Editor’s Note: We received a communication from Ms. Tarico. She stated that her views were accurately portrayed in this article but her role at Planned Parenthood was not. Valerie Tarico is a board member of the Board of Advocates for the Great Northwest chapter of Planned Parenthood, a board that acts in an advisory role to PPGNW.
She did not deny that she viewed abortion as a “sacred gift”, only that her role at Planned Parenthood was not as influential as we and others have reported. You can view her comments below.
In recent opinion columns, Great Northwest Planned Parenthood board member Valerie Tarico wrote that abortions are a “sacred gift” and celebrated her belief that Christianity is “in decline,” an article in Christian News reports.
She is one member of a 400 member Board of Advocated for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. Her opinions have appeared in articles in outlets such as Salon, AlterNet and the Huffington Post where she regularly writes about her opposition to Christian beliefs and values.
In one such article last January, Tarico encouraged readers to “honor women who decide to terminate pregnancies.” They are “doing God’s work,” she wrote. “An abortion when needed is a blessing. It is a gift, a grace, a mercy, a cause for gratitude, a new lease on life. Being able to choose when and whether to bring a child into the world enables us and our children to flourish.”
Note from Pastor Paul: Such views do not reflect any known revelation of God’s work. What has been revealed is that God commanded human beings to be fruitful and multiply. The view that pregnancy termination is “God’s Work” may come from pagan practices therefor it could be “god’s work”. The god of this world that is.
Tarico also believes Christianity is on the decline. According to Christian News, the facts Tarico cites to support her claim “vary significantly, but they include the secularization of millennial’s, the increasing outspokenness of skeptics, and the society’s departure from Biblical views.”
Tarico believes reason and science will propel our society away from Biblical views but Pastor Matt chandler believes just the opposite. In a recent World Magazine column, Chandler wrote, “Science is already pushing the ball forward rapidly. In 1973, when Roe v. Wade occurred, there was no sonogram. We can see our babies in the womb now. There are studies now showing the baby is dreaming in the womb. Science will eventually, I believe, turn over Roe v. Wade. It will only be a matter of time.”
Still, Chandler calls for action: “To be indifferent is to make us complicit with this travesty.”
I’d have to wonder just exactly how she’s ‘enabling our children to flourish’, as she says, when she suggests we murder them before they have that chance?
I’ll pray for God’s mercy, (Tarico’s phrase), when God does God’s work instead of her, when that time comes!
I always have to wonder; have these folks ever thanked their mothers for not having aborted them?
PLEASE PRAY
Greetings –
Unfortunately there is an error in this article, which I realize was drawn from other sources. Although you describe my views and writing pretty accurately, I am not a board member of Planned Parenthood or a member of their 400 person Board of Advocates. I do belong to a small, local group of Planned Parenthood supporters called the “board of advocates for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest” which is our Seattle affiliate.
To further clarify, a board of advocates is not “the board” meaning the governing board, which is a requirement for all corporations and nonprofits. The group I am a part of is a more informal group of local supporters who meet a few times per year and have no authority regarding the functioning of Planned Parenthood. I am not familiar with the national Board of Advocates or how it functions or with their governing board.
As a writer I am always grateful when people catch my errors, and I would also be grateful if you could revise this article so that it doesn’t claim standing that I don’t have.
Sincerely,
Valerie Tarico