On Friday, Nov. 27, a gunman targeted a Planned Parenthood health center in Colorado, killing three innocent people and wounding nine.
Less than a week later, the United States Senate did nothing to address this heinous crime. Instead, they voted once again to defund Planned Parenthood's preventive health care services.
That statement would be unbelievable if it wasn't so predictable.
Among them were Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, who both voted to defund Planned Parenthood and gut the Affordable Care Act. Particularly disappointing was Sen. Murkowski, who introduced an amendment earlier in the day that would have restored funding and was unfortunately unsuccessful. But that amendment wasn't enough. She still voted to harm access for the thousands of women, men, and young people in Alaska who rely on our services.
When politicians continue to push for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, it only shows how out of touch they are. It also speaks to a bigger issue of hateful rhetoric.
Earlier this year, an extreme anti-abortion group began releasing selectively edited and illegally obtained videos that supposedly showed Planned Parenthood providers engaging in inappropriate practices. The videos were eventually found to be a fraud, but it should come as no surprise that these facts have received significantly less coverage than the original videos themselves.
As a result, distasteful rhetoric and stigmatization toward the safe and legal services that Planned Parenthood provides have been at an all-time high.
People don't forget outrageous claims and misstatements from those in the public eye, and some even take them at face value. We are seeing an alarming increase from irresponsible presidential candidates and lawmakers over the past year.
Tasteless rhetoric, smear campaigns, and biased reports targeting abortion providers and patients have a very real result: creating an environment that breeds acts of violence, including the shooting in Colorado Springs, and multiple arsons across the country including one in Washington state. Incidents of harassment at Planned Parenthood facilities have risen nine-fold after the videos were released in July, according to the National Abortion Federation's complaint to the Department of Justice.
Anti-abortion hate speech is taking its toll and it has to stop. One in three American women will have an abortion in her lifetime. One in three American women undergo this legal and constitutionally protected procedure. It has become clear that leaders in the public eye are equating safe and legal medical services with mass murder. The not-so-veiled suggestion here is that targeting our providers and patients is a logical and moral act.
The bottom line is that words matter. The same goes for images and journalistic integrity. They matter because hateful rhetoric fuels violence. That's why it's so striking that some politicians are continuing their attacks against women's health mere days after the horrific tragedy in Colorado Springs.
Americans must reject this extremism and vitriol, and they do. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released this week showed that 46 percent agreed with the statement: "Heated political rhetoric about Planned Parenthood and abortion bear some of the responsibility for what happened" in Colorado Springs. In addition, the poll found that the majority of Americans oppose defunding Planned Parenthood.
This paper, Alaska Dispatch News, is at fault too. An editorial cartoon that ran in the Dec. 2 issue, just days after the shooting, depicted a gun being pointed at a Planned Parenthood health center, and another the same day excused the murders in Colorado by equating them with abortion.
Taken together, these cartoons were a perfect example of how the language around women's health has gotten out of hand.
Our deep hope is that our elected officials and those in the public eye will see this connection. That politicians will realize that voting to defund Planned Parenthood's contraceptive services will not decrease the need for abortion services, and instead will just add to the shameful stigma and rhetoric that led to the shooting in November. As a state, and as a country, we can do better.
Words matter. So let's choose ours carefully.
Chris Charbonneau is CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary@alaskadispatch.com