How bad did the debate over Planned Parenthood just get? This bad, in Raleigh

This thought was actually expressed today on the floor of the N.C. House:

That’s Rep. Larry Pittman of Cabarrus County. The legislation he was debating was House Bill 297, which would ban the sale of fetal body parts after abortion.

That, by the way, is already illegal.

The bill also would require the consent of a woman before fetal tissue is donated for research. That’s also already the law.

All of which might lead you to believe that something else is going on. That something else could be the third thing HB 297 does, albeit more quietly: It bans any state family planning money going to an organization that performs abortions, even if that money is going toward other purposes, such as pregnancy prevention or education.

That’s a provision directed at Planned Parenthood, of course. It’s bad policy, because if you want to prevent abortions, which are legal, the best course to do so is to prevent pregnancies. Planned Parenthood’s programs do so.

HB 297 passed 72-29 and was sent to Gov. Pat McCrory.

Planned Parenthood has long been a target of conservatives, especially recently, thanks to a campaign of distorted videos showing medical professionals talking about fetal tissue. Then there’s the claim from Republican candidate Carly Fiorina of a video that shows a fully formed fetus moving on a table as a doctor talks about harvesting its brain.

That video is fiction, even according to people who want to believe it.

But as we learned again today in Raleigh, there are few limits to what people will believe.

Peter St. Onge

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 5:14 PM with the headline "How bad did the debate over Planned Parenthood just get? This bad, in Raleigh."