Planned Parenthood & RHAPP: Ignoring the People of New York
Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin reported yesterday in the wake of New York Governor Elliot Spitzer’s prostitution-ring scandal that Planned Parenthood was planning to meet with him yesterday morning on a new piece of legislation that would dramatically expand the abortion industry in that state.
The Reproductive Health & Privacy Protection Act, or RHAPP, is being pushed as a necessary step toward “codifying Roe v. Wade.” According to Malkin’s information, it would:
- Allow non-doctors to perform abortions, including a dentist, a social worker, or a health care practitioner.
- Let girls as young as 12 obtain abortions throughout all 9 months of pregnancy without ever having to tell their parents.
- Force health practitioners or Catholic hospitals to lose their medical licenses if they don’t perform abortions since they would be denying women the “fundamental right” of an abortion.
Given that Planned Parenthood’s legal services have been somewhat curtailed under President Bush’s administration with the ban on partial birth abortion — which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — it’s not entirely surprising that Planned Parenthood would seek to expand their business operations into previously untapped markets. This is accomplished, of course, by manipulating or fighting to establish legal precedent.
What’s most astonishing to be about RHAPP is not even that it would allow non-doctors to perform abortions, but that it actively seeks to destroy the fiscal viability of religiously affiliated hospitals for opting to deny abortion requests. If RHAPP passes in New York, this key plank would certainly be overturned on judicial review, but that Planned Parenthood has included this attack on the free operation of hospitals in their agenda signals what is potentially a new phase in the “culture war.”
Pope John Paul the Great called Catholics to uphold and defend a “culture of life”. Meanwhile, despite falling abortion rates in recent years and legal restrictions like the ban on partial birth abortion, Planned Parenthood continues to advocate abortion-on-demand, throwing all reason caution to the wind on the fundamental question of whether life begins at conception or birth.
Why? Quite simply, business is good. Planned Parenthood brings in more than $1 billion every year, and that’s only if you account for their abortion arm and the government grants — taxpayer funding — that this non-profit receives.
RHAPP, through its intimidation tactics toward Catholic hospitals, makes clear that there is no room for reasonable disagreement on the abortion issue. If you’re not with them in providing abortions and providing their industry profit, then you’re against them and you’ll be stripped of your medical accreditation and denied the ability to practice medicine as a corporate entity.
What we’re seeing here is corporate warfare, initiated by Planned Parenthood with the goal in mind of silencing and shutting down not just critics of their business practices, but those who are ethically or morally at odds with the abortion. Coercion, intimidation and religious discrimination are not the values of the American people, and we pray to God that they do not become the law of the land for New Yorkers.
Planned Parenthood’s attempt to hoodwink the people of New York by advancing a bill that claims to protect “reproductive health” is dispiriting given that the people of New York have already spoken. According to a 2007 Gallup Poll of New Yorkers, 73 percent want greater restrictions on abortion, and have affirmed their belief that “late-term abortion” — the kind promoted in RHAPP, should be illegal.
Planned Parenthood stands opposed both to judicial precedent and public opinion on abortion in New York. In fair competition in the “marketplace of ideas” between pro-abortion and pro-life voices, Planned Parenthood lost the game. With RHAPP, they’re brazenly attempting to change the rules of the game.
Thankfully, advocacy groups have sprung up in a united effort to protect human life and defend New York hospitals from RHAPP. New Yorkers for Parental Rights is maintaining a fairly comprehensive alert system on RHAPP, while Kathleen Gallagher, Director of Pro-Life Activities for the New York State Catholic Conference, appears in a forceful video rebuttal of RHAPP and Planned Parenthood’s efforts to criminalize medical free choice in their state.
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