She's a Child, Not a Choice

This is a speech I wrote for a pro-life speech contest several years ago:

            Throughout the history of America the murder of unborn children was a crime. Doctors who performed abortions could be legally tried for murder.  All this changed in 1973 with the legalization of abortion.  The unborn went from being some of our most protected citizens to our most threatened.  Because of groups like Planned Parenthood, with their slogan, “Every Child a Wanted Child,” human life has become a choice, something that can be disposed of if it isn’t wanted.  Unborn babies are no longer considered persons and are not considered worth protecting.

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, abortion is now one of the most common medical procedures in America.  Every year about 1.3 million lives are abruptly and brutally ended by abortion, and over 52 million since 1973.  The Guttmacher Institute, a research branch of PP, also admits that 22% of all pregnancies end in abortion.  That is nearly one in every four babies!  Thanks to abortion we will never know how these people could have benefited society. 

Planned Parenthood, according to their annual report, in addition to charging between $400 and $1500 per abortion, receives $363 million dollars of our tax money every year and has a yearly income of over 1.1 billion dollars.  Americans are being forced to pay for the destruction of innocent human beings!  PP claims to care about women but in reality abortion is just a multi-million dollar industry.  Abby Johnson, a former PP clinic director in Texas, said, “I was directed to double the number of abortions our clinic performed in order to drive up revenue.”  There have been many cases that prove this point.  For example, Carol Everett, a former clinic owner, said that they didn’t even have enough sets of surgical instruments so they just reused them without being sterilized.  Live Action, an organization that goes undercover into abortion clinics, has exposed PP covering up child abuse by giving twelve and thirteen year-olds abortions and then just sending them back to their 31 year old abusers.  Planned Parenthood’s goal is to do as many abortions as possible, no matter the consequences.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of PP and a well known eugenicist, had many of the same ideas and goals as Adolf Hitler.  She believed that certain kinds of people, such as the mentally retarded, shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce.  She said, “The undeniably feebleminded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind.”  Sanger also said in her book The Pivot of Civilization, “Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying … demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism…”  These are some of the very same ideas believed and carried out by Hitler and his henchmen.  Planned Parenthood also targets teenagers, people below the poverty line, and African Americans.  By placing many of their clinics in minority neighborhoods they are carrying out the mission of their founder to, in Margaret Sanger’s own words, “…exterminate the black population.”  This is confirmed by the fact that while African Americans make up only 12% of our total population, 30% of abortions are done on black children. 

Despite all these appalling facts there is hope for the future.  Here are some encouraging examples: the Guttmacher Institute says that since 1981 abortions have dropped from 29 abortions for every 1,000 women, to less than twenty.  Planned Parenthood’s illegal activities are being exposed by undercover organizations like Live Action.  Many states, such as Nebraska and South Dakota, are passing laws to limit the number of abortions.  Also, for the first time a Gallup poll has shown that a majority of Americans oppose abortion.  Due to the unceasing efforts of the Pro-life movement, Americans are beginning to realize the awful reality of abortion and the truth about Planned Parenthood, but there is still a long way to go.  We need to do all we can to help end this tragedy especially by: protesting outside of clinics, supporting women facing crisis pregnancies, electing pro-life congressmen, and most importantly by prayer.  Prayer is by far the most powerful tool we have.

No matter what Planned Parenthood says, unborn babies are valuable human beings, not “choices.”  A human life isn’t something to take lightly; life must be protected and loved at every stage.  Americans need to recognize that life has been given to us by God and that we are obligated to respect and care for it.  The American Constitution gives all human beings the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  There is no exception for the unborn. We must stop condoning the extermination of our youngest citizens and end Planned Parenthood’s blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life!