Babylon Bee Stings Planned Parenthood With All Too Real Satire

By Kathleen Patterson, CP Guest Contributor Friday, October 21, 2016

Christian satire website Babylon Bee article on Planned Parenthood. | (Photo: Screengrab, Babylon Bee)

The Babylon Bee reported this week that Planned Parenthood, in celebration of their 100^{th birthday, announced their plans to provide post-birth abortions.}

Kathleen Patterson, Ph.D. is a professor at the School of Business & Leadership, Regent University, and serves on the board of CareNet.

According to the Babylon Bee, Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood stated that "A woman should be able to determine her own destiny … That's why we're now allowing women to bring in any clump of cells younger than eighteen months, and they can count on us to be their advocate and take care of the problem right away."

While this is a Christian news satire site, the idea of post-birth abortion is not far-fetched — not at all. It is actually the new frontier of the pro-choice/abortion movement.

Two leading ethicists from Australia, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, advocate for post-birth abortion in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Their reasoning is that "fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons" and that "the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant."

This should scare every reader to the core of their human dignity.

Joining the cause is Canadian bioethicist and Philosophy professor Udo Schuklenk in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He advocates that it is the parents' choice to decide on what he calls postnatal abortion, based on severe impairments of neonates.

Get the picture here — the call to abort the already born child is being heralded from the world's ethicists, the ones who should be leading the way on right and wrong as well as guide us on how to make moral decisions. The scary part of this picture is the devaluing of life. We have seen the devaluing of life erode over the last many years with the legalization of abortion, the changes made in the laws of when abortions are legal, and even with the euthanasia movements.

We are told that aborting a baby is humane —

We are told that euthanizing a person who is horribly ill is humane —

And now we are being told if there is something wrong with your baby (loosely defined), then post-abortion is humane —

When did being humane become so inhumane?

The larger question is where will it stop? If we can kill before birth, and perhaps now after birth, and in cases of illness — why not the child who is terribly inconvenient at 10 years old, or the teen who is out of step at 14 years old, or the young adult who is unable to get a job, or … you get the idea. There is no limit here. As a society we can justify almost any reason to infringe up on the dignity of humankind if we know how to package the message for the masses.

The Babylon Bee stings with this story — but sadly it is more truth than satire.

Kathleen Patterson, Ph.D. is a professor at the School of Business & Leadership, Regent University, and serves on the board of CareNet.