A new animated film from the abortion provider highlights its terminology discrepancy.
The nation’s largest abortion provider described an unborn human being as both a “pregnancy” and as a “baby.” The only difference was in the audience: The former was the term used for women seeking an abortion, while the latter was for preschoolers.
Planned Parenthood used the b-word in a November 14 video for parents. The three-minute animated film — “How Do I Talk With My Kid About Where Babies Come From?” — has gone largely unnoticed by the media, even though an earlier video for parents about gender made headlines recently. This one proved just as newsworthy, if only because of Planned Parenthood’s discrepancy.
At the film’s beginning, a female narrator recommends that parents “keep it simple and direct” with younger children. A parent might say that a “baby grows in a parent’s belly and comes out their vagina.” Or, if that’s not enough information for little ones, parents can add that “if sperm and egg meet, they can grow into a baby.”
But while the narrator was ready and willing to mention birth — and even birth-control — in the video meant for children’s education, she didn’t mention the issue of abortion.
Online, in its resources for pregnant women, Planned Parenthood calls abortion the “ending of a pregnancy.” But for children, abortion would be the ending of a “baby” if they learn, as Planned Parenthood instructs, that it is a baby that grows inside their mother’s belly.
Avoiding the topic of abortion appears to be a trend under Planned Parenthood’s new president, Leana Wen. As Alexandra DeSanctis pointed out last month on National Review, Wen “did not say the word ‘abortion’ a single time” during a CBS interview she gave her first day as president.
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At the same time, Planned Parenthood is responsible for performing millions of abortions since Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in America. According to its most recent annual report, for 2016 to 2017, Planned Parenthood performed 321,384 abortions in just one year.
In its online resources for parents, recommended by the video, Planned Parenthood continues to avoid abortion while telling parents “how to be your kid’s go-to resource for answers and advice, from pre-K to college” on “sex, puberty, bodies, and relationships.”
Preschool isn’t too early, Planned Parenthood’s site argues, even though “your child is a long way off from deciding whether or not to having a baby.” While five-year-olds might be content to hear that a “baby grows in a mother’s belly,” children in elementary school might want more detail, Planned Parenthood advises. For example, “If the sperm and egg meet up, it can start to grow into a baby” which “grows in the uterus for 9 months.”
It’s not until discussing middle school that Planned Parenthood’s site brings up abortion. But instead of telling parents how to describe abortion, it states:
Preteens need to know that pregnant people have 3 options: abortion, adoption, and parenting.
This is also a good opportunity to provide basic factual information, like that legal abortion is very safe and common, and that being a teen parent can make it harder (but certainly not impossible) to achieve your future goals.
Parenting, never mind teen parenting, is difficult. But abortion is never safe. That’s because, with every pregnancy, there’s more than one person’s future at stake — regardless of the terminology.
LifeNews Note: Katie Yoder writes for National Review, where this originally appeared.
