OPINION: Defunding Planned Parenthood would actually increase abortions

In his guest opinion on Sunday, Sept. 20, John O’Neil suggested that people write to their congressmen telling them to defund Planned Parenthood and end the “killing of babies...” (because) “It has been scientifically proven that life begins at conception.”

His guest opinion was written on the heels of all the misleading information about Planned Parenthood and reimbursement for recovery of fetal tissue.

When life begins is neither a scientific fact nor a social consensus, but rather a religious belief that Mr. O’Neil is allowed to have because he lives in a secular society.

But, I am not writing to debate when life begins, but rather to shed light on the Planned Parenthood/fetal tissue controversy.

The video of Planned Parenthood discussing fetal tissue reimbursement was made by an anti-abortion activist posing as a member of a biomedical research company and was edited in order to make Planned Parenthood look as though it was conducting callous and possibly criminal activities.   

In fact they were simply discussing recovery of fetal organ tissues and the cost of $30 to $100 to reimburse the facility for sending the tissues to laboratories that would utilize the tissue for medical research.

An article in the Sept. 3 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine titled “Fetal Tissue Fallout,” was written by a professor of the School of Law and Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin. His first sentence states, “We have a duty to use fetal tissue for research and therapy.” He goes on to explain that virtually every person in this country has benefited from research using fetal tissue. The vaccines we use to prevent chickenpox, rubella and polio come from fetal tissue research.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed the Fetal Tissue Transplantation Panel. The panel pointed out that despite some concerns, there is no evidence that the possibility of deriving some good from fetal remains had ever persuaded women to have abortions they otherwise would not have chosen.

Even the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops proclaimed “it may not be wrong in principle for someone unconnected with an abortion to make use of a fetal organ from an unborn child who died as a result of an abortion.” They also decided that it was pointless to refuse support for use of fetal tissues in medical research since the tissue would otherwise be discarded.

Fetal cells are currently being used for investigational therapy for end-stage breast cancer, cardiac disease, diabetes, ALS and Parkinson’s disease.

Although Planned Parenthood does offer abortion services, 97 percent of their services have nothing to do with abortion. Other services include contraception, cervical and breast cancer screening, HIV and other STD screenings just to name a few. Lack of contraception, or its misuse, accounts for nearly half of the unintended pregnancies in this country, and half of these end in abortion. The irony of course, is that abortion opponents’ long-standing efforts to defund Planned Parenthood will only increase the number of abortions, as well as the number of reproductive cancers, HIV and other STDs.

And millions of people will be denied the potential life-saving results of fetal tissue research.

Please tell your senators to vote against the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Susan Cahill, of Kalispell, is a physician assistant.