Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin doesn’t see any difference between Planned Parenthood and Kermit Gosnell, the provider of illegal abortions who is currently on trial for several counts of murder.
Speaking at a Planned Parenthood event this week , President Barack Obama denied rumors that he was distancing himself from the organization, reassuring them that they’re “not going anywhere.”
In seeming response, Palin took to Facebook to write a lengthy message in which she tied Planned Parenthood to the aforementioned Dr. Gosnell.
“Considering the role Planned Parenthood has played in looking the other way while the mass murdering abortion doctor Gosnell butchered babies born alive from his horrific infanticide procedures and abused his women patients, it’s perhaps not surprising that this same president sees nothing wrong with allowing his name to be so openly associated with this organization,” Palin wrote.
Gosnell currently faces the death penalty if convicted of four first-degree and one third-degree murder charges. He ran an abortion clinic in Pennsylvania where he performed illegal late-term abortions, many allegedly after birth (infanticide). In some cases, his practice resulted in the deaths of his patients, as well.
The tie between Gosnell and Planned Parenthood that Palin is highlighting comes from a quote from Dayle Steinberg . She is the president of Planned Parenthood in Southern Pennsylvania, and said at a gathering last week that some women had visited Planned Parenthood clinics after visiting Gosnell to complain.
“We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health,” Steinberg said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer . “These are criminal, horrendous … acts and should be appropriately punished,” she added.
Pro-life groups have piled on the quote, taking it to mean that Planned Parenthood was aware of the conditions at Gosnell’s clinic, yet failed to report him. This would make them partially culpable, according to Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser.
“It seems that nothing – not even eyewitness accounts of Gosnell-style conditions in their own clinics – is enough to make President Obama reconsider his unyielding support for Planned Parenthood , which in a single year performed more than 333,000 abortions and received half a billion dollars in taxpayer money,” she said.
Planned Parenthood maintains that it is unfair to compare their services to Dr. Gosnell.
“We have consistently said that this is a horrifying and outrageous case, that Gosnell ran a criminal enterprise, not a health care facility, and that he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said a Planned Parenthood spokesperson.
But it doesn’t matter to the pro-life crowd. Palin, who spoke at a pro-life women’s resource center in Nevada Friday, urged “There’s no such thing as a coincidence.”
Do you agree with Sarah Palin’s opinion of Planned Parenthood?
[Image via: Therealbs2002, Wikimedia Commons ]
