Penna Dexter

Planned Parenthood's former president Cecile Richards downplayed abortion as her organization's core activity. She famously maintained that abortion only makes up 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services and that the organization is focused primarily on women's health. We expected Planned Parenthood's new president Leana Wen, a medical doctor, to continue in this mode. But she recently blasted media outlets Planned Parenthood has long depended on to underplay its abortion activity. She says they are misconstruing her "vision for Planned Parenthood." "Our core mission," she tweeted, "is providing, protecting, and expanding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. We will never back down from that fight..." Why such honesty? Perhaps Dr. Wen now feels she's free from the need to insist, as her predecessor did, that women in certain areas of the country won't get necessary female health services unless Congress keeps taxpayer dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood. Those monies are probably safe for now since Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she'll wield a "pro-choice gavel." So Dr. Wen can drop the ruse. This theme of transparency is also taking hold in pro-abortion activism. A group called Shout Your Abortion seeks to portray abortion as a social good. Shout Your Abortion recently released a video with the title: "Kids Meet Someone Who Has Had an Abortion." It's an episode of Kids Meet, a show put out for children by Cut.com. In it, Shout Your Abortion's Co-Founder Amanda Bonow attempts to convince several children that they should celebrate abortion with her. She tells them: "abortions are part of God's plan." Uncomfortable, sort of like a yucky dental appointment. But afterward, she felt "grateful that I wasn't pregnant anymore." She asks one child, "Do we want people to have all those babies?" When he suggests adoption as a solution, she tells him, adoption would make her feel like "I am forced to create life." Such an evil effort to make abortion palatable to children.