The Planned Parenthood videos have made a difference

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

It’s been three months since the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) started posting undercover videos about Planned Parenthood’s participation in the fetal tissue business. Since then, public opinion has shifted against the abortion giant, states have moved to defund the organization, and Planned Parenthood has stopped accepting reimbursement for providing aborted baby body parts to scientific researchers.

I spoke with John Stonestreet this week about the lasting effects of CMP’s campaign.

“Finally, this organization’s under scrutiny,” Stonestreet said of Planned Parenthood. “It hasn’t been, and it’s essentially been allowed to do whatever it wants.” Stonestreet referenced how, in 2012, the Susan G. Komen foundation retreated from a decision not to support Planned Parenthood because it didn’t directly provide mammograms. Planned Parenthood’s supporters publicly shamed Komen into keeping up its support for the organization.

“That was the kind of untouchable status that Planned Parenthood once had. I don’t think it has that now,” Stonestreet said.

Some pro-life leaders have cautioned that Planned Parenthood might put to rest the scandal over its trade in baby body parts by its decision not to accept reimbursement for it. The organization could even elicit sympathy for its loss of a revenue stream and raise more money from donors in the long run.

Still, Stonestreet said, CMP’s campaign “gives us the opportunity continually to clarify what’s true in this whole debate, and I think we can see it move the cultural needle,” such as when the web magazine Slate ran an article debunking Planned Parenthood’s claim that only 3 percent of its business is abortion-related.

“I think it’s a momentum-generating event, so I still think it’s two thumbs up on these videos,” Stonestreet said.

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