The president of the Christian Coalition of America, Roberta Combs, last Friday wrote a commentary entitled "Parents' Rights Constitutional Amendment vs. U.N.'s Convention of "Rights" of the Child." Mrs. Combs rightfully supported the bill -- Parents' Rights Constitutional Amendment (H. J. Res. 42) -- authored by Michigan Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra and co-sponsored by the Republican leader, John Boehner from Ohio, and some 100 other Members of the House of Representatives.
This past weekend, Hollywood came out with another political movie which undermines parental rights entitled "My Sister's Keeper" starring Camerson Diaz which, although interesting, advocates the rights of children over parental rights and of course managed to insert one of Hollywood's favorite motifs of the abortion movement: "It's my body. It's my choice."
In the movie, Cameron Diaz and her husband conceived a baby to produce parts, including stem cells, a kidney, etc, for their older daughter dying of cancer. The "designer baby," now a young girl of around ten years old, brings a lawsuit to court to supposedly gain medical emancipation from her parents with the help of her attorney, a member of the ACLU, played by Alec Baldwin.
Ultimately, the judge, played by Joan Cusick, decides the case in favor of childrens' rights over the rights of parents. Yes, the parents were absolutely wrong to take the route that they pursued to save or extend the life of their oldest daughter, but to undermine their rights as parents is wrong. And that is right with Hollywood.
State legislatures can crack down on parents designing babies to harvest their parts in the first place, and incidentally can also prohibit stem cell research abuses. Mrs. Combs, in her commentary, quotes Congressman Hoekstra in describing his legislation, "It is as simple as preserving parents' freedom to parent."
It is amazing that Hollywood rarely makes films which appeal to the majority of the American people, movies which have pro-life themes such as "Bella," "Juno," and "Knocked Up" all of which were box office hits. During this past weekend, there was one such populist film, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." This film made almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
On the other hand, "My Sister's Keeper" bombed at the box office earning about 5% of what "Transformers" made, coming in at under $18 million. Until Hollywood quits its relentless left-wing preaching and appeals to the large majority of middle-class Americans -- as they did during the first few decades of the movie business -- they will continue to fail at the box office.