Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We logged on to the Internet and Facebook yesterday only to be hit with a sickening story: undercover video footage seemingly implicating Planned Parenthood in the sale of the body parts of aborted children.
In the video, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, discusses how she adjusts abortion procedures to procure certain parts of a child’s body, even as she notes that “we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver.”
Listen long enough, if you can handle it, and you’ll hear her suggest that such items could eventually be listed on a Planned Parenthood “menu” for affiliate organizations to purchase for a price.
Later in the day, Planned Parenthood released a “nothing to see here” kind of statement, asserting that the discussion was merely one revolving around a patient’s right to donate tissue, as with any medical procedure. But why does Nucatola then mention the costs of body parts (“Thirty to one hundred dollars,” she says)?
Lord, have mercy.
If what Nucatola says is, in fact, the truth, we as Christians cannot allow this story to go untold or be buried by the media. We simply cannot remain silent while the reprehensible act of killing a child in the womb is made even worse by selling portions of that child’s dismembered body simply because there is a market for them.
Speaking up about the shameful act of killing children — as well as harvesting their body parts — may be uncomfortable. We may lose friends and create awkward tension at work. Our professors may mock us, and our family may roll their eyes at us. If that is the case, so be it. Because as Lutherans, as Christians, we are for life, no matter the cost.
As Lutherans, we confess that every life has value, that it has worth, that it matters … from the moment of conception until natural death occurs. We confess that what Nucatola calls “17-weekers” are actually children — with beating hearts and little moving fingers and toes.
We confess that even the tiniest of humans are just that — regardless of what scientific term the culture uses to make them seem like something less. We confess that they are created in the image and likeness of our Lord Himself. And we confess that because of Him, their hearts and lungs and livers matter, no matter how small they might be.
We also admit our own failings in this regard. Where we have failed to speak and act for life, we repent. Where we have not cared for mothers in crisis-pregnancy situations, we ask for forgiveness. Where we have thought more of ourselves than giving to an organization that can assist those moms and babies, we are sorry. Where we have been apathetic to this pandemic of death, we grieve.
But we are not without hope, because our Lord is for life too.
He is so pro-life, in fact, that He has given His own life for us, even as He has laid it down for these tiniest of children. Where their short lives are taken, He offers up His willingly. Where their little bodies are sold, He gives His freely to us at His holy table for the forgiveness of our sins.
Today let us confess life with renewed vigor — to our friends over supper, through letters to the editor of our local paper, by writing our congressmen, in tweets and emails to Planned Parenthood, on our Facebook pages.
Let us pray that our Lord would bring an end to abortion altogether and that He would stop the horrible sale of infant bodies.
And let us pray that He would forgive us, renew us and bolster us to make a good confession in season and out of season: one that is always, no matter what, for life.
Rev. Bart Day, executive director
Life and Health Ministries
LCMS Office of National Mission
Resources
- Two-hour video footage of Planned Parenthood executive’s
discussion regarding infant body parts - Eight-minute video clip version of the above
- Written transcript of the video footage
- “Planned Parenthood exec, fetal body parts subject of controversial video” (CNN)
- “Planned Parenthood sells dead baby parts” (Fox News)
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Thank you SO much for getting this message out to all. Although our church body (LCMS) has always taken this stance, it is time to speak out loud & clear regarding such a horrible practice: whether we’re talking harvesting the parts or the abortion. The way she discusses it, even if it was “set up”, is chilling. She talks as if she’s harvesting tomatoes or grapes. It is another reminder of the world’s sinful nature & pull from the Lord. All along though, we ever look to God for guidance, hold strong to His word, & pray for all those involved with the hope & promise of a Heavenly resurrection. Thanks, again for not being afraid to post it to social media.
I will stand up for these little ones. I will be thier voice. I will not be afraid. God does not give us a spirit of fear but of love and if power and of a sound mind. I ask God to forgive the woman in the video and ask Him in his mercy to unfreeze her heart. I pray that she will blaze forth in the light of Christ and become a powerful advocate for the lives of these babies. I pray that she will fall to her knees in anguish before God atwhat she has done
Thank you LCMS leadership for speaking with a loud voice for life, at every stage! We also need to continue giving help to the hurting pregnant women in crisis situations that would fall victim to Planned Parenthood & their evil. We have made great strides in making abortion unthinkable but need to continue the fight until ever innocent baby is saved. To God be the glory for His mercy on us & our fight!
God bless you. Thank you for defending the fatherless. May you continue to be of good courage and stand firm.
Foetal tissue is not sold. Period. If it is/was, we could press charges against them, as it is a crime.
Will you recant, or address your misinterpretation when it becomes obvious that a crime was not committed? I hope so.
Let us perform an independent audit on PP. Many millions of sheckles have been added to their books by trafficking in innocent human lives and body parts. PP is and has always been one big festering lie.
So the abortion industry gives the vaccine industry free fetal tissue to use in its vaccines? How generous….
Did you read the statement? There was no accusation that a legal crime was committed. The church is rightfully denouncing a crime, not against government’s laws, but against immutable moral law and nature.
I am glad that the LCMS is letting it’s voice be heard in regard to this situation. I do, however, take issue with the leadership of the LCMS for it’s failure to take issue with and protest the manufacture of vaccines which are made with fetal cells from aborted babies. According to my previous local LCMS pastor (I transferred to a different LCMS church,in part, because of his stance on this issue) , he and the church have no objection to the use of aborted babies in the production of vaccines including: chicken pox?shingles(varicella) vaccine, MMR, etc. One of the cell lines ( there are several) from an electively aborted baby which is used in these vaccines is WI-38. I think that the church is obligated to inform itself on this matter and speak out against the use of aborted babies in vaccine manufacture, a for-profit industrial giant.
Bart,
I’m a friend of Rev. Don Brand in NJ. Thank you for this heads up and especially for your faithfulness to the cause of Christ,
Dean
Thank you for your article. I would love to send this to our local newspaper so that more people can read it.
Marilyn
Thank you for this important letter. However, the video was deceptively edited, as the independent Media Matters notes: http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/07/14/attack-on-planned-parenthood-3-deceptive-edits/204419
Tim congratulations. Media Matters is not quite independent. I suspect you know they are a progressive leftist propaganda org. i suspect this is not your own first attempt to deceive. Nice try.
The entire unedited video was released at the same time. The editing did not change the substance of the video. Media Matters–which is not even close to an unbiased source–and a number of other outlets published the talking points that they were given by Planned Parenthood.
Tim, even If the letter was indeed deceptively edited, the words were in fact said as any viewer can see. This individual and perhaps this organization behind the scenes has completely devalued human life at a level similar to Nazi Europe. Since I have lost one of my own twin boys to tragic circumstances at birth, I know that their is no question of when the soul is created, and after reading God’s word there is also clearly no question on what is considered life and what is not.
Perhaps considering looking at this issue with God’s eyes. Have we sunk so low as a country, as a society, as mankind that we view organs of the unborn as scientific data for experiments or research? How does God view our people and our complacently with this evil? Is tolerating this what God wants? Therefore, it does not matter if the video was deceptively edited. This murder of millions and in most cases to cover up another sin reaches the highest level of evil known in human history. If worshiping idols for the Jewish people angered God so much? How does he view the complacently on this issue of those that call to Jesus as their savior. Others say “to each his own.” Was that the stance of the prophets as the Jewish nation tumbled downward into sin? Do you think that if Jesus was on earth today that he would ignore this dark sin that plagues our society?
PP still murders innocent babies and makes money off of their bodies. Sickening, despicable, immoral, and sinful.
I apologize for causing people to be upset. I saw this press release and was horrified, as you all were. I looked up to see if the charges were true and I found this information from Media Matters. I thought it looked like an independent source–I’m sorry I didn’t do more research. I, like you all, do not think that people should be killing babies. The crime of abortion is horrific enough–it does not need to be lied about.
It was my assumption that we as Christians have a duty to be honest. When people disregard the truth and deceptively edit videos, it does not help change laws or save lives. It makes people who try to change laws and save lives look like people who disregard the truth. As I suspected would happen, commentators in the paper this week jumped on the deceptive editing of the video and the way it presents a false picture of what is really going on. Instead of doing any good, it made anyone who is against abortion appear to be a moral nihilist willing to deceive, lie, and commit fraud. This does not help anyone–it harms our ability to thoughtfully engage people.
Again, I’m sorry.
Amen.
Rev. Day, May the Lord bless you and continue to give you a voice to stir our hearts into action.
I cried when I saw this terrible video on television, and cried even more when I was realized that I have not been as active these last several years as I had been in the past.
Clinic volunteering, distributing Pro-Life literature, giving monetarily to Christian Clinics that help women keep their babies, spreading the truth about what goes on in abortion clinics, calling and writing our government officials is not too much to ask of ourselves. I too repent and pray that one day Roe vs. Wade will no longer be the law of the land.
I am a reformed abortioner who is now learning the meaning of life.! Keep up the good work in word and deed to associate those lost without the truth. I cannot express the hidden grief my soul had secretly endured once I realized how very long and dark my rode in faith really had been. When the Church didn’t stop me, when friends had no advise, when family withdrew any acknowledgement, when I in my confidence in one more outreach resource was willing to help me rid me of a lonely motherhood; I thank my one true God and the LCMS’ Councels who tell the truth in Church and like here on your website there really is a way, the Way. Thanks be our God is the glory. Amen.