Church Response to the Baby Parts Scandal

on July 20, 2015

Since last week’s release of an abhorrent undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s (PP) senior director of medical services celebrating the sale of aborted babies’ organs, the number of petitioners hoping to defund planned parenthood has skyrocketed. With congressional investigations of Planned Parenthood to begin soon, church leaders have much to say.

Russell Moore, The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s president, responded to the video post by tweeting that “[t]hese children share the humanity of our Lord Jesus—and we must plead for justice for them.” Moore also retweeted a Washington Post article that called the Planned Parenthood atrocity a modern rendition of Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal.”

Moore’s recent article on the video is largely reflective of Southern Baptists Convention’s (SBC’s) sentiment on the issue: “This is not only murderous; it is murderous in the most ghoulish way imaginable.” Since 2008, the SBC has called for “the evaluation of candidates for elected office based on their affiliation with Planned Parenthood” and for “both houses of the United States Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.”

Anglicans for Life also spoke out on the organ-harvesting news. A recent article entitled “10 Answers for Anglicans after Planned Parenthood has been Exposed” calls Anglicans to “protect life in the public square, politically and legislatively” and asks the popularizing question “how can a lump of cells have organs?” (This question is often paired, though not by the Anglicans for Life article, with posts exposing the hypocrisy of Planned Parenthood’s calling mammograms invasive only to use mammograms to ensure that harvested baby organs are not damaged.)

The official twitter page of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) posted a link to the following USCCB statement on life from Pope Benedict XVI:

“The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics, fully aware that ‘a society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized.”

Conversely, Episcopal and Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) leaders are, it seems, not speaking out on the matter, a fact that gives rise to several questions. Why are these leaders apparently staying away from this topic? Do Episcopal leaders stand by their previous statements championing PP as a bulwark of women’s rights and their decision to host PP’s 42-year anniversary party of Roe v. Wade? Does PCUSA stand by its New York seminary’s choice to bestow Planned Parenthood leadership its “Lives of Commitment” award? Will it still pay for abortions without restriction?
Regardless of the answers to these questions, there is still hope for the Church on the issue of abortion. Christians and those standing for life can sign the petition to defund Planned Parenthood. We can pray that this be the final nail in the coffin of the abortion industry. Most importantly, as Christians, we can use this time to focus our social witness by praying for those with whom we differ on this issue, that their hearts be won by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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