Planned Parenthood President Avoids the Word ‘Abortion’ in Debut Interview
This morning, Planned Parenthood’s new president, Dr. Leana Wen, started her first official day of work with a softball interview with “CBS This Morning.”
Despite running an organization notorious for providing abortions, Wen somehow — with the help of a cadre of perky CBS hosts — manages to avoid the word “abortion” and skirt around the topic for nearly the entire interview. I must give credit where it’s due: Planned Parenthood has managed to completely rebrand abortion into “reproductive rights” and “women’s healthcare,” with what seems like great success, given how many pro-choicers proudly profess their support nationwide, using these exact curated terms. Just because something is popular, though, does not make it right, and just because something sounds good does not mean it is true.
Wen does an excellent job of toeing the party line, as is to be expected from the leader of an intensely political-but-not-technically-political organization. The real issue, though, is that CBS’s journalists let Wen prattle on with anesthetized talking point after talking point. For example, Wen claimed early on, “We do more to prevent unintended pregnancies every year than any other organization,” and that the organization provides cancer screenings and birth control, in addition to life-saving care for millions of people annually. CBS accepted this claim totally uncritically. . .
Many objections center around wanting to protect the rights of the innocent unborn fetus that is indisputably developing, and will continue developing into a baby inside the woman’s uterus, if unhindered. Distrust of women, although a convenient way of framing it, is not the real issue. Lots of pro-lifers, conservatives, and libertarians are interested in protecting an individual’s right to make their own choices. The issue comes when those choices fundamentally harm other living beings, creating a more complex trade-off than most pro-choicers are comfortable admitting. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood President Avoids the Word ‘Abortion’ in Debut Interview” HERE)
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