It accomplishes nothing to knock over a straw man

Printed in the Herald-Times, February 5, 2018.

To the Editor:

Me: "No tax money should go to an organization that performs abortions."

Leftists: "Tax money does not pay for abortions."

This is what we call a "straw man," a logical fallacy where someone sets up an argument that was never made and knocks it over. Nothing is accomplished. This dishonest tactic is meant to distract from the argument that was actually made in favor of debating an "argument" that was never made.

The argument is simple: Planned Parenthood kills babies made in the image of God, and many of us rightly see abortion as a moral abomination. Therefore, whether we are directly subsidizing that procedure or not, we do not want to fund an organization that brutally kills hundreds of innocent babies every year - or an organization (like "All Options") that has a fund to pay for these killings.

Even worse, the number of abortions in Monroe County have skyrocketed. There were 718 abortions in Monroe County in 2014. There were 822 abortions in Monroe County in 2015, a 14% increase over 2014. There were 1016 abortions in Monroe County in 2016, a 23% increase over 2015. This makes de-funding Planned Parenthood even more important.