Irony has been redefined in the omnibus budget bill, where there is funding for both fighting opioid addiction and Planned Parenthood, meaning the government is simultaneously paying for the saving and destruction of human life.

Defunding Planned Parenthood is something more than a campaign promise. Life is supposed to be the first unalienable right conferred on us by our Creator.  Liberals are also supposed to be in favor of "safe spaces."  One would think the womb should be the safest space of all.  It is not so considered on K Street.

Recently the New York Times reported on the opioid crisis and made the following demonstrably false observation:

Overdoses, fueled by opioids, are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old – killing roughly 64,000 people last year, more than guns or car accidents, and doing so at a pace faster than the H.I.V. epidemic did at its peak.

The leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old is abortion, the single largest practitioner of which is Planned Parenthood:

Planned Parenthood is by far the nation's largest abortion provider.  Over the holidays, they conveniently and quietly published their annual report for 2016-2017.  Last year, Planned Parenthood published their annual report months late – in May!  An analysis of the 2016-2017 report along with Planned Parenthood's previous reports shows that Planned Parenthood is responsible for the deaths of over 7.6 million human babies.  We know the Planned Parenthood number is likely low, in fact, pro life journalists with the Media Research Center estimated in 2016 that Planned Parenthood had killed upwards of 7.5 million babies.

In the 2016-2017 fiscal year detailed in the report, Planned Parenthood performed 321,384 abortions.  Last annual report (2015-2016), Planned Parenthood performed 328,348 abortions.  The year before that (2014-2015) Planned performed 323,999 abortions.

Before President Trump signed the bill, in the face of the overwhelming urgency to repair our decaying military in critical times, he was urged by pro-life leaders to consider how many lives are being lost, not in combat or training accidents, but to the scalpels of abortion providers paid for by our tax dollars:

"Mr. President, Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in the U.S., making them one of the largest abusers of human beings in the world," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and one of the founding members of the Center for Medical Progress.  "It is currently under investigation by your Department of Justice for engaging in the illegal sale of aborted baby remains for profit, as revealed in a series of authenticated undercover videos that shook the nation in 2015."

"During your 2016 Presidential Campaign, you promised to defund Planned Parenthood," he reminded Trump.  "I urge you now to keep your promise and veto the Omnibus bill until it no longer provides any of our tax money to Planned Parenthood."

In one disturbing video and its appalling transcript, made by the non-profit group Center for Medical Progress, which describes itself as "dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances," it is made clear that the alleged noble crusade against unwanted children is a fraud, and that Planned Parenthood's interest in abortion is a financial one and that human life is just a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market.

The video shows a doctor named Nucatola negotiating with two actors posing as agents of a fetal tissue procurement company and discussing the body parts of aborted babies as if she were a butcher at the local meat market.  As Breitbart.com reports:

"We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I'm not gonna crush that part," Nucatola coldly explains.  "I'm gonna basically crush [the unborn child] below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact. ... And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they'll know where they're putting their forceps."

Nucatola also goes into great detail to explain how Planned Parenthood  is able to use its loose affiliates as a way to protect the parent company from potential legal fallout.

The video goes a long way to explain Planned Parenthood's eternal devotion to legalizing late-term and partial-birth abortion.

Nucatola explains to the undercover reporters that the butchered body parts (hearts, livers, "lower extremities – probably for the muscle") sell for $30 to $100 apiece.

Moreover, the more fully-formed the baby body parts, the more valuable those parts are.

Indeed, immature or improperly dismembered baby parts could dramatically impact Planned Parenthood's and the abortion industry's bottom line.  The use of aborted fetuses and their tissues is justified by abortionists as the key to medical research, as using embryos for stem cell research was and is.  Planned Parenthood's operation strays perilously close to the territory of Dr. Joseph Mengele, the Nazi "doctor" who justified his ghastly practices in the name of research.

Planned Parenthood and its supporters got caught with their forceps down, so anything they can do to cloud the issue and cast doubt on the integrity of their accusers is in their interest.  Planned Parenthood has already tried to discredit the videos by saying they were carefully edited and that the admissions of Planned Parenthood officials of conducting a for-profit baby body part flea market were taken out of context.  It is hard to imagine in what "context" the discussion of the price of a fetal head versus the price of a new Lamborghini is okay.  As LifeNews.com comments:

The video of the Houston Planned Parenthood makes it appear the Planned Parenthood abortion business may be selling the "fully intact" bodies of unborn babies purposefully born alive and left to die.  The video shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch's track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact aborted babies[.] ...

Planned Parenthood could be breaking the federal law known as the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that requires abortion clinics, hospitals and other places that do abortions to provide appropriate medical care for a baby born alive after a failed abortion or purposefully birthed to "let die."  That would be one of the potential ways Planned Parenthood could produce a "fully intact" baby to sell to StemExpress for research.  Most "crunchy" abortion methods would do damage to the baby's body.

This is what our taxpayer dollars will continue to pay for – the death and dismemberment of human beings championed by those who worry about AR-15s killing children but not scalpels.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.