A recent op-ed by Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post shows off the anti-choice movement’s flair for using emotionally manipulative language and glossing over the facts. In “Planned Parenthood’s Defense of Infanticide,” Thiessen claims that a Planned Parenthood representative was “caught on camera defending infanticide.”
During a recent political hearing in Florida, Planned Parenthood’s Alisa LaPolt Snow was asked what the organization’s response would be if, in the case of a failed abortion, the fetus was born alive. Snow’s answer? “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”
That seems like a perfectly reasonable response to me. After all, who else should be asked to make a decision in that moment? Isn’t that what happens with any child, whether they’re five minutes old or five years old? Let’s say that a five-year-old was gravely ill. Who would be in charge of making his medical decisions? His parents and physician. That doesn’t mean that I’m advocating killing five-year-olds. It means that in America, as in much of the world, parents are the ones that make medical decisions for their children.