A grand jury from Harris County, Texas, delivered its indictments in the state’s case against Planned Parenthood last Monday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called for an investigation of the health services provider after the Center for Medical Progress published videos depicting Planned Parenthood executives illegally selling tissue from aborted fetuses.
Despite conclusive evidence the videos were edited to falsely portray the actions of Planned Parenthood, the Republican biblical literalists clung to the validity of these videos as steadfastly as they do to the notion that the Earth is 6,000 years old.
However, in a laughably ironic twist, the grand jury chose to indict not Planned Parenthood, but the two individuals responsible for producing these videos.
Because they created a fake human-tissue company and secretly recorded Planned Parenthood workers, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and Daleiden received an additional misdemeanor indictment for the purchase and sale of human organs, as reported by Sarah Begley of Time Magazine.
To that I say, amen.
Of our elected officials and of the general population, I ask, can we drop this now, please?
The answer seems to be a resounding no.
Gov. Abbott took to Twitter following Monday’s ruling.
“Despite today’s decision in Harris Co. about Planned Parenthood, Texas will continue to protect life & investigate @PPact practices.”
USA Today reported Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., saying the indictments were a “miscarriage of justice” and that they “will not deter our efforts in Congress to hold Planned Parenthood accountable.”
But what will the state of Texas waste more taxpayer money on investigating?
Do our elected officials have absolutely no trust in the justice system?
Only if it doesn’t serve their political agenda.
This infuriates me.
A Texas jury, which I suspect would be the best jury by which to push a conservative agenda, found Planned Parenthood innocent.
Republicans aren’t interested in indicting Planned Parenthood legally if they intend to pursue this matter after a fair, unbiased jury delivered their verdict.
Are they hell-bent on forcing their religious ideals into a secular government and its laws? Must they insist on enforcing the “law of God” on millions of people that don’t even believe in him?
I bet I can find more Bible verses of God sanctioning the murder of unborn children than God claiming that life begins at conception.
In Numbers 5:11-22, God instructs priests to use cursed water to abort children conceived in infidelity.
Hosea 13:16 prophesies that, as punishment for the unrighteous people of Samaria, “their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”
I can’t find a single verse that affirms life beginning at conception. I can’t find an instance where God grants fetuses the same protections as living, breathing humans.
So why do we continue pursuing this?
The justice system has spoken. The theology behind the pro-life movement is inconclusive, at best.
We should just let Planned Parenthood be and focus on real criminals.
thshowal@indiana.edu
@TherinShowalter
