The American people should have been suspicious when the two filmmakers who secretly recorded events at a Planned Parenthood location were revealed as anti-abortionists. There should have been little doubt that their efforts were ‘photo-shopped’ to place the agency in a precarious position. However, extremists in the right wing of the GOP, led by Ted Cruz, began to belittle an institution which has assisted tens of million poor women with reproductive organ problems for decades. They also failed to state the fact that no federal funds provided to Planned Parenthood are used for abortion. None of this stopped Ted Cruz.

The junior Senator from Texas, and a presidential wannabee, was relentless. As the nation faced another government shutdown if a spending bill was not passed, Cruz threatened to ensure that it happened if Planned Parenthood was not defunded. He was not supported by his peers.

So, how much money does this organization receive annually? The figure is just over $528 million throughout the United States. The majority of the remaining budget comes from private donations, approximately 30 percent. In contrast, the Defense Department, which has proven to waste nearly half of its budget, receives nearly $600 billion.

Texas has decided to remove any state funding for Planned Parenthood in an ever increasing war against low income and poor women in their state. Ted Cruz approves of his state’s action, and his basis for that agreement has nothing to do with his job description as a federal employee; it’s based 100 percent on his pseudo-Christian religious beliefs, and his need to have support from the Christian religious right for his campaign.

CNN is offering proof that the films delivered to the GOP were altered to discredit this decades’ old organization whose prime purpose is to save lives.

In the film, made by the fictitiously named the ‘Center for Medical Progress,’ under the guidance of David Daleiden, was produced in similarity to a ‘news story’ on FOX; in other words, it was fallacious and misleading.

Daleiden wanted to show a fetus which had been aborted at 19 weeks in the hands of a Planned Parenthood staff member, but he did not have one. In reality, which was not important to Daleiden, the baby had been stillborn to Alexis Fretz in 2013, and the location was not a Planned Parenthood facility. Fretz had posted the photo herself to honor her stillborn son who she named ‘Walter.’ Daleiden downloaded the picture for his own purposes. Just like a FOX faux-journalist, he said that it did not matter; the fetus he was discussing in his doctored film was approximately the same age as ‘Walter.’

A second part of the film was debunked, but only after presidential wannabee Carly Fiorina uttered a falsehood regarding a botched abortion during the second GOP debate. She cited the part of the film which displayed the account of a fetus whose arms and legs were moving after an abortion at a Planned Parenthood location. The problem is that Daleiden now admits that he has no knowledge about the origin of the film and doubted that it was at a Planned Parenthood facility.

This has been GOP policy for nearly fifteen years; rush to judgement and take rash action before the facts are proven. Ted Cruz has been at the forefront of this movement and is the leading hypocrite.

Cruz and his ilk would move our nation backwards to a time when women were third class citizens, and poor women sought abortions in an alley with the use of a wire coat hanger. He would provide services only for the wealthy, while the number of those living at the poverty level rises at an alarming rate, and is unable to seek any form of medical care.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey