The King's Speech to Planned Parenthood

Tony Perkins'

Family Research Council

President Obama's speech to Planned Parenthood on Friday was more than 1,600 words--but not one of them was "abortion." If verbal gymnastics were a sport, the President could have medaled for his pep talk to the country's largest abortion profiteer! His speech, the first to Planned Parenthood by a sitting President, was surprisingly affectionate toward a group that's currently in court for defrauding Medicaid, botching abortions, and overbilling the government for birth control. What's more, the President spoke to Planned Parenthood even though its staff knew about Kermit Gosnell's butcher shop and refused to report it.

Among other things, he praised the group for "providing quality health care to women across America" and lamented the fact that pro-lifers were fighting to make that "care" safe. "...[A]fter decades of progress, there's still those who want to turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21^st century. And they've been involved in an orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women's health. Forty-two states have introduced laws that would ban or severely limit access to a woman's right to choose... When you read about some of these laws, you want to check the calendar; you want to make sure you're still living in 2013."

Of course, in the 1950s, doctors didn't know that babies could feel pain at 20 weeks in the womb--or that ultrasounds would be advanced enough to show tiny children yawning or sucking their thumbs. If anything, it's the abortion movement that's stuck in the past--performing back-alley type abortions in the comfort of their legally-protected clinics and refusing to bring their facilities up to date with common-sense medical standards. They lobby to kill born-alive children like barbarians and somehow we're behind the times? "No matter how fierce the opposition," President Obama promised, "if there's one thing the past few years have shown, it's that Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere today. It's not going anywhere tomorrow."

Unfortunately for America, Planned Parenthood isn't going anywhere until Congress and local legislatures decide to stop propping it up with millions of taxpayer dollars. Until then, pro-lifers can take comfort in the huge strides made by leaders in several states, who continue to do everything they can to give women and children the protection they deserve.