Please Speak Into the Mic

So this morning bright and early, the folks over at Planned Parenthood (@PPact) said enough is enough and posted a gif video of a minion dropping a microphone.

There are several things to note about this moment:

First, God’s sense of humor should not be lost on us. #StandWithPP is a great new hashtag, along with #StandToPP and #SittoPP as one friend noted.

Second, the irony is pretty deep when the words say they won’t be “bullied into silence” while the picture is of a minion dropping a mic. On the surface, the tweet accuses anti-abortionists of being minions, but it’s not clear exactly how that’s supposed to be a put down. Minions are the semi-obnoxious and endearing, goofball servants of Gru from the Despicable Me movies. I haven’t seen the latest Minion movie, but unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty sure they’re the heroes of the show. But the rhetorical effect of the tweet with the gif suggests that @PPact sort of thinks they are the cool ones. Their dismissive tweet is so outrageously brilliant and sexy, they need only drop the mic and walk out of the room. It’s all very contradictory and irrational and postmodern, but assuming they’re going for the latter cool cat mic drop move, we’re still left wondering: So which is it? Do you plan to say something into the microphone or just keep dropping it as if you said something powerful and persuasive?

Third, and the primary point we need to make, is that as it stands, Planned Parenthood and abortion supporters refuse to actually speak. They refuse to step up to the mic and actually explain what abortion is and does to the smallest human beings in our land. No one is “bullying” them into silence. They are refusing to speak, and at this point apparently the best they can do is pick up random microphones and drop them dramatically as if that is a convincing explanation.

But the American people would honestly like to know what Deborah Nucatola meant when she said:

I’d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps.

First off, most of us pro-lifers are slow, meathead neanderthals, but we were under the impression that abortion providers were against ultrasounds. Every time we suggest that idea, we get shouted down as if seeing what’s inside a mother’s womb isn’t helpful or something. That’s always seemed a little suspicious to us. It’s like you’re a four year old kid coming out of a bedroom and slamming the door behind you and leaning against it, assuring everyone that there’s nothing in there, nothing to see at all, nothing, nada, zilch. Except now you tell us that sometimes you use ultrasounds to remove livers. Again, we’re certainly not as intelligent as all you fancy-shmancy rich progressive types from Ivy League schools, but we’ve all been under the impression that a liver is an organ inside a person’s body. Maybe we could use one of them ultrasound machines and see?

Anyway, if you’ve changed your mind about ultrasounds, can the women watch while you do this simple, harmless procedure now? Can the patients watch while you go hunting with your forceps for those livers? How about some YouTube clips of the procedures just like on the Discovery Channel? If not, why not? Again, it would be helpful if you actually used that microphone. Step right up and speak into the mic. Don’t just drop it on the floor again. That’s not quite the same thing as answering the question.

Or what about when Ms. Nucatola said:

So then you’re just kind of cognizant of where you put your graspers, you try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that, you know, we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m going to basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact. And with the calvarium, in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex, because when it’s vertex presentation, you never have enough dilation at the beginning of the case, unless you have real, huge amount of dilation to deliver an intact calvarium. So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end.

We don’t usually use words like “calvarium” and “thorax”, but that’s a “skull” and “chest cavity” right? So again, that’s really interesting since on your website you say:

A tube is inserted through the cervix into the uterus. Either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus. Sometimes, an instrument called a curette is used to remove any remaining tissue that lines the uterus. It may also be used to check that the uterus is empty.

But this description doesn’t say anything about the head/calvarium or chest/thorax of the baby. I guess that’s what you’re emptying from the woman’s uterus? You know in most medical procedures there’s “full disclosure,” a thorough explanation of everything that will take place, along with any attending risks. Do you tell the women that come in for abortions that you will be crushing the baby’s head or body? Or what about Dr. Mary Gatter’s assertion that their technicians can use “less crunchy” forms of extraction in order to keep specimens intact? What exactly would “crunch”? How is that “gentle” again? Do you tell them that you’ll be hunting for intact organs like the baby’s heart or lungs or brains? Again, please speak clearly into the microphone. We would like you to speak. No one is demanding your silence.

And what does she mean when she says:

“Let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, then it’s fine, if it’s still low, then we can bump it up,” she said. “I want a Lamborghini.”

It really doesn’t help to have you talking about the video being heavily edited and calling for investigations of the undercover interviewers. It really only makes you look like the bully. It makes you look insecure and afraid. It almost looks like you’re trying to bully us into silence.

So once more just to be really clear. We would like to talk. We would like you to talk. We would like you to answer our questions about exactly what happens during an abortion. Exactly what are you doing with fetal organs? And how much money do various clinics receive for them? What is the going rate for baby parts?

Please speak into the mic.