Brian Beutler at The New Republic has an outstanding piece on the efforts to defund Planned Parenthood that deserves more attention.
In it, he basically asks the question: If the issue is really about fetal tissue donation, why aren't they proposing banning fetal tissue donation?
The emotional power of the Planned Parenthood videos lies in the images they evoke, but their political power stems from broad, intense conservative opposition to abortion generally—not to fetal tissue research per se. If these conservatives were foremost concerned with the ethics of fetal tissue donation, they could propose banning it outright, or at least tissue obtained from legal abortions. Instead, they are proposing to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. This non sequitur gives away the plot, and all of the cross-ideological sympathy they might have had at the outset.
Let's be honest, it's about abortion.
Ask people this question: If the issue is really about fetal tissue donation, why are Republicans trying to defund Planned Parenthood? Why not propose legislation banning fetal tissue donation?
Because we already know the answer. It's about religion and abortion. It's always about religion and abortion.
I encourage the full read here.
At least the priests (unlike James O'Keefe) will say that it's about abortion.
Picture from last week's anti-abortion rally in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati.