ADAMS: Pro-Life Graveyards

There is some good news in the pro-life movement in the Midwest. The State of Iowa has seen the closure of twenty Planned Parenthood clinics in just the last ten years. But there is also some bad news, which is being disguised as good news. In at least two Iowa communities, crisis pregnancy centers have purchased the recently shut down Planned Parenthood properties. This has resulted in a lot of conservatives, pro-lifers, and Christians unwittingly applauding a practice that supports a fundamentally evil organization that instead needs to be destroyed.

To many people, these takeovers were seen as a cause for celebration, if not an answer to prayer. But these folks need to stop and realize that purchasing a building from Planned Parenthood means paying them a lot of money. That means we are helping them financially at a time when the pro-life movement is trying to cripple the organization financially.

One of these takeovers was orchestrated by the Women’s Choice Center, or WCC, located in Bettendorf, Iowa. This is a great organization and they do great work. But they recently put $1,000,000 into the hands of Planned Parenthood by purchasing their old building, which is a place where abortions were actually performed for about eighteen years. That purchase raises a fundamental question: How can pro-lifers petition the government to stop funding Planned Parenthood and then turn around and fund them with one million pro-life dollars?

With the purchase, WCC committed an error common among conservatives, Christians, and pro-lifers. That error is simply a failure to recognize that we are in an ideological and political war. And the goal of the war is to dismantle Planned Parenthood and, ultimately, to stop abortion. So we should not support the idea of pro-lifers funding the enemy for the sake of symbolism. Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood manager turned pro-life activist, has stated publicly that purchasing the former clinics is a very foolish move. She is undoubtedly correct in her condemnation of the practice.

The WCC purchase of a former abortion clinic was not done directly. After the property was initially listed at $1.4 million, the organization had a local businessman purchase it first for an even one million dollars. WCC then purchased the building from him. This was done indirectly and in secret because they thought that Planned Parenthood would back out if they knew the facility was being sold to pro-lifers.

After the deal was done, WCC posted the announcement on their Facebook page. Predictably, hundreds of people praised them and claimed it was a victory. Everyone was talking about “redeeming” the building and using it for good until someone questioned whether giving one million dollars to an evil organization was ever justified. Unfortunately, her post and other critical posts were deleted.

It is my hope that publishing this column will reignite the debate on the question of whether pro-life organizations like WCC should be trophy hunting for shut down abortion clinics. If that debate happens, I suspect reasonable people will conclude that although WCC had good intentions, and the idea of redeeming the property felt good, it was a mistake in judgment.

Years ago, when Planned Parenthood was building the very same clinic that was eventually purchased by WCC, the pro-life people, led by WCC, boycotted all the builders and suppliers who helped build the clinic. They boycotted anyone who did business with Planned Parenthood in any way. So there can be no celebration of the fact that WCC would later turn around and do business with Planned Parenthood, the very thing they sought to punish other people for doing.

WCC did not shut down an abortion clinic by buying it. It was already shut down. Furthermore, the property was by realtor’s standards “distressed” from having been an abortion clinic. It is essentially a graveyard. It would have been far better to let it sit empty, hope no one else bought it, see the value go down, and, ultimately, to have seen Planned Parenthood lose money.

Regardless of my criticism of WCC, I hope that supporters will continue to donate to them – and do so generously. They do valuable work. In fact, they save lives. But we do need to realize that good organizations sometimes make mistakes. And when those mistakes are made, they need to be discussed in a forum where the people making the mistakes cannot insulate themselves from criticism.

In the end, pro-lifers are left with an obvious question: If killing babies is wrong, then isn’t giving a million dollars to people who kill babies wrong as well?

The question merits the full attention of the pro-life community. Otherwise, similar mistakes will be made and the enemy will be emboldened.

Mike S. Adams is a criminology professor, the author of Letters to a Young Progressive, and a columnist at TownHall.com. Follow him on Twitter.