Dragging Abortion Into Religion

Good news. The Orange County Register is reporting that Planned Parenthood is mad. Supporters of the abortion industry yelled and screamed at Orange County supervisors to give back a sex-education grant to the nonprofit, calling their rationale “unconstitutional,” “irresponsible” and “the equivalent of modern book burning.”

What did the board do that was so egregious. They’re not spending government funds on abortion. Gasp!

The board voted unanimously last month to suspend Planned Parenthood’s grant which originally comes from the Tobacco Settlement Revenue grant, several of them saying they’re morally opposed to abortion. It’s the board’s money and they can do with it what they want, right?

I mean, it makes moral sense that the money raised from evil companies complicit in harming youths should go to a good company that kills babies. Hey, at least they’ll never grow up to be smokers!

Now, the crazies are arguing that the $291,788 contract does not pay directly for abortion services. It funds…wait for it…education outreach efforts that they say includes “comprehensive reproductive education for teens and pre-teens, including discussion about birth control, abstinence and sexually transmitted disease.”

Abstinence? Come on. Asking Planned Parenthood to teach abstinence is like asking McDonalds to teach vegetarianism. Ain’t gonna’ happen.

A bunch of folks showed up to protest and a few came out to support but I’m going to focus here on the protests as they’re just more fun. Notice how they all keep accusing the board of bringing religion into politics without ever actually giving any evidence for it. Here’s the first one from someone from the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which is always worth a ridiculous quote: “We are appalled that some of you presented your religious views as justification for rescinding an existing contract with a group that was providing a much-needed public service and was doing it well,” said Carla Westfall.

Karen Clark, a Corona Del Mar resident and member of the political action committee Women in Leadership, says she believes the supervisor’s rationale for revoking the contract has morphed over time, from being against funding an agency that provides abortions to opposing the use of tobacco money for any health education program. “I get the sense that it’s because legal counsel told them it’s not appropriate to make a decision based on religion,” Clark said. “To me, they’re creating a fig leaf–trying to cover up their original intent.”

This seems to be the battle plan. What? You don’t want us to kill babies? What are you some kind of religious nut? Anyway, we’re not just killing babies we’re educating people about killing babies. That’s different, you book burning Nazi Jesus freak. Now fund us.