As many of you may know, my wife Renee and I are expecting our first child any day now. Because of the incredible advances in technology, we have watched our precious child — this gift from God — grow each step along the way.

I can’t describe my feelings of joy and awe when I heard his heart beat for the first time. He, along with every other human life, is nothing short of a miracle. And every human life is worthy of dignity and respect.

That’s just one reason why I am disgusted by Planned Parenthood. I share your outrage over the organization’s apparent trafficking in baby organs. The callousness by which these children are murdered and dismembered is barbaric. It makes me sick.

As America works to end global violence, it’s absolutely shameful that this brutality is happening within our borders. What kind of cold-blooded human beings could do such a thing to children? I’m ashamed of those who want to maintain the status quo and who are failing to acknowledge these atrocities.

Those who turn a blind eye and remain silent in the face of such evil are just as guilty. We can clearly see Planned Parenthood’s blatant disregard for human life and their abuse of our health care system and our tax dollars. That’s why I voted to shut off the federal spigot altogether.

Last week, the House passed the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 to stop all federal funding for at least a year so we can continue our investigations into the appalling activity regarding infanticide and the sale of fetal tissue. To ensure our tax dollars committed to women’s health are used to give women access to health care — not to abort and traffic little babies — the bill redirects funds from Planned Parenthood facilities to federally qualified health centers.

There are better, more honorable options for women — in North Carolina, there are 294 FQHCs and rural health clinics compared to just nine Planned Parenthood clinics. Further, we passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to make it a federal crime to fail to provide standard medical care to a child who survives an abortion. This legislation is the first step to stop any crimes from being committed and protect the unborn.

This debate is not about any one organization that receives tax dollars. At its core, the issue before us is about defending the most vulnerable in our society. It is about a fundamental question: Will we allow and give more than $500 million per year of the people’s money to an organization that harvests and traffics baby organs for profit? Or are we going to say, “Let’s suspend the funding to this organization while we investigate?”

That’s a reasonable position. Whether you are Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated, pro-life or pro-choice, we can all agree our tax dollars should not go to any organization that breaks the law.

While I will continue to pray for the innocent lives lost and those who perform these barbaric practices, I will fight to bring an end to the evil that abounds at Planned Parenthood. I can only hope and pray this will be a rare instance where morals and what’s right will prevail in Washington.

As your representative, I’m unapologetically pro-life and will continue to fight to defund Planned Parenthood and defend innocent children.

Rep. Richard Hudson, R-Concord, represents North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District, which includes all of Richmond County.

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Richard Hudson

Contributing Columnist