by David Currie

 

Ken picked the topic “Planned Parenthood” for our focus this issue.  I agreed but I have to admit, I know next to nothing about Planned Parenthood.  I’m a 62 year old male.  I have never sought guidance for family planning, not do I have any “women’s health issues.”  I did read men can go for education or contraceptive services.  I have known their President, Cecile Richards for many years but haven’t talked to her in at least 15 years.

 

Planned Parenthood has been in the news over some videos that I have read are “doctored” that imply they harvest aborted fetuses and sell them.  What I have read is that this is part of medical research, which I have no problem with, and they are sold for expenses only and very little of this is even done.  In fact, abortion services are only 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides.

 

Still, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is leading an effort to completely defund Planned Parenthood even if it means shutting the government down.  I find this a bit of an over-reaction but Cruz specializes in outrageous behavior and statements.  I find the man quite embarrassing personally.

 

My reading indicates that Planned Parenthood has been around since 1916.  It provides very valuable health care services, especially to poor women.  38% of what they do is testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases; 33.5% of what they provide is contraception services (both temporary and permanent); 14.5% of what they do is cancer screening (my wife has had breast cancer as has 5 other family members); 10.45 is pregnancy testing and prenatal treatment.  They also have a large number of educational services.

 

They do provide abortions, about 3% of what they do, but no federal money they receive can be used to provide an abortion.  They get about one-third of their money from the government, either from Medicaid (about 75% of the government money) or from the Title X Family Planning Program.

 

Now I am pro-life.  I wish no one got an abortion, but it is the law that they can and I think it probably should be legal, just not done much.  I also wish no one had premarital sex or extramarital sex, but as my Momma used to say often, “you have to live in the real world.”

 

It appears to me Planned Parenthood does a great deal of good and in reality prevents many abortions because of the contractive services they provide.  Think about it, the less unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, the less abortions.  So it seems shutting Planned Parenthood down will simply lead to more abortions and that is something I do not want to see happen. 

 

Fanatics, especially religious fanatics, never have perspective from my experience.  They are like a person who is willing to burn a house down to get rid of termites.  It’s best to have a bit more perspective.

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David R. Currie is the new Tom Green Democratic Chair.  David is a native of Paint Rock in Concho County where family came in 1879, and continues to ranch there as well as in the Christoval area where he and his wife Loretta live.  Married for over 30 years, they have a blended family of 5 children and 10 grandchildren.

 

He is a graduate of Howard Payne University and also has masters and doctors degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminiary in Fort Worth where he did his doctoral work on agricultural policy and the Bible and received his degree in Christian Ethics.

 

He is a former pastor, staff member of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission which focuses on ethical issues and religious liberty and retired Executive Director of Texas Baptist Committed.  He was also sheep and goat specialist with the Texas Department of Agriculture in the 80's when Jim Hightower was Ag. Commissioner.

 

David is the author of two books, On the Way and Songs in the Desert as well as hundreds of articles that can be found at www.txbc.org.  

 

He is currently the president of Cornerstone Builders and Angelo Granite Worx, and managing partner of Stonewall Ranches development company.  He has served three terms as president of the San Angelo Home Builders Association, served on the Better Business Bureau board, as a board member of Howard Payne University, The Interfaith Alliance, The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and is current Vice-chair of the San Angelo Adult Literacy Council.  He and Loretta are members of Southland Baptist Church.

 

by Ken Casper

 

In ancient times, when a child was born with a birth defect, it was taken to the top of a mountain and left there for the gods. The process was called “exposure.” In more recent times, as late as the 20th century, a severely deformed newborn was put aside and denied nourishment so that it expired of “benign neglect.” In both cases the rationale was essentially the same: such offspring had no chance of living a decent, happy life. Letting their tormented existence end as quickly and painlessly as possible was seen as an act of mercy. Note that in both cases, the infant’s life was not actively terminated. It was left to the gods or to Mother Nature to determine its fate.

 

Enter the 21st century. Today we don’t end the lives of children because they won’t be able to live happy, productive lives, but because their mothers find their existence inconvenient.

 

This nation, so blessed by nature and by nature’s God, has turned the corner on morality. We have become a den of vipers, dedicated not to the welfare of humanity, but to our own selfish pleasures. Not only does our government allow perfectly normal fetuses and viable, healthy infants to die of neglect, benign or otherwise, it promotes and funds programs designed to wantonly kill them. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans in barbarous times weren’t that heartless.

 

Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, a rabid racist, whose admitted goal was the minimizing, and if possible, the elimination, of the Negro in our society. Her approach was to convince blacks to use contraception to lower their birth rate until their presence became negligible. Today a greater proportion of black babies (37%) are aborted than white babies (22%).

 

In recent years eugenicists have gone one step further. Not only is a woman encouraged to not get pregnant, but if she does, Margaret Sanger’s spawn will help her get rid of the unwanted little bastard. I use the last word reluctantly but accurately, because 86% of the aborted children are conceived out of wedlock. Oh, and in the process, under the guise of medical research, Planned Parenthood makes a neat profit by selling the little tyke’s body parts.

 

I believe very strongly in planning parenthood. The first step is marriage. The second is responsible behavior in marriage. Don’t have kids until you’re psychologically and financially ready. But if there is an unplanned pregnancy, count your blessings and love God’s precious gift; don’t murder it.

           

That’s the ideal world, critics will say. The real world isn’t so kind and gentle. Okay, let’s take a look at this real world.

 

Thanks to unprecedented advances in medicine and therapeutic technology, many of the conditions that would previously have resulted in exposure or benign neglect can now be cured, minimized or compensated for so successfully that even the most severely disabled can live decent, dignified and productive lives.

 

If a woman cannot or refuses to handle the responsibility of caring for an unintended child, there is an alternative: put it up for adoption. Thousands of married couples are unable to have children but want them; others have the means and desire to support more than they have and are emotionally and financially able to provide for children with severe handicaps. The benevolence and generosity of Americans is so great that thousands of children are adopted from overseas every year. To suggest, therefore, that aborted babies aren’t wanted is a lie. They’re only unwanted by their mothers. It isn’t the “real world” that’s killing babies. It’s abortionists, like Planned Parenthood.

 

Is abortion ever justified? What about rape and incest?

 

Whether pregnancy results from the loving union of a husband and wife, the drunken fornication of strangers at a wild party, the violent assault on an unwilling woman or illicit sexual relations between close members of the same family is immaterial. Human life has been created. It deserves love and protection. I understand why a victim of rape or incest may not be able to raise that child for psychological, emotional, financial or safety reasons. Under those circumstances, putting it up for adoption may well be both appropriate and the best course of action. Killing it is not.

 

As for saving the life of the mother, Dr. Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, who has delivered thousand of babies in critical situations, answered that question very well. He called it a strawman, a false premise, because the situation is so rare as to be virtually non-existent. If the choice did have to be made, however, it would indeed be up to the mother.

 

What should be done about Planned Parenthood? To start with, defund it. Then arrest and try all the abortionists for murder. Arrest and try all the people who work at abortion clinics as accessories to murder, because that’s what they are.

 

Since the Supreme Court gave its blessing to a woman’s right to abortion on demand in 1973, approximately 56 million pregnancies have been terminated. In this, the land that God loved, we’re killing babies because they are inconvenient. When a society sinks to that level of depravity, it’s over. We’ve entered the realm over which is inscribed: “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.”

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Ken Casper was born and raised in New York City a long time ago. After graduating from college, he entered the Air Force and was assigned to Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo for training. He served overseas tours of duty in Japan, Vietnam and Germany, as well as stateside assignments. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1993 and from Civil Service at Goodfellow in 1997. In 1998 he published his first novel, A Man Called Jesse. Twenty-four books followed, including Upstairs at Miss Hattie’s. During those years he became good friends with Dr. Pres Darby. In 2011, shortly before Pres’s death from ALS, they published a joint novel, Mankillers, a Civil War thriller. Since then, Ken has published three Jason Crow mysteries set in West Texas.

 

A staunch conservative, Ken was the second president of the San Angelo TEA Party, 2010-2011. He has remained active in local politics ever since.