Current Events & Trends: Planned Parenthood caught in horrific scandal
Abortion is a powerfully emotional topic. Pro-abortion supporters passionately rally around the cause of “reproductive rights” while pro-life activists seek to sway opinion by pointing out the barbaric facts underpinning the abortion industry.
The most recent—and perhaps most emotionally charged—debate yet is burning over the accusation that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States, is engaging in the sale of tissue from aborted babies. Videos went public exposing graphic and disturbing conversations among Planned Parenthood representatives, in which they discuss the commercial value of parts of aborted infants and methods for keeping the valuable parts intact for sale.
The videos are sickening to people who recognize that abortion is the murder of the most vulnerable and innocent among us. While witnessing firsthand the callousness of abortion providers is disturbing, the revelation may be important in reframing the abortion debate.
The Economist reports: “Surveys find that most Americans support keeping abortion legal within the first weeks of conception,” but “sympathy [for abortion being legal] plummets once the woman enters her second trimester, and nearly disappears when she reaches her third” (“The Tissue Trade,” Aug. 1, 2015).
A procedural vote in the U.S. Senate that would have barred all federal funds for Planned Parenthood failed on Aug. 3. It actually passed 53-46 but didn’t get the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster on bringing the bill up for debate (“Senate Vote to Defund Planned Parenthood Fails,” CNN, Aug. 4, 2015).
The American public needs to wake up to its great sin in condoning and supporting murder through abortion. Perhaps more will come to see that with these awful videos and will turn in repentance to God. Some, though, will strive to justify what’s happening and become more hardened to the ongoing atrocity. (Sources: CNN, The Economist.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: September - October 2015
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Rudolph Rangel III
Rudy Rangel attends the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation along with his wife Judy and two children.
Tom Robinson
Tom is an elder in the United Church of God who works from his home near St. Louis, Missouri as managing editor and senior writer for Beyond Today magazine, church study guides and the UCG Bible Commentary. He is a visiting instructor at Ambassador Bible College. And he serves as chairman of the church's Prophecy Advisory Committee and a member of the Fundamental Beliefs Amendment Committee.
Tom began attending God's Church at the age of 16 in 1985 and was baptized a year later. He attended Ambassador College in both Texas and California and served for a year as a history teacher at the college's overseas project in Sri Lanka. He graduated from the Texas campus in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in theology along with minors in English and mass communications. Since 1994, he has been employed as an editor and writer for church publications and has served in local congregations through regular preaching of sermons.
Tom was ordained to the ministry in 2012 and attends the Columbia-Fulton, Missouri congregation with his wife Donna and their two teen children.
