Editor’s note: this thoughtful and compassionate post on one of the most disturbing viral videos we’ve ever seen comes from the outstanding leader of one of our affiliated centers.
It is vital that women and couples making pregnancy decisions know compassion, hope, and help are always available at community-based care centers.
Guest Post by Cynthia Wenz
Salad, wine, lunch discussion on body parts anyone?
Just casual lunch talk, taken out of context, could it be? Of course one must watch the full footage to know. So we did. If you have not, I would encourage you to do the same.
As the head of an organization that ‘seeks first to understand,’ I tried to put myself in their place, to fully understand the motives and claims against Planned Parenthood. While watching the full footage of the lunch meeting, I was overcome with grief, even shock and anger, then in an instant I was deeply moved by gut-Âwrenching compassion for this doctor, crying out in prayer for the eyes of her heart to be opened.
Dr. Nucatola, do you hear what you are saying? Bite of salad, sip of wine, let’s talk about how I switch to breech presentation of the baby to preserve the desired organ, please pass the salt.
In context, out of context, set up or not, clinical/doctor speak or not, there is only one term that comes to mind: inhumane.
Dr. Nucatola, I can’t imagine what you’ve experienced in the past few days. I’m sure your defenses are sky high… I know mine would be. I feel for you, that your perception was of a routine lunch conversation with people who share your point of view, placing emphasis on the value of fetal tissue over the life of the human it was harvested from.
I’m sure you feel betrayed and angry because this point of view is accepted by some within your industry. But please consider, just because it’s accepted does not make it right.
Please use this opportunity to reÂ-evaluate.
Why are so many in shock and angered? Because that fetus is somebody’s child, someone’s daughter””a life, just like you, that if left alone, would continue to grow and one day have the ability to choose for his or herself whether to donate the very organs you speak of. The very same ones.
Instead, doctors like yourself interrupt that process because a woman asked you to.
There are reasons she chose to terminate. Reasons that, almost without exception, could be overcome given the proper support, information and resources. But those reasons are not your main concern. Her choice has been made. You, as her provider, want to honor the choice she has made by providing the added option of donating the organs of her child to research.
Outside the womb, regardless of the child’s age or your intent to donate to “lifesaving research,” that is trafficking. I’m sure you accept this. But there’s the rub, and the hard divide when it comes to discussing legality, morality and rights.
Are we talking in the womb, or out of the womb? May we please all reÂ-evaluate why this is even the question?
You clearly accept and have chosen a path in your field that values the preservation of fetal tissue as more worthy than the preservation of the child’s life. I thank God there are those in your field who do not feel the same way. I thank God there are those in power who take this very seriously and are investigating the claims made against Planned Parenthood.
The news we received this week that has rocked our world and resulted in personal prayer for you and all doctors in the abortion industry, now fills me with deep gratitude for the work we do at The Source for Women. Every medical professional who serves at The Source has chosen what you would have us think is the path less traveled in our industry.
The OB/GYNs, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and sonographers who work with us are part of an interdisciplinary team of health advocates that provide real, tangible support for the life and well-being of every woman, mother, and her child.
I pray for an awakening in our industry and applaud all who give of themselves to support the holistic health of women at risk for unintended pregnancy and abortion. There ARE other options in reproductive health care. In Houston, we are The Source for Women.
Cynthia Wenz is President and CEO of The Source for Women, a Care Net affiliate located in Houston, Texas. She is healed for Life and called to lead leaders in eradicating abortion from the hearts and minds of a generation.
