What Would Planned Parenthood Say About Katie Stockton?

For going on seven years, I have lived in Rockford, IL—a city with a fairly miserable reputation around the country. Whenever you find a "Top Ten Worst Cities" list, you're almost sure to find Rockford. Just last week, I noticed a local merchant selling T-shirts that read: Misery Loves Company: Visit Rockford, Illinois. Truth be told, Rockford is not nearly as bad as some would have you believe, but last week we again made national headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Katie Stockton was sentenced to fifty years in prison on Friday for leaving her newborn, baby daughter to freeze to death on a rural highway north of Rockford. The USA Today story reports:

Stockton hid her pregnancy and gave birth to the baby in secret on Dec. 17, 2004. Afterward, she stuffed the baby and soiled clothing into an orange shopping bag and placed it along a dead-end road near her parents' Rockton home. She was questioned in the baby's death at the time, but denied she was the mother and refused to provide a DNA sample.

Years later, detectives got the DNA sample they needed from a discarded cigarette. Stockton finally confessed to the crime in February, in pursuit of a reduced sentence. Though she got less than the 60 years she was eligible for, Judge John Truitt was unwilling to grant the 25-year sentence Stockton's Public Defender requested. Judge Truitt condemned Stockton for choosing to "leave her baby to die despite all the available options… adoption, legal abandonment at a designated safe haven or her own loving family who already cared for her then 4-year-old son." He told Stockton during the sentencing:

You did the incomprehensible. You gave birth, by all accounts, to a healthy, full-term baby girl and you chose to play judge, jury and executioner and put her by the roadside like yesterday’s garbage.

The day before Judge Truitt sentenced Katie Stockton in Rockford, IL, the Florida Baptist Witnessran an article reporting on Florida's proposed “Infants Born Alive Act” (HB 1129). The measure would require that medical attention be given to babies who are born alive after a failed abortion. Or to state it as a prohibition, the law would forbid abandoning these newborn babies to death (as Katie Stockton did), or precipitating their demise through suffocation or penetrating trauma (as Kermit Gosnell did time and again). In light of this bill, you may wonder how often babies are actually born alive after a failed abortion and whether anyone actually endorses the practice of infanticide in these circumstances.

As to the first question, Florida Rep. Cary Pigman, the emergency medicine physician who sponsored the "born-alive" bill, testified that in 2010 there were 1,270 infants in the United States whose deaths were reported as "mortality subsequent to an abortion." Pigman believes the actual number of post-abortive, born-alive infants is significantly higher. As to the second question, Planned Parenthood opposes the bill. Their lobbyist, Alisa LaPolt Snow, who was in the courtroom to oppose passage of the "born-alive" bill, stated that it should remain up to the woman and her doctor (i.e., the abortionist) whether or not the newborn baby lives or dies. According to the courtroom coverage, even the pro-choice representatives were shocked by her declaration. Rep. Mike Clelland, D-Lake Mary, who declares himself a life-long pro-choicer (though there is no such thing) asked the Planned Parenthood lobbyist, "What objection could you possibly have to obligate a doctor to transport a child born alive to a hospital where it seems to me they would be most likely to be able to survive?” She evasively cited logistical concerns. Writing for the Washington Post, Marc A. Thiessen declares:

When Rep. Todd Akin made his outrageous comments about “legitimate rape” it was front page news — and rightly so. But when a representative of Planned Parenthood is caught on camera defending infanticide, it merits barely a mention in the mainstream media.

Planned Parenthood has a legion of supporters who bend over backwards in a relentless attempt to "normalize"  their operations. Their public face is all smiles and "women's health," but as this case demonstrates, Planned Parenthood makes no ethical distinction between killing an unborn baby and killing a born baby. In other words, Planned Parenthood, through their lobbyist, supports the exact same behavior that earned Katie Stockton 50 years in prison. So, if you're outraged by what Miss Stockton did but are sympathetic to the "work" of Planned Parenthood, do not forget the events of last week. The only difference between Katie Stockton and Planned Parenthood is that Katie Stockton doesn't have a million-dollar PR firm to cover her tracks.