Earlier in this semester, as the rhetoric around defunding Planned Parenthood was becoming increasingly vitriolic, I asked a writer to cover the controversy for the Globe’s Opinions section.
When I pitched the idea to writers, I said I wanted someone to do an in-depth, well researched pro-Planned Parenthood piece. Semi-jokingly, I also said that an anti-Planned Parenthood writer could take the pitch, but doing so would guarantee that I would make fun of that writer in my head as I read his or her piece.
After I made the joke, I felt a little bad. Was it really necessary to belittle someone’s point of view, even if it was wrongheaded and largely based in misinformation?
I don’t feel bad anymore.
I don’t feel even a little bit bad. Instead, I feel furious and sad and then furious again.
Three people are dead. The man who committed murders at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood on Friday mentioned “no more baby parts” to authorities. That phrase isn’t an accident. It has somehow become the party line for Republicans everywhere.
Iain Oldman took that pitch and wrote an excellent article arguing that Planned Parenthood serves a vital function in America and deserves its funding in the Globe’s September 1 issue. I won’t waste Globe space by rehashing his arguments.
Instead, I’ll say that hateful, inaccurate political rhetoric has a real cost. The demonization of Planned Parenthood in particular and abortion in general has resulted in case after case of domestic terrorism. Abortion clinics are routinely threatened with violence. The twitter account @ClinicEscort tweeted one hundred instances (with citations) of domestic terrorism against abortion clinics.
One example from a 1983 New York Times article references a doctor and his wife who were held hostage for eight days by men who called themselves part of the “Army of Guide.” Another, from 2000, details an incident in which a Catholic priest drove his car into an abortion clinic and then started hacking into it with an ax.
People have been murdered over abortion, an upsettingly ironic facet of the radically pro-life faction. Abortion is a legal medical procedure. It is vital to preserving women’s agency over their own bodies and own lives.
Yet increasingly, abortion has become a lightning rod for Republican presidential candidates, who are falling over each other to be the most anti-abortion. Carly Fiorina emerged as an early contender for that political title by spewing objectively false information about a video that didn’t even exist.
Sure, the political process is full of deceit and misdirects. Of course, candidates are often less than upfront about facts. But this particular lie now has a body count, and that’s only for this political cycle. As it turns out, if you accuse people of murdering babies, there are consequences, violent consequences that destroy multiple lives.
The leading GOP candidates have been largely quiet about the attacks, unusual for an event in which a police officer was killed. But because the officer was killed for the sake of women seeking women’s healthcare, they see the topic as political kryptonite.
These politicians are so unwilling to acknowledge the humanity of women who might be getting birth control, mammograms or even abortions that they cannot even acknowledge the direct link to “no more baby parts” and the rhetoric they’ve been repeating ad nauseum since the beginning of the campaign.
It’s not a big mystery why this terrorist killed people in a Planned Parenthood.
We need to protect women, even those seeking abortions. We need to vocally advocate for their right to health care. How many more people need to die before that becomes obvious to even the most pro-life among us?
