Does Ted Cruz Regret the Eradication of Polio?
In today’s edition of No, I Hate Abortion More, Senator Ted Cruz attempted to one-up his GOP running mates in the form of an overwrought tirade against Planned Parenthood and—if we’re to take him at his word—the polio vaccine.
At first glance, Cruz’s latest campaign ad seems innocuous enough. Violins swell as a disembodied male voice promises us that a vote for him is vote for the final nail in Planned Parenthood’s coffin.
For a century, Americans have helped heal and care for millions in need. Our values propelled extraordinary innovation. America made the world better. So how did America become a country that harvests organs from unborn children? And who has the courage to stop it? Ted Cruz will prosecute and defund Planned Parenthood.
All of which would be typical conservative rhetoric and wholly uninteresting if not for one, little thing: Ted Cruz’s ad, which features a scene from the notorious and wildly misinterpreted “organ harvesting” Planned Parenthood video, opens with a shot of children suffering from polio, excerpted from the footage below:
Polio. The same crippling, potentially fatal infectious disease that has since been eradicated thanks to the help of fetal kidney cells. Cells that, of course, come from the same sort of voluntary fetal tissue donations that current researchers receive from Planned Parenthood. The same organization that Ted Cruz promises to shut down not ten seconds later.
So what exactly is Ted Cruz trying to say? Does Ted Cruz miss the days when polio ran rampant? Is a vote for Ted Cruz a vote for unbridled infectious disease? Does Ted Cruz want to inflict pain and misfortune upon our children?
Who’s to say. As for the Senator’s own[-ish] question: “Who has the courage to stop [researchers from getting the tools they need to create lifesaving vaccines]?”
Why, Ted Cruz does. That’s who.
