A prominent columnist said he might be changing his pro-choice stance in the wake of several controversial Planned Parenthood videos about abortion.
Ruben Navarrette Jr. of
The Daily Beast wrote in a column published Monday that he has avoided discussing the decisive issue during his 25-year writing career. After the "gruesome" videos were released, however, he has changed his tune.
"It's jarring to see doctors acting as negotiators as they dicker over the price of a fetal liver, heart, or brain, and then talk about how they meticulously go to the trouble of not crushing the most valuable body parts," Navarrette wrote. "This practice is perfectly legal, and for some people, it is just a business. With millions of abortions each year in America, business is good."
Navarrette then includes quotes from Hillary Clinton and David Daleiden, the latter of whom is the head of The Center for Medical Progress — the organization that filmed the undercover videos at the center of the controversy. In a statement, Daleiden said Planned Parenthood is involved in a "conspiracy."
"Planned Parenthood's system-wide conspiracy to evade the law and make money off of aborted fetal tissue is now undeniable,"
Daleiden said.
"Anyone who watches these videos knows that Planned Parenthood is engaged in barbaric practices and human rights abuses that must end."
To that, Navarrette wrote he has begun to question his pro-choice position.
"I agree with that assessment, and I'm pro-choice. At least I thought I was until recently," Navarrette wrote. "These days, each time, I express concern, outrage, disgust, or horror over another video — which should come with warnings that they may produce nightmares — some supporter of the organization responds by attacking me and insisting that I was never really pro-choice to begin with."
Navarrette, who according to his
personal website is married with children and lives in the San Diego area, wrote in his Daily Beast column that his wife is pro-life and has been "tearing into me" about his abortion stance in light of the videos.
"She's not buying my argument that, as a man, I have to defer to women and trust them to make their own choices about what to do with their bodies. To her, that's ridiculous — and cowardly," Navarrette wrote.
"I didn't like the scolding, but I needed to hear it. For those of us who are pro-choice, the Planned Parenthood videos are a game changer. As to whether that means I'll change my view, I'm not sure. I'm on the bubble. Ask me in a few weeks, after the release of more videos."
A fight in Washington, D.C. over whether to stop the flow of federal funds to Planned Parenthood ended with a
no vote in the Senate last week. That hasn't stopped
three states from defunding the group.
A doctor who used to work at a Planned Parenthood facility in Texas, meanwhile,
said this week that workers at the organization would "coerce" women into getting an abortion and then profit from selling aborted fetal body parts.
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