National Mission’s Day denounces Planned Parenthood

By Adriane Heins

Responding to a July 14 undercover video seemingly implicating Planned Parenthood in the sale of unborn children’s body parts, the Rev. Bart Day, executive director of the LCMS Office of National Mission, issued a statement reminding LCMS Lutherans that “We are for life, no matter the cost.”

The video, released by the Center for Medical Progress, shows Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing abortion procedures and the cost of infant organs. In the video, Nucatola can be heard saying, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver.”

“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,” Day writes. “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.”

Day urges Lutherans to speak up about “the shameful act of killing children — as well as harvesting their body parts,” even if it makes for an uncomfortable work environment or is unpopular at home or in school.

“If that is the case,” he notes, “so be it. Because as Lutherans, as Christians, we are for life, no matter the cost.”

Urging repentance and forgiveness, Day also says that Lutherans are not without their own fault in the matter. “Where we have failed to speak and act for life, we repent,” he says. “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 there is good news as well, Day explains. “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.”

Ultimately urging Lutherans to speak for life — through emails, Facebook, Twitter and letters to the editor — he urges all Christians to pray that God “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.”

Read Day’s entire statement here.

To listen to comments from National Right to Life Committee President Carol Tobias; Lutherans For Life Executive Director Rev. Dr. James Lamb; and the Rev. Christopher Esget, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Alexandria, Va., on this topic — made during a July 16 press conference at the LCMS International Center in St. Louis — click here. Also available is video footage of the press conference.

To watch a clip of Nucatola’s discussion regarding abortion and infant body parts, click here.

To read a Reporter Online story about a new ultrasound-based resource for middle- and high-school students, “What is This? Looking at Life in the Womb,” click here.

Adriane Heins ( adriane.heins@lcms.org ) is managing editor of The Lutheran Witness and editor of Catechetical Information for LCMS Communications.

Posted July 15, 2015 / Updated July 17, 2015