December 3, 2008

Gift certificates are now a big part of the American economy.  Along with electronic gift cards, gift certificates represent a growing segment of the consumer market -- and for good reason.  Who wouldn't welcome and appreciate a gift certificate to a favorite store or service provider?

Well, what if the product is abortion?  Planned Parenthood of Indiana is now selling gift certificates redeemable "for services or the recipient’s choice of birth control method."  Those "methods" include abortion.

As The Washington Times reports:

Indiana residents in need of a quick stocking stuffer this holiday season have an unusual option: Planned Parenthood gift certificates.

The group's Hoosier State chapter on Wednesday began selling gift certificates redeemable at any of its 35 facilities for any service provided -- from basic health screenings to birth control to abortions.

Planned Parenthood claims that it is doing this in the name of women's health.  "Our patients are principally low-income women, and so, needless to say, those patients are more challenged now than ever," said Betty Cockrum, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana.   "We find that when women are [financially] strapped, they're more worried about putting food on the table and gas in their car, and their health care is often put by the wayside."

A gift certificate for health services might be a thoughtful and meaningful, if unusual, gift.  But Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider, performing multiple thousands of abortions nationwide each year.  The organization also receives hundreds of millions of dollars in income from performing these abortions.  Abortion is a big business, and Planned Parenthood is the market leader.

Information on the Indiana group's Web site indicates that the certificates may be used for a basic health exam for $58, or on a range of services including abortions, which may cost up to $900 in the baby's first trimester.

As The Washington Times also reports:

The program has been endorsed by Dr. Judy Monroe, Indiana health commissioner, who called it "really a meaningful gift."

The certificates, which come in $25 increments, work like cash and come with no restrictions and no expiration date. They can be purchased at many of the group's Indiana clinics and online, and can be used for some insurance co-payments and medication.

There are several ominous aspects related to this story, and the whole picture points to the threatening reach of the Culture of Death.  When Indiana's health commissioner speaks of an unrestricted Planned Parenthood gift certificate as "really a meaningful gift," the obvious question is this -- meaningful for whom?

What about unborn babies in Indiana?  The "meaning" these certificates could have for them is death by surgical mutilation or other means of abortion.  According to The Los Angeles Times, the Indiana chapter of Planned Parenthood performs about 5,000 abortions a year.

The Planned Parenthood gift certificates have been called "tasteless," but a better description of these gift certificates is deadly.  There is every reason to believe that some babies will have their lives ended by means of these gift certificates.

The Culture of Death creeps forward all around us.  The state of Washington opts for physician-assisted suicide, other states move forward with funding for human embryonic stem cell research, and pro-abortion forces are expecting the incoming Obama administration to act swiftly to reverse policies now in place that restrict abortions or abortion funding.

The gift certificates from Planned Parenthood represent a brazen and ill-disguised effort to package abortion as a gift.  When the state's health commissioner calls these certificates as "really a meaningful gift," she adds her influence to the effort.

So this Christmas shopping season comes with something new -- an offer of death by gift certificate.

In addition to being one of Salem’s nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and recognized as one of America’s leading theologians and cultural commentators. Contact Dr. Mohler at mail@albertmohler.com.