If there is one thing that Donald Trump can be credited with, it’s sucking all the air out of the media and preventing every other right-wing lunatic from advancing their ultra-conservative agenda. In order to get any attention from the tabloid-obsessed press, it’s necessary to be even more bizarro than The Donald himself. The Republican candidates for president are finding this out in a big a way, and now so is has-been, half-governor, VP-flop, reality show loser, Sarah Palin.
Palin’s entry in the 2015 Trumplympics is a Facebook posting that features images of a Confederate flag and the Planned Parenthood logo. Her caption reads: “Which symbol killed 90,000 black babies last year?”
Of course, it’s a trick question because everyone knows that symbols don’t kill people, people do. And the people behind the Confederate flag were responsible for killing millions of African-Americans before, during, and after the Civil War. In fact, as we saw last month in Charleston, South Carolina, they are still doing it.
On the other hand, Planned Parenthood cannot be shown to have killed anyone. The premise of the anti-choice activists that life begins at conception, has never been proven scientifically. And abortion is still a legal means of terminating a pregnancy that has resulted in saving untold numbers of lives of women who would otherwise have been relegated to back alleys and medical charlatans.
Palin’s desperation for attention has compelled her to make one of the most nauseating ideological comparisons imaginable. The pro-choice movement is not unaccustomed to vile attacks including associations with historic evils like the Holocaust. It would be bad enough if Palin were trying to smear Planned Parenthood by asserting that it was somehow like the loathsome racists of the Confederacy. But she isn’t. She’s actually arguing that slaveholders and their descendants are praiseworthy next to an organization that provides health care, cancer screenings, birth control, and even prenatal services for women.
Planned Parenthood not only doesn’t kill people, it saves lives every day. What Palin is engaged in now is a coordinated right-wing attack on Planned Parenthood to destroy it by cutting off federal funding. In reality, this effort is another front in the Republican War On Women. Yet defunding Planned Parenthood would have almost no effect on abortion in America. That’s because only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortion related. It is the other vital health care services that women rely on that will be constrained if Palin and her GOP pals in Congress get their way. And, ironically, the result would be not only more women suffering with undiagnosed or untreated illnesses, but more unwanted or unplanned pregnancies.
In addition to the Confederate worship, Palin posted another graphic that reads: “80% of Planned Parenthood clinics located in minority neighborhoods.” What this tells us is that, not only is Palin an abhorrent racist, she is also an ignorant purveyor of virulent myths. The message she is passing along here is a favorite of organized bigots. It has also been proven to be untrue by many independent sources. One of them, Factcheck.org, researched similar claims and wrote that “There’s no evidence that was true then. And today, only 9 percent of U.S. abortion clinics are in neighborhoods where half or more of residents are black.” But Palin couldn’t be bothered with doing her own research and presenting the facts.
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It’s not a coincidence that Palin’s flurry of Facebook posts were joined together by their connection to racist propagandists. But even for her it is somewhat surprising that she would so openly embrace such bigotry. And the explanation has to be that she has been despondent since being jettisoned by Fox News and getting upstaged by Trump. So she’s doing what she has to do get her dimwitted minions to notice her again. Buckle up, kids. This could get ugly….er….uglier.
Abortion kills a baby. That’s the primary business of Planned Parenthood. So Sarah Palin is right.
“…Palin is saying that slave holders and their descendants are praise worthy…Sarah Palin is an abhorrent racist…”
Mark’s lies and hate are getting more toxic by the week. He eclipsed Martin Bashir a long time ago. At least Bashir apologized (although his apology was so scripted that it came off as insincere). Mark will never apologize for any of his filth because there is obviously a few screws loose in that diseased head. I’m beginning to wonder if Mark is the guy who was photographed by the New York Post peeing in the street. That best describes his disgusting website, anyway.
Damn, I’ve been caught. However, that doesn’t change the fact that only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s activities are abortion related (see link in article). You wingnuts have areal problem with those pesky facts.
And for the record, I apologize for all my filth. Feel better?
“Abortion kills a baby.” Lie.
Not a lie, not at all.
You couldn’t be more wrong. Deliberately or out of ignorance.
Once again, a forced-birther (and troll) gets its wrong. Abortion does not kill a baby. It kills a fetus, which has the possibility of becoming a baby but cannot yet live outside the womb. The hate and falsehoods that the forced-birthers broadcast is a reflection of the hate that they have within themselves and must see every time they look in the mirror.
If their Christian god does exist, I would like to be there to see how they justify their vile lies and actions.
You’re the one who is burping forth hate and lies.
And here’s your usual substance free 1 sentence ad hominem.
The response is uncannily Trumpian, as expected of one of the crowd that worships the likes of him.
BLS – to expand your definition – since a “fetus” can live outside the womb somewhere (6 or 7 months maybe?) prior to natural birth – shall that be used as the yardstick in determining when a baby is really a baby and your statement that “abortion does not kill a baby” is questionable? Can you call a fetus a baby say 1 day prior to natural birth? It gets sticky doesn’t it? I wouldn’t allow the church to define it – but I’m sure there is common sense somewhere in this debate that can move us past this ongoing argument. Just stick with government should have no say on personal choices and stop marginalizing the being growing inside a womb by denying it’s anything of value prior to birth. That is insulting to any thinking human being.
To say “life begins at conception” is to state a religious opinion, nothing more. It’s not science and it has no place in serious political debate because of established church/state separation. No surprise that Republicants are ramping up this kind of Culture War nonsense right now, as it helps distract from their stunningly wrong positions on various matters of real life & death that will be huge obstacles for them in the election season. If any Planned Parenthood employees are harmed or murdered as a result of the server-hacking and “conservative” hate-rhetoric all of these wingnut Culture Warriors will have blood on their hands.
To discuss where life begins without the religious angle would be a nice change. It’s is somewhere between conception and birth I would think – if we can ever agree on the point at which the fetus is more than a disposable group of cells, maybe we can get somewhere. The church has had too much to say on this – maybe we can move onto some new way to resolve it and get past this 40+ year old debate. I think have the morning after pill readily available to stop a pregnancy might be a good place to start – but some christian somewhere will consider that an abomination.