Last night during dinner at my delightful in-laws home, the subject of Planned Parenthood and Fetal Part-gate came up. Their equally delightful neighbor was appalled at the cavalier manner in which Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussed the disposal and donation of fetal parts post abortion. She didn’t understand how this woman could be so blasé, candid and direct about something so emotionally and politically charged.
Not me. I totally get it. Here’s the deal: she was talking about a part of her normal, regular, workaday life and she thought she was with colleagues who also see fetal part donation as a normal, regular part of their workaday life.
Think about how you talk about your work with your family and friends. Now think about how to you talk about your work with your co-workers. My guess is you have inside jokes, complain about clients, and make comments you would NEVER make in front of someone who didn’t work with you or in your industry. You would not say these things to an outsider because they would be misconstrued, possibly offensive and could get you fired, right?
Here is what you can say to other adults about Fetal Part-gate:
It occurred to me that she thought she was talking to colleagues about something they had in common and her casual manner tells me that she thought they were on the same page and she didn’t need to screen her comments.
This is just like when you make jokes and say things to your co-workers that you would never, ever say in public or to people outside of your work.
Planned Parenthood does considerably more good in the world than they do “bad.” In fact, through their work, they prevent an average of 550,000 pregnancies each year.
So, kindly shut the fuck up about this and talk to your kids about sex and do whatever it takes to make sure they don’t have to deal with an unplanned pregnancy.
Well…maybe not that last part.
And here’s what you can say to your kids:
Sometimes, after a woman has an abortion, the doctor’s office will give the fetus to a company that does scientific research to cure or understand different medical conditions. Planned Parenthood has done this for years and this doctor made a mistake and talked to some people who were pretending to be from one of these companies.
They lied to her and because she thought they agreed with this policy she was very direct and open with them. Now a lot of people think Planned Parenthood makes a lot of money from this and are very upset about it. I think…
Obviously, you may need to explain to your kiddos what abortion is and your values about it.
