 million in donations that year. Little of it goes to the state affiliates to provide health care at clinics. Instead, under the national bylaws, the majority of the money is spent on the legal and political fight to maintain abortion rights.”

South Carolina and several other states have caught on to Planned Parenthood’s scheme. Arkansas, Missouri and Texas have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Medicaid payments, which can go only to legitimate medical practices and not abortion.

In July 2018, the governor of South Carolina issued an executive order directing the state Department of Health and Human Services to label abortion facilities unqualified to receive state Medicaid funding, especially when more than 140 other women’s health care clinics and pregnancy centers provided federally qualified care.

This action took away one of Planned Parenthood’s main sources of revenue in the state, so of course, Planned Parenthood sued. That lawsuit may now be its Waterloo because the Supreme Court could enable other states to block Medicaid payments as well.

It certainly has enough evidence to do so, especially in light of The Times article documenting abuse after abuse at Planned Parenthood clinics.

In Nebraska, a Planned Parenthood clinician inserted an IUD into a woman who was four months pregnant. Within hours, the woman was in an emergency room giving birth to a stillborn baby.

In Omaha, a backed-up toilet seeped sewage into an abortion recovery room for two whole days, with patients vomiting from the stench. According to The Times, employees at other affiliates reported they routinely ran out of over-the-counter medicine and IV flushes.

The employees are woefully underpaid and often forced to apply for Medicaid and food stamps. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood rakes in state and federal dollars while spouting the company line that they advocate for “safe and legal abortions” and for “women’s health” while their clinics are providing neither.

Mayra Rodriguez, a former Planned Parenthood director, said, “Deceiving women is what their business is all about. Seeing the way women get treated there, it was all about the money. And that was a shocking wake-up call for me.”

Ms. Rodriguez said she raised multiple concerns about patients suffering from bleeding, cramps and other complications after treatment from one particular abortionist. Her complaints fell on deaf ears.

She shared that one abortionist, after performing a dismember abortion on a 19-year-old girl, allegedly had an assistant account for all the baby’s body parts. By the time the assistant told the abortionist that she could not find the head, he had already inserted an IUD in the girl.

When Ms. Rodriguez learned about the incident from the assistant as it occurred, she confronted the abortionist, who told her to “go find one in the trash.” The abortionist then removed the IUD and found the head still in the young woman’s womb.

So, much for the concern about women’s health. Planned Parenthood is a dangerous organization that pushes abortion over true health care. Most Americans do not want their taxes funding such an organization, but from 2019 to 2021, Planned Parenthood received more than $1.5 billion in direct payments from the federal government, plus whatever else it received from its donors.

At the same time, the number of abortions it performed increased and the supposed medical services funded by Medicaid decreased.

Because it is all about the money, Planned Parenthood has branched out to promote “gender transition” surgeries on sexually confused teenagers, doing irreparable harm at an early age.

So, the question before the court is this: Can pro-life states such as South Carolina, consistent with the will of their citizens and state law, direct taxpayer Medicaid funds to medical providers offering real health care services instead of abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood?

The answer should be an unequivocal “yes.” The woman and her preborn baby, as Dr. Hawley so eloquently points out, are in a weakened and vulnerable state, and Planned Parenthood’s abuse and exploitation of both, along with the children and teenagers it is targeting for money, are shameful.

Human life, both living and preborn, is special and should not be destroyed for money.

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will see this clearly and hold Planned Parenthood accountable. Planned Parenthood should pay for its actions, and its empire, built on deceit and harm, should tumble.