OPINION:
This year, our nation is commemorating the defining moment of our history, when the Founding Fathers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that the purpose of government was to secure the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life was listed first for a reason. Yet, unless our leaders act now, our government will cut funding that elevates life and spend billions of dollars literally destroying life.
At issue are two seemingly unrelated topics: Planned Parenthood and the National Park Service.
Let us start with Planned Parenthood. In a dark coincidence, this July Fourth, the very day America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, federal funding to Planned Parenthood will restart, flooding America’s largest abortion provider with an infusion of cash. The vast majority of this funding will not be used for public health services and cancer screenings, as Planned Parenthood claims.
Up 8% from the previous year’s abortion numbers, Planned Parenthood performed 434,540 abortions in fiscal year 2023-2024. For context, that is a 34% increase from 2014.
Planned Parenthood is destroying life at record-breaking numbers. It is performing more abortion procedures than ever before. At the same time, it is performing fewer cancer screenings (43%) and contraception services (23%). How do we know? Planned Parenthood’s annual reports provide that data. Prenatal services? Those fell 56%. That means pregnancy checkups, ultrasounds, nutrition guidance, blood pressure and diabetes monitoring — anything related to the health of the mother and the health of her unborn child — were down by more than half.
Put simply, Planned Parenthood’s single biggest business is the destruction of unborn children. Just as our nation wishes to recommit itself to the immortal principles of the Declaration of Independence, our government is poised to pay for the destruction of countless innocent lives.
Government funding threatens not only life itself but also the quality of life for those allowed to be born. This is where, perhaps surprisingly, the National Park Service comes in.
The Trump administration’s 2026 budget proposal includes a nearly $4 billion cut to the National Park Service involving parks, forests and wildlife refuges. That is a 35% decrease from 2024, and the largest in the service’s 109 years of existence.
The purpose of the National Park Service is to preserve life: wildlife, ecosystems, cultural resources, scenic trails and rivers, and our national parks. Stewarding God’s creation is a good in and of itself, but from its inception, the National Park Service had a much bigger mandate. Its mission is rooted in the 1916 Organic Act, which requires it to preserve these places “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” It is about preservation for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
God not only gave us life but also created a world for us to enjoy: oceans and mountains that inspire wonder, trees and grass and flowers that instill peace, wide-open space that reminds us the universe is so much bigger than our anxieties and troubles.
You cannot claim to care about the sanctity of human life while treating creation as expendable, and you cannot claim to care about the environment while ignoring the lives ended inside it. Both are intertwined and under attack.
The Bible teaches that where your treasure is, there your heart will be too. Where we spend money indicates what we value. Where we invest reveals what we care about. The federal government is no different. When we look at the Planned Parenthood and National Park Service stories through this age-old wisdom, the federal government’s message is clear: Planned Parenthood is valued, important enough to continue funding, and the National Park Service is not. It is a cold amorality that treats life as neither worth preserving nor elevating.
We must reject this and embrace a consistent ethic of life. The left’s hypocrisy is to decry the destruction of nature while defending the destruction of our children and grandchildren. Although the right has more often defended the fundamental right to life, we too often turn a blind eye to the defense of life-sustaining nature.
The Declaration of Independence draws its principles from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” If we have any hope of living up to the promise of our founding this year and for the next 250 years, then we must defend the natural world into which we bring life just as we defend bringing life into this world.
• Clare Ath is co-founder and president of Vita et Terra, a conservative Catholic environmental nonprofit that champions care for creation.
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