MORE STATES MOVE TO END FEDERAL FLOW OF FUNDS TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Despite the Obama administration’s threat against terminating federal funding of Planned Parenthood, more states are cutting Medicaid funds to the nation’s largest abortion provider following videos that have exposed top medical directors of the organization engaged in the harvesting of body parts of aborted babies for potential sale to biomedical companies.

On Friday, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) directed his state Department of Human Services to terminate its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood, effective 30 days from a letter dated Friday, August 14, 2015, states a press release from the governor’s office.

Hutchinson said:

It is apparent that after the recent revelations on the actions of Planned Parenthood, that this organization does not represent the values of the people of our state and Arkansas is better served by terminating any and all existing contracts with them. This includes their affiliated organization, Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.

I appreciate the legislature’s leadership on this important issue, especially that of Senator Eddie Joe Williams and Representative David Meeks.

Additionally, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) has ordered his state’s agencies to end sending federal funds to Planned Parenthood.

According to the Idaho State Journal, Herbert said in a statement Friday that he was troubled by the recent investigative videos.

Alabama, Louisiana, and New Hampshire are also in the process of terminating Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood.

As more states move to end their Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood, StemExpress, the biomedical company that has acknowledged working with the organization in obtaining the body parts of aborted babies, has also said it will cut its tieswith Planned Parenthood.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens, said in a statement:

The federal government has made it clear that states cannot cut women off from high-quality health care at Planned Parenthood like this. It’s unlawful, unpopular, and harmful to women—and that’s why politicians who have tried to do this in other states have failed. Planned Parenthood will continue to fight on behalf of the people who count on us for high-quality healthcare across Arkansas.

In an earlier statement last week on Planned Parenthood’s website, Laguens said, “Extremists who oppose Planned Parenthood’s mission and services are making outrageous and completely false claims. They are engaged in a fraud, and other claims they’ve made have been discredited and disproven.”

Asserting that “the extremists” show “a total lack of compassion and dignity for women’s most personal medical decisions,” Laguens said the Planned Parenthood medical staff, shown in the videos in a lab separating the body parts of aborted babies, were actually engaging in “standard medical practice to review tissue to ensure the health and safety of patients…”

“Planned Parenthood’s medical providers and staff are the best in the country,” she said. “We have the highest professional standards, and we take swift action if we are ever aware of an instance where those standards aren’t being met.”

However, in April of 2013, in the midst of the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell – who was ultimately convicted of murdering infants born alive during abortion procedures – Breitbart News reported that Planned Parenthood Southeast Pennsylvania president and CEO Dayle Steinberg, speaking at a fundraiser, admitted that she knew what was transpiring at Gosnell’s “house of horrors,” but neither she nor her organization reported it to state health officials or others who could have stepped in.

Instead, Steinberg said Planned Parenthood left it up to women, traumatized by the horrors of Gosnell’s clinic, to report him.

“We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health,” she said.

With the release of the recent videos produced by Center for Medical Progress, national pro-life groups are calling out those who would continue to defend Planned Parenthood.

“We can now add harvesting baby organs without the consent of the mother to the list of ethical violations and criminal activities committed inside Planned Parenthood clinics,” said Lila Rose, president of Live Action, in a statement sent to Breitbart News. “If this was any other business there would be a rush by media and politicians for full disclosure, defunding and calls to shut down what appears to be a criminal enterprise.”

Following the most recent video in which StemExpress whistleblower Holly O’Donnell reveals details of how her former company, in conjunction with Planned Parenthood, did not obtain consent from women to take their babies’ body parts following abortion, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told Breitbart News, “This is betrayal in its worst forms. This is where the war on women is taking place.”

Hawkins, whose organization coordinated the #WomenBetrayed movement and rallies at the end of July, added:

For Planned Parenthood, an organization whose only talking point is that they are there for women in their time of need, that they care about women, that they are fighting for women’s health, this particular video is a devastating reminder that behind the façade of Planned Parenthood lies a horrible group that sells women out – and sells the body parts of their babies – for money.

Via: Breitbart

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StemExpress Is Cutting Ties With Planned Parenthood

StemExpress, a biomedical company engulfed in the scandal surrounding allegations that Planned Parenthood is selling fetal organs, is cutting ties with the nation’s largest abortion provider, according to a report by Politico.

Politico reports that StemExpress “notified Planned Parenthood and Congress Friday of its decision to end the relationship.”

StemExpress and Planned Parenthood face questions from lawmakers about the financial nature of their relationship after undercover videos were released by the Center for Medical Progress depicting senior executives at the organization describing the sale of fetal organs.

Spokespersons for Planned Parenthood and StemExpress have denied the allegations and called the videos “heavily edited.”

In footage produced by the Center for Medical Progress, Holly O’Donnell, a former blood and tissue procurement technician for StemExpress, described how employees were assigned to Planned Parenthood clinics in order to obtain what they referred to as “the products of conception.”

She said the organizations acquired fetal body partswithout obtaining maternal consent.

In another video, O’Donnell says that Planned Parenthood received a financial benefit from StemExpress for providing them with fetal body parts.

Profiting from the purchase or sale of human organs—including fetal human organs—is a felony in the United States.

A spokesperson for StemExpress provided a statement to The Daily Signal:

“StemExpress at its core is a small life sciences company committed to accelerating research, advancing medicine, and saving lives. We partner with organizations also seeking to help researchers find solutions to some of life’s most significant medical conditions and diseases. Our commitment to quality defines us and is demanded by our customers in the research community. We value our various partnerships but, due to the increased questions that have arisen over the past few weeks, we feel it prudent to terminate activities with Planned Parenthood. While we value our business relationship with Planned Parenthood, that work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries.

StemExpress works tirelessly to accelerate the speed of helping patients globally: 7.6 million people die of cancer each year, another 7.4 million of heart disease, over 4.6 million from lung cancer, AIDS and diabetes and every 12 minutes another name is added to the national transplant waiting list. These numbers drive our work and the research community. StemExpress looks forward to the swift resolution of all inquiries and audits so we can focus our full attention on helping the medical and research community improve and save lives.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for The Center for Medical Progress said:

“Earlier this week, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California said they were proud of their baby parts program with StemExpress. Now, StemExpress claims it is terminating its ‘business relationship’ with Planned Parenthood. Yet StemExpress leadership confirmed to CMP investigators in May they are struggling to meet demand for intact fetal livers. Was there a dispute about money with Planned Parenthood? Or is StemExpress following orders from Planned Parenthood National to save face? Does Planned Parenthood abortion doctor Ronald Berman continue to serve as Medical Director of StemExpress? Planned Parenthood and StemExpress should both answer questions about this shady move, and the full details of their “business relationship,” under oath before Congress and the American people.”

Via: Daily Signal

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[LETTERS] Readers react to Planned Parenthood, abandoned animals and Obamacare

Planned Parenthood

Even though Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas do not accept fetal tissue, Gov. Sam Brownback launched an investigation into Planned Parenthood. Brownback is staunchly opposed to abortion, so this is merely another effort to close down Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas.

Apparently, the governor does not realize the vital health care services Planned Parenthood provides for women. These include birth control, sexually transmitted disease testing, pelvic exams, Pap tests and breast-cancer screenings. Abortions account for only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services.

Brownback must keep his hands off health care for Kansas women and concentrate on the fiscal disaster he has created in our state.

Jane Toliver

Leawood

Abandoned animals

To the uncaring person who saw fit to drop off the little black and white dog at Missouri 150 and Bynum Road one Sunday morning, if you had stuck around a few minutes you could have seen that bewildered baby scanning every vehicle that passed by hoping in its heart that you would return, only to be disappointed time after time.

You would also have seen several caring people stop to try and rescue that poor thing before it became another dead animal along the roadway.

You were right in your apparent assumption that we country folk are animal lovers and will if possible make a home for your unwanted pet.

The truth is, however, we who want animals already have them. Your callous disregard for that animal’s feelings are reprehensible.

There are a number of animal rescuers in the metropolitan area that would have gladly taken that poor creature and tried to find a decent home for it.

Almost daily, we who travel the highway are treated to a collection of dead animals, some wild and some dumped as was yours, that have been struck by cars.

Shame on you.

Wayne Miller

Lone Jack

Kobach, Obamacare

The Kansas secretary of state has written members of Congress, urging them to affirm a health-care compact that he says would give states a way to exempt themselves from the federal Affordable Care Act.

News stories have said that Secretary of State Kris Kobach said in the letter to 94 Republicans in Congress that authorization of the interstate coalition on health care would give those states authority to regulate health care within their borders and to administer their federal health-care funds.

In 2014, Kansas lawmakers approved a bill to join such a compact. But it requires congressional approval to take effect. Critics say the plan could jeopardize the health care of people who receive other forms of federal health-care benefits, including more than 450,000 seniors in Kansas on Medicare.

Medicare works just fine as a federal program. Kansans should fight this effort.

Kansas cannot manage Medicare as well as the federal government.

John Skelton

Lansing

Brownback’s plan

I do not agree that the budget deficit in Kansas stems from a poor or mistaken economic policy by Gov. Sam Brownback. He knew exactly what the outcome would be.

The governor is an intelligent man. He has to be aware that trickle-down economics is a failed economic policy. Yet he has continued to pursue tax cuts for the wealthy and shifted more of the tax burden to the middle class and the poor through increased sales taxes and reduced mortgage deductions.

Gov. Brownback appears to subscribe to a libertarian philosophy, which favors dismantling the “nanny state” by starving state and local governments of adequate tax money to fund education, public pensions, Medicaid and infrastructure.

Next year, as the deficit grows, Kansans will face some hard choices if they continue to support Brownback’s insistence on his 2012 tax cuts for the wealthy.

Diane Mitchell

Kansas City

Redefining terrorism

Terrorism is a violent statement, meant to strike terror into the hearts of entire groups. The acts of Dylann Roof, F. Glenn Miller Jr. and a huge number of others fall into this category.

And yet our government and the news media mostly reserve the word terrorism for acts committed by Muslims. An example is Chattanooga, Tenn.

Most low-information Americans find the very word terrifying and wildly overestimate their odds of getting killed by Muslim terrorists. It’s considerably more likely that one might be the victim of an American terrorist.

Reserving the word for Muslims leads to unfair hatred of Islam and to our enthusiastic endorsement of war and drone strikes on Muslim countries. This understandably angers Muslims and recruits some to groups bent on vengeance.

It’s time to ponder this effect and rethink the role being played in the branding of Muslims as the terrorists of the world.

Marlen Beach

Kansas City

Climb pay ladder

I am a lifelong Kansas City resident. I voted for Mayor Sly James twice.

I’ve read Mary Sanchez’s columns for years, often disagreeing with her. I don’t own a business, and I get my coffee at McDonald’s every day. I put myself through college by working after school and through the GI bill.

Raising the minimum wage to $13 an hour by Jan. 1, 2020, is a mistake. It will only serve to hold people in menial jobs even longer.

I love the servers I see at McDonald’s every day. My best wish for them is to leave, move on to the next better job.

Raise your pay by advancement, not by raising the minimum wage.

Get out of the rut.

Mary Sanchez is worried about the programs these wonderful young people might lose if the wage went up. Go to school, get an education and get out of the rut.

I worked 40 hours a week and carried a full college load every semester. I was married, and my first son was born while I was in school.

It worked. I spent 42 years with the same company here in Kansas City by moving up, not by protesting for more pay.

Michael J. Callahan

Kansas City

Via: Kansas City Star

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article31134038.html#storylink=cpy

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION THREATENS STATES ATTEMPTING TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD

The Obama administration is threatening states attempting to defund Planned Parenthood–those trying to stop the flow of their Medicaid funds to the abortion provider–with potential violation of federal law and, ultimately, the cutting off of Medicaid funds to those states.

Following the release of investigative videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s practice of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies for potential sale to biomedical companies, Alabama, Louisiana, and New Hampshire have canceled their Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood, as CNSNews.com reports.

Other states are in the process of considering similar action.

In Wisconsin, for example, state Rep. André Jacque (R) is attempting to address all the layers of government funding of Planned Parenthood that are under control of his state in several pieces of legislation. While Gov. Scott Walker and the state legislature have redirected about $1 million annually from Planned Parenthood to a Women’s Health Block Grant, the abortion giant’s affiliate in Wisconsin still receives between $15 and $16 million in taxpayer money annually, mainly through Medicaid and Title X “family planning” funding.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has stepped in, however, reports The Wall Street Journal, to warn these states that they may be in violation of federal law because, by blocking Planned Parenthood’s reception of Medicaid funds, it says women could lose access to essential preventive care, such as cancer prevention screenings.

In an HHS guidance document from 2011, the Obama administration said states are not allowed to exclude providers from Medicaid solely on the basis of the types of services they offer.

According to the WSJ report, should the states continue to block Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, they can request a hearing to settle the matter; however, should the conflict continue, CMS could cut Medicaid funds to the state.

Spokesmen for both Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said their states are not in violation of federal law since their Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood give either party the right to cancel it at will with a notice period: 30 days for Louisiana and 15 days for Alabama.

The HHS guidance, however, also says that states can exclude providers from Medicaid funding if their engagement in certain criminal acts is proven, a provision that many believe is the case with the videos of Planned Parenthood’s top medical personnel discussing the sale of aborted baby organs and body parts.

“This really hasn’t been tried before,” said Casey Mattox, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. “Planned Parenthood has contracts with states that can be terminated for cause. In other situations the contracts were not terminated for cause.”

The Obama administration threatened to cut off Medicaid funding several years ago from Texas, when former Gov. Rick Perry redirected federal Title X funds to family planning centers in his state that are not affiliated with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. When Perry prohibited funding for low-income women’s health centers to go to Planned Parenthood clinics, the Obama administration argued the action was a violation of federal law and threatened to cut off Medicaid funding. Undaunted, Perry decided to fund the low-income women’s health program completely with his state’s own money.

In the wake of the release of the investigative videos by the Center for Medical Progress, White House press secretary Josh Earnest deferred to Planned Parenthood, stating the organization says it follows the highest ethical guidelines on medical research.

President Obama is a known champion of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. In April of 2013, he was the first sitting president to deliver an address to Planned Parenthood, which was founded by eugenicist and racist Margaret Sanger. He promised to stand with the organization against what he described as efforts to “turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950’s than the 21st Century.”

After praising the organization for its 100-year existence, Obama told Planned Parenthood, “God bless you.”

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has enjoyed a close relationship with the White House from the start of Obama’s presidency. According to a report atCNSNews.com, an online record of visitors shows that Richards has visited the White House 39 times since Obama took office, beginning January 20, 2009–the day he was inaugurated.

Since then, Richards has met with Obama alone at least three times and First Lady Michelle Obama at least twice. Additionally, she met with the President and his wife together another four times. She also attended the President’s second inaugural on January 20, 2013.

Richards met with David Plouffe, former senior adviser to the president, four times and current senior adviser Valerie Jarrett five times. She has also met with many members of the Obama administration, including former White House Chief of Staff William Daley, Office of Management and Budget director Shaun Donovan, and current Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.

Via: Breitbart

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Obama Admin Threatens Alabama and Louisiana After They De-Fund Planned Parenthood

According to the Medicaid provider contract between DHH and Planned Parenthood, along with relevant Louisiana law, either party can choose to cancel the contract at will after providing written notice.

The Obama administration is threatening two states after they made the decision to cut funding to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the wake of a series of videos exposing how Planned Parenthood sells aborted babies and their body parts.

Alabama became the third state to de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the wake of five videos exposing how the abortion giant sells the body parts of aborted babies for research. The state followed Louisiana, which is revoking a contract with Planned Parenthood using state Medicaid dollars, and New Hampshire, which zapped $650,000 in state taxpayer funding.

In Alabama, Governor Robert Bentley sent a letter to the head of the Planned Parenthood abortion business in Alabama notifying it of his decision. In Louisiana, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals informed Planned Parenthood it is exercising its right to terminate Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid provider agreement.

According to the Medicaid provider contract between DHH and Planned Parenthood, along with relevant Louisiana law, either party can choose to cancel the contract at will after providing written notice.

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately

But the Obama administration wrote threatening letters to each state claiming their move to de-fund Planned Parenthood violates federal law. As The Hill reports:

But the White House points out that federal law says Medicaid beneficiaries may obtain services from any qualified provider and that cutting Planned Parenthood out of the program restricts that choice.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) has contacted Louisiana and Alabama about the issue.

“CMS has notified states who have taken action to terminate their Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood that they may be in conflict with federal law,” Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Ben Wakana said in a statement.

“Longstanding Medicaid laws prohibit states from restricting individuals who have coverage through Medicaid from receiving care from a qualified provider,” he said. “By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventive care, such as cancer screenings.”

But Louisiana is not backing down.

When Louisiana cut Planned Parenthood fnuding Jindal’s office said, “Governor Jindal and DHH decided to give the required 30-day notice to terminate the Planned Parenthood Medicaid provider contract because Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the State of Louisiana in regards to respecting human life. Pending the ongoing investigation, DHH reserves the right to amend the cancellation notice and terminate the provider agreement immediately should cause be determined.”

The governor said the state health department has “concerns that Planned Parenthood could be acting in violation of Louisiana law that states no person or group contracting with the state or receiving government assistance shall require or recommend that any woman have an abortion.  The state investigation into Planned Parenthood remains ongoing.”

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts

The Hill reports that, “Mike Reed, a spokesman for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), indicated the state and its Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) are standing by its decision.”

He cited a provision in the state Medicaid contract allowing either party to cancel it at will, with 30 days notice.

“CMS reached out to DHH after we canceled the Medicaid provider contract with Planned Parenthood,” Reed said. “DHH explained to CMS why the state chose to exercise our right to cancel the contract without cause.”

The abortion giant praised the Obama administration saying it will “do everything in our power to protect women’s access to health care in all fifty states.”

Via: Life News

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[VIDEO] HOW IS ‘STEALING’ BABY BODY PARTS ‘WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE?’

Planned Parenthood and its supporters have insisted that it engages in “women’s healthcare.” But in the latest undercover investigative video exposing the taxpayer-funded organization’s practice of harvesting aborted baby parts for potential sale to biomedical companies, a former StemExpress procurement technician reveals that when she needed certain body parts, Planned Parenthood staff would sometimes “just take what they wanted…and these mothers don’t know.”

In the second episode of “Human Capital,” produced by the Center for Medical Progress, whistleblower Holly O’Donnell alleges that Planned Parenthood often harvests the tissue and organs of aborted babies without the knowledge or consent of likely distressed pregnant women.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization, says Planned Parenthood has “betrayed” women, rather than provided them with “healthcare,” as the organization’s president, Cecile Richards, insists.

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] New Planned Parenthood video claims fetal parts were used without consent

The anti-abortion group targeting Planned Parenthood released a sixth video Wednesday — but this time included no secretly recorded footage.

The latest video from The Center for Medical Progress featured an interview with a former lab technician, whose company partnered with Planned Parenthood. The woman, who described herself as an “ex-procurement technician,” claimed that her co-workers sometimes did not seek a woman’s consent before obtaining aborted fetus tissue to be used for medical research.

“There were times when they would just take what they wanted, and these mothers don’t know,” the former employee, Holly O’Donnell, said in the 10-minute video.

The anti-abortion group’s weeks-long campaign against Planned Parenthood has been defined by its secretly recorded footage, which included graphic images of the medical workers handling aborted fetus parts in Petri dishes.

To get the footage, members of The Center for Medical Progress posed as medical researcher buyers to attend meetings with abortion clinic officials. Planned Parenthood has strongly condemned the group's actions, and denied any allegations of illegal activity.

Unlike the previous five videos, this video focused almost entirely on O’Donnell, who described herself as "very pro-life."

While she called out a Planned Parenthood doctor, who she said “had a reputation for going viciously fast,” the video showed only a screenshot of his online bio. It also showed several women entering Planned Parenthood clinics, but did not show their faces.

The newest video raises questions about The Center for Medical Progress's remaining weeks of its campaign against Planned Parenthood. Its founder, David Daleiden, has said he has hundreds of hours of footage, which could be released over the next 12 videos.

The group’s use of hidden cameras has prompted some abortion clinic officials to take legal action to temporarily halt the release of footage. Two have been successful in California, where the group is headquartered.

Via: The Hill

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[VIDEO] Trump Defends Planned Parenthood, Responds to GOP Critics on Hannity

Donald Trump sat down with Sean Hannity tonight and did everything from hit back at his conservative critics to defend Planned Parenthood to rip Hillary Clinton over her emails and foundation money.

Trump went through his standard talking points about how good he’s doing in the polls, how poorly everyone else is doing, how he’ll be the best for everyone and everything, and how he can get things done.

Hannity threw a few softballs at Trump, but also pressed him a little on specific policy proposals for Obamacare, the economy, and even Planned Parenthood.

And Trump kind of surprised Hannity by defending them, saying that abortion is only a “fairly small part of what they do” and overall they do a great service for women, so “we have to look at the positive also for Planned Parenthood.”

He also hit back against his conservative critics and pointed out that Ronald Reagan used to be a Democrat and wasn’t even as conservative as people remember him as.

Via: Mediaite

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Lifting the Curtain on the Abortion Industry – A Practitioner's Perspective

Human baby. (AP Photo)Another video bombshell has been lobbed at the Planned Parenthood juggernaut by the Center for Medical Progress.  It’s a story of David vs. Goliath, plainly, but this latest attack has certainly caused significant damage that will be hard for the wealthy foundation to shrug off.

Melissa Farrell, director of medical research of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has done permanent injury to something that the entire abortion industry relies on: the idea that what is being removed in an abortion is a “clump of cells.”

For years now, the magical science of ultrasound has been working hard at putting that concept on the ash heap of history.  We physicians have always known that a fetus is a fascinatingly intriguing little human, and it took ultrasound to open up that knowledge to the general public.  There is no need for a months-long intense course on fetal development.  A glimpse of the black and white moving images of little hands waving and toes wiggling instill a conviction of personhood immediately.

The doctors and technicians who are featured in the videos, working in their macabre “research” labs know this too, of course.  The exclamation of Dr. Ginde, a Colorado abortionist, as she stands over a petri dish of fetal parts: “Another boy!” is going to stick in my mind for a long time.  It’s particularly awful coming from a fellow physician.  We like to think that our vocation is especially safe from ethical indecencies, but obviously that’s not true.  The deadness of the women’s consciences can almost be felt, as they talk about pricing their grisly work by body part harvested, and how convenient it is when a woman delivers an intact baby during the abortion process.

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, talks a good game.  To hear her tell it, abortion is the last thing anyone at her clinics wants to offer a scared and desperate young woman.  Her providers are sensitive, caring, even lovingly concerned.  They do what they do because they are engaged in a heroic battle to serve womankind with Pap smears, birth control, and STD tests, that even after Obamacare and all its mandates, women are still having trouble “accessing.”   Oh, and almost as an afterthought, “safe and legal abortion.”

I guess we know now that the sensitivity and humanity quotient in those clinics is a lot lower than Ms. Richards claims.  We also know that no one who works at Planned Parenthood, from Cecile Richards on down to the lowliest receptionist, believes that abortion has to do with the removal of “tissue” or “cells.”  They can’t believe it, because they are looking at the ultrasounds, carrying the petri dishes, calling for pickup of intact body parts, and otherwise going about their morbid business.

Polls show that before these videos surfaced, about two-thirds of Americans would ban abortion after the first trimester. It will be interesting to see how those polls change.  Lifting the curtain on the big business of abortion and watching the artless coarseness of its practitioners will have its effect on the public.  I’m sure the public will show that their moral sensitivity is significantly healthier than Richards’ and her supporters’.

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a Senior Policy Advisor for The Catholic Association.  She writes and speaks widely, in both Spanish and English, about Catholicism, religious freedom, and the intersection of faith and science.  As a Hispanic, she brings a special focus on social issues that impact the growing Latino population, such as the state of the family and the real needs of the poor and marginalized.  As a physician, she is able to address complex subjects relating to government health policy and its true impact on the people it purports to help.

Via: CNS News

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Bentley terminates Alabama’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) Thursday terminated the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood after the legitimacy of using any taxpayer dollars to fund the abortion provider was once again called into question following the release of several videos describing its harvest and sale of aborted baby organs and body parts.

“The deplorable practices at Planned Parenthood have been exposed to Americans, and I have decided to stop any association with the organization in Alabama,” said Governor Bentley. “As a doctor and Alabama’s Governor, the issue of human life, from conception to birth and beyond, is extremely important to me. I respect human life, and I do not want Alabama to be associated with an organization that does not.”

Yellowhammer has obtained a copy of the letter sent to Planned Parenthood CEO Staci Fox Thursday afternoon.

Planned Parenthood currently receives more than $500 million annually in federal funding, mostly through Medicaid reimbursements.

It is through the mechanism of Medicaid—whose funding is controlled through the states—that some red state governors, now including Governor Bentley, have begun their own efforts to defund abortion providers.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is also a 2016 presidential hopeful, announced Monday his state was terminating their contract with Planned Parenthood’s clinics.

Eight other states besides Alabama ban all state family planning money from going to clinics which provide abortions, including Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Today a committee in the Alabama Senate voted to advance legislation making it a Class B felony to offer or accept money for aborted babies or parts of aborted babies.

“The nation is shocked by videos depicting Planned Parenthood employees callously discussing the dismemberment of babies and the sale of baby body parts for profit. This is like a story out of Nazi Germany,” said Sen. Bill Hightower (R-Mobile) during the committee hearing. “The federal authorities may allow this type of thing, but Alabama won’t – and upon final passage, Alabama will have a law that reflects Alabama’s values.”

Via: Yellowhammer

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[VIDEO] Shawn Hubler: What they really do at Planned Parenthood

The entry to downtown Sacramento’s Planned Parenthood clinic is literally transparent. Through tall windows, you can see right into the waiting room from the sidewalk outside.

This week, the women walking in and out were equally open.

One visitor to downtown Sacramento’s Planned Parenthood clinic, Stephanie Porter of Rio Linda, explained that she appreciates the clinic because “they’ve saved me plenty of times. Like, the Plan B pills you get in the stores? They cost like $50, $60. People steal that stuff. Here, they give you condoms, Plan B pills, birth control pills, IUDs, everything.” Dick Schmidt Sacramento Bee file

“I’ve been coming here since I was a teenager,” said Maria Martinez, 28, of Oak Park, in for a checkup. “I was a teen mom.”

“I’m not ready to be pregnant,” shrugged Stephanie Porter, 24, of Rio Linda. “And they’ve saved me plenty of times. Like, the Plan B pills you get in the stores? They cost like $50, $60. People steal that stuff. Here, they give you condoms, Plan B pills, birth control pills, IUDs, everything.”

“I come for my examinations,” said a 37-year-old Sacramento homemaker named Luz, who was pregnant with her third and, she said firmly, last child. She’d been getting checkups and contraception at Planned Parenthood for 10 years “porque es gratis – we have emergency Medi-Cal only and it is free.”

If all you knew about Planned Parenthood was what has been in the news, you might reasonably wonder what shady business people there are up to. For weeks, a veteran of the radical anti-abortion youth group Live Action has been releasing undercover videos that purport to show the organization’s leaders illegally profiting from the sale of aborted fetuses.

SENSATIONAL AS THEY MAY BE, THE TAPES COMPLETELY MISS THE POINT OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S DAY-TO-DAY OPERATION, WHICH HAS JUST ABOUT NOTHING TO DO WITH FETAL TISSUE, OR EVEN ABORTION.

The tapes have predictably generated much political grandstanding and partisan “investigation.” I put that word in quotes because both the tapes and the furor are clearly more about galvanizing true believers in a presidential campaign year than about the legalities of using fetal tissue and stem cells for medical research.

But provocative as they may be, the tapes completely miss the point of Planned Parenthood’s day-to-day operation, which has just about nothing to do with fetal tissue, or even abortion. And to spend an afternoon at one of its 700 clinics is to be reminded repeatedly just how random a tangent its enemies have taken with this fetal tissue gambit.

Not that the tapes aren’t upsetting to watch. Just as it’s grotesque to see a helpless child go unloved by some woman – or man, or teenager – who had no business at that point in life becoming a parent, most Americans have mixed feelings about abortion, and no one who has ever had one goes around boasting about it.

But 80 percent of the 2.7 million people who visit Planned Parenthood each year are like the women in downtown Sacramento, there not to commit some stigmatized last resort, but to rightly ensure that they don’t get pregnant with children they don’t want in the first place. And most of the other 20 percent are there for things such as sexually transmitted disease tests and breast exams.

Via: Sacramento Bee

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