• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, December 2, 2015

The shootings in Colorado Springs on Nov. 27 have caused the enduring fight over abortion and federal funding for Planned Parenthood to resurface. The rhetoric that has resulted from these horrific events does no justice to those who were killed, only heightening the mistrust between the two sides of a testy issue.

Robert L. Dear Jr., the man in custody for the shootings, allegedly told officers after his arrest: “no more baby parts.” Dear’s statement seems to refer to videos that surfaced earlier in the year showing a still-born fetus on a table with doctors nonchalantly talking about what to do with it.

The videos motivated Congress to hold hearings over Planned Parenthood and its practice of abortion. Cecile Richards, president of the organization, dealt with the wrath of the Republican party, keeping her composure and convincingly arguing for the important role Planned Parenthood plays in women’s health care. As far as federal funding for abortions go, Congress has outlawed such funding since 1977, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

The question here is not about funding for Planned Parenthood or the legality of abortion. We should question the continually aggressive language that may have motivated a mentally troubled person to undertake such acts.

There were too many outrageous comments from GOP politicians and pundits in the wake of the attacks to go through them all here. Still, taking a look at a couple will illustrate the entrenched views on the issue of abortion and funding for Planned Parenthood.

On CNN’s "State of the Union," this weekend, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee spoke of Planned Parenthood and accused it of participating in the, “dismembering of human babies … and the selling of body parts.” This is plainly false.

Ted Cruz went off the rails, repeating claims made by right of center publication The Gateway Pundit that the alleged shooter“was registered as an independent and a woman and [was a] transgendered leftist activist."

It is troubling to see presidential candidates deflecting questions about motive or the mental health of the accused by reverting back to Planned Parenthood-bashing, or picking up weakly sourced statements about Dear’s gender identity or political affiliation.

If anything, attempting to place blame on the Left minimizes the actual events and ignores the important question that should be asked here: What can we do to minimize the chances of shootings like this happening again?