Santa Barbara is the second county in California to pass a resolution honoring Planned Parenthood after videos were released exposing the company’s scandalous organ harvesting business. As LifeNews previously reported, the Los Angeles City Council passed a similar resolution in August.
In July, The Center for Medical Progress released videos showing Planned Parenthood’s top executives haggling over the price of aborted babies’ body parts, admitting to altering abortion procedures to procure salable organs and casually discussing ways their doctors can “crush” unborn babies to obtain fully intact parts. In a few of the most recent videos, the abortion company was caught harvesting the brain of an aborted baby who was still alive, and the tenth video shows Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of specific body parts, including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.
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The City Council of Santa Barbara adopted the resolution honoring Planned Parenthood in a 3-2 vote, and the two Supervisors who voted against it, Peter Adam and Steve Lavagnino, said the resolution included inflammatory language and was one sided. The resolution stated that “some anti-abortion extremist organizations have released heavily-edited videos that intentionally misrepresent the facts in order to deceive the public and discredit Planned Parenthood with the goal of banning abortion and defunding Planned Parenthood, thereby preventing women from receiving birth control, life-saving cancer screenings, and access to other preventive healthcare services.”
One of the Supervisors who voted for the resolution, Salud Carbajal, previously served on Planned Parenthood’s board of directors. He said, “For me, it’s about protecting the rights of women to have sovereignty over their bodies. I’m a man and I stand here today proud to support Planned Parenthood and I would do it over and over and over again.”
Additionally, Supervisor Janet Wolf said she supported the resolution because abortion is only a small part of Planned Parenthood’s organization. She said Congressional efforts to de-fund the organization were “concerning” and that she’s very proud the council brought the resolution forward. She said, “This is a county issue.” However, the truth is abortion is not a small part of the organization’s business since it made up 94% of their pregnancy services in 2013 alone.
Jenna Tosh, the CEO of Planned Parenthood in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Lois Obispo, spoke at the hearing and claimed that she had 70 letters of support from citizens in the county. She said, “Fetal tissue research has been happening under congressional oversight since 1993. The outrageous allegations in these videos are simply not true.”
Noozhawk News reports that dozens of pro-life citizens from Santa Barbara attended the hearing and spoke against the resolution. One speaker said, “As a taxpayer and citizen, I would ask that this resolution not be adopted.” Another explained that he was against the resolution and shared that he and his wife were pressured to abort their daughter after learning she had Down syndrome. He said, “I didn’t take that option and this is the best blessing that I ever could have taken.”
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Unfortunately, a similar measure passed the Santa Barbara City Council earlier this week. On September 15th, Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider and councilwoman Cathy Murillo brought a resolution forward in support of Planned Parenthood. Mayor Schneider is a former Planned Parenthood employee and said she is proud to support the abortion company. She said, “I think it is important to stand with an organization that has been unduly attacked.”
ACTION: Complain to the Santa Barbara city council by going here.
