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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Smart Bombs: Congress unlocked fetal cells

The popular conservative blog RedState.com says this about Planned Parenthood: “Our muddy moral moment might obscure this searing truth: we are not simply keeping up to speed with the Nazis. We are outpacing them. Planned Parenthood is operating by a for-profit motive that was largely alien to the Third Reich.”

There is no evidence on the deceptively produced videos that the organization is profiting, but that doesn’t stop RedState from calling this “our Auschwitz.” But even if the profit charge is bogus, that still means the country is “keeping up to speed with the Nazis” by funding Planned Parenthood, according to RedState.

Erick Erickson, the editor of RedState, has called for a government shutdown over the issue, saying tax dollars “should not go to carving up kids and harvesting their organs.”

Eighteen House Republicans, including Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner saying they would not vote for any measure to keep the government running as long as Planned Parenthood gets funding, according to the Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress. U.S. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., put together a bill to immediately defund Planned Parenthood, but it will have to wait until September because members of Congress left last Wednesday for their traditional five-week vacation.

I’m all for summer fun, but if you think a modern-day Holocaust is afoot, wouldn’t you want to stick around? How can fundraisers and paddleboard lessons remain on the calendar?

In any event, representatives ought to at least wonder how it became legal to “carve up kids,” as Erickson so charmingly put it. They could ask Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted for the fairly noncontroversial bill. If he’s at an undisclosed resort sipping umbrella drinks, they could try Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who also voted for the bill, according to the Huffington Post.

In fact, 93 out of 100 senators voted for the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993, including 39 Republicans. Then-Sen. Slade Gorton said yes. So did Idaho Sens. Larry Craig and Dirk Kempthorne. In the House, the vote was 282 to 115, including 57 Republicans.

The law, which ended a moratorium imposed in 1988, allows for medical research using fetal tissue, even if the donations come from voluntary abortions. It also allows suppliers to be reimbursed for their costs. Planned Parenthood is but one source. Clinics associated with public research universities are also involved, so “outraged” politicians ought to target them, too.

But before that, they should know that the National Institutes of Health gave $76 million to fetal tissue researchers last year to study cures for Parkinson’s disease, hepatitis, congenital heart defects, retinal degeneration and HIV, according to the New York Times. Such research has led to vaccines for polio, rubella, shingles and other diseases. Millions of lives have been saved and improved.

Planned Parenthood gets no federal funding for abortions, but it does get money for other services, such as screening for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, and for providing contraception, which greatly reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Most of what the organization does is unrelated to abortion procedures, and those are the services that would get cut off.

But if you still think this is an urgent matter requiring immediate attention, you better get on the horn to your congressional representatives. That is, if you can find them.

Otherwise, the purported Auschwitz will have to wait until September.

Associate Editor Gary Crooks can be reached at garyc@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5026. Follow him on Twitter: @GaryCrooks.