Rep. Diane Black: “Pro-life movement is a compassionate movement’

Representative Diane Black (R-TN) has rightfully denounced the shooting which occurred last Friday at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs. She also rightfully denounced those who would try to use the tragedy to attack the pro-life movement.

Black spoke to Bill Bennett on his Morning in America radio show, and also penned a piece for Townhall titled “The Heart of the Pro-Life Movement Is a Heart of Compassion: A Response to Colorado.”

In both, Black remains steadfast that she will not let the tragedy and political attacks to make her waiver in her cause.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAxpIQQKjvk]

Republican presidential candidates like Carly Fiorina have called out the left for politicizing the issue, and Black does the same:

On attempts by pro-abortion politicians and mainstream media figures to link Friday’s violence to the pro-life movement:

This is irresponsible what the left is doing in politicizing this. This is a deranged man who committed heinous murders . . . The pro-life movement is a compassionate movement. We respect life and the dignity of life, even for those who disagree with us. So in any way tying this to something that would be said is a pro-life responsibility is totally irresponsible and I am really offended by people using this as a political ploy. I hope that will stop but … folks who don’t know what else to do with themselves will do this kind of thing and it’s despicable.

And, as it turns out, it’s not just Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains which is blaming pro-lifers. Jeff Teague, president of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, has made such claims as well.  Teague also lashed out against pro-lifers for “continued, repeated lies” about the organization he works for.

Unfortunately for Teague and Planned Parenthood, those “lies” are actually hard truths about the organization that kills more than 300,000 preborn children every year in the U.S. – truths like the fact that Planned Parenthood sells aborted fetal body parts to organizations for experimentation and research. And the fact that they don’t do mammograms even though they’ve misled the public into thinking they did. And the fact that they have been exposed for helping to cover up the sexual abuse of minors, for being willing to commit sex-selective abortions, for lying to women about fetal development, and much more – all of which are supported by video evidence.

And as Black pointed out, criticism of Planned Parenthood comes from information the organization’s own annual report:

So when we talk about 327,000 abortions each year, when we talk about cancer screenings, adoption referrals, and prenatal care that are declining services there, and abortions are rising – that $500 million in taxpayer dollars are funded each year for Planned Parenthood, these are all things that come from their own organization’s annual report. So when he talks about this being false and ‘repeated lies’ he needs to talk to his own organization – his national organization. We are only out there telling the truth and standing up for what we believe is a value of life.

Fortunately, Black also had words of advice for pro-lifers on how they can respond to such ridiculous and “false charges that their beliefs have incited violence”:

We should never back down on wanting to be sure that we are doing the right thing in protecting life. We should never back down on that, no matter what the left does in politicizing something. Again, this is highly condemned by anybody who is a pro-life person. We condemn violence. Abortion is violence and we condemn violence and [respect the] dignity of life – born and unborn. But we also have a dignity for people that disagree with us. So I think you just use the facts. You don’t back down from the moral obligation that we have in making sure that what is done here in this country is done with respect. So that is the way I will handle this.

Black made many of the similar points in her piece for Townhall, also going into more detail about the future of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, of which she is a part. Pro-abortion Sen. Barbara Boxer (the same woman who claimed a baby has rights when his family decides to take him home from the hospital) has lied about Planned Parenthood and has called for the disbandment of the committee:

Equally disappointing were the comments from Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who called for the disbandment of Congress’s Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, of which I am a member. Boxer called the panel a “witch hunt against Planned Parenthood,” though Planned Parenthood is mentioned nowhere in the House resolution calling for the panel’s formation.

It is true that many of my pro-life colleagues and I have offered tough critiques of Planned Parenthood. The House of Representatives additionally passed legislation that I authored earlier this year to defund Planned Parenthood for a period of one year and reallocate those dollars to the more than 13,500 community health centers nationwide. I stand by that effort.

As Black mentions, we must not let the terrible act committed by one deranged man affect our support for saving all lives, including the preborn.