Politicians must tamp down rhetoric in light of anti-abortion violence

“No more baby parts.” This was the sentiment repeated by Robert Dear as he fired his gun at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last Friday. Three people lost their lives, and nine others were injured in the attack. Mass shootings are an epidemic in this country that have gone largely unaddressed by politicians, as the country comes to stalemate about the balance between individual gun rights and the safety of citizens. This week’s incident, however, has implications beyond the general issues brought up by all mass shootings; Dear’s comments allude to recent allegations against Planned Parenthood which assert that the organization illegally trafficked and profited from the organs of unborn fetuses.

The allegations are based on a series of videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion advocacy group. Experts analyzed these videos and found that they were based on deceptive editing, and that the allegations were, in fact, untrue. Despite the facts, most of the Republican presidential candidates have made statements demonizing the organization for a policy that doesn’t exist in the first place.

Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., accused Planned Parenthood of coercing women into having abortions “so that those tissues can be harvested and sold for a profit.” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas stated, “we are now a nation that harvests the body parts of little baby boys and girls.It is the very definition of inhumanity to treat children like agriculture, to be grown and killed for their body parts, to be sold for profit.”Carly Fiorina made what was perhaps the most outrageous statement, consistently repeating that she had witnessed in one of the videos the killing of a “fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking,” so that its brain could later be harvested. Such footage does not exist, and her claims had been proven false over and over again. Still, she has refused to relent. Additionally, twenty-four hours passed before a single Republican candidate even expressed sympathy for the victims of the attack.

The organization that Cruz once declared a “criminal enterprise” has actually helped thousands of women get access to the health care they need. Planned Parenthood receives $450 million annually in federal funding, and the idea that this money is primarily for abortions is unfounded.In fact, that funding is only used for abortions in cases where the mother's life is in danger, or if they are victims of rape. The political rhetoric used to justify attacks against Planned Parenthood not only endangers the health care rights of these women, but has also begun to endanger the very lives of our citizens. Politicians must act more responsibly about the claims they make regarding Planned Parenthood, or their words may continue to fuel and encourage the climate of violence in which Robert Dear was able to perpetrate his attack.