Although Monday’s vote in the United States Senate to defund Planned Parenthood fell seven votes short of the necessary 60 to move forward with cloture, pro-life leaders are vowing the fight has only just begun.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Although tremendously disappointing, Monday’s vote marked the first time since the partial-birth abortion debates of the late 1990s and early 2000s that we’ve had an open debate on the Senate floor about what happens during abortion.
I want to applaud strong pro-life women like Iowa’s Sen. Joni Ernst, who introduced S. 1881 to prohibit federal funding of Planned Parenthood, and Nebraska’s Sen. Deb Fischer, who passionately spoke on behalf of life in no uncertain terms.
Ever since the Center for Medical Progress released its first video last month, we’ve had a robust national conversation on a number of the moral and ethical issues tied to abortion. Many have had their eyes opened to what goes on beyond closed doors at Planned Parenthood – and education always precedes good legislation.
It appears the undercover Planned Parenthood videos from the Center for Medical Progress will keep coming – and they’re only getting worse, if that’s even possible.
Despite their best efforts of Planned Parenthood to mask the true nature of their work with clever marketing and euphemisms, the latest, fifth video released yesterday makes it unmistakably and gruesomely clear: They’re killing preborn babies.
In the coming weeks and months, abortion advocates will continue to try and demonize those of us calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. They will attempt to discredit the undercover videos. They’ll use soft words to describe dark deeds.
They’ll try and excoriate us in the hope of discouraging us.
Their attempts will fail. Now forty-two years into the long battle to protect life, we’re not going away and we’re not giving up. We must not grow weary of doing good (Galatians 6:9). We must continue to engage the culture and the legislative process because, quite simply, it is the right thing to do.
In many ways, pro-lifers are the new abolitionists. We stand on the shoulders of those men and women who fought for the legal and cultural recognition of the dignity of life.
Men like William Wilberforce helped defeat the evil of slavery by making his case, time and time again, for 40 years. He chipped away at slavery little by little, until it was finally abolished in the British empire.
In the same way, we must chip away at the gigantic injustice of abortion through our tireless efforts and ceaseless prayers. This is our moment to shine the light of God’s goodness and truth before men. Monday was just one day in this long battle. By God’s grace, we’ll continue moving forward with our eyes focused on our goals of ending abortion and providing loving help to women facing unplanned pregnancies.
In God’s name, I believe we’ll ultimately get there.
Please let me know how you’re processing this latest chapter in the pro-life movement. It is good to “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess. 5:11).
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