Life Advocacy Briefing

Defunding Planned Parenthood?

THE SUSAN G. KOMEN FOUNDATION last week announced the breast cancer awareness non-profit had disqualified Planned Parenthood from future funding, rocking the abortion lobby, which has long hidden behind Komen for phony respectability.

Immediate reaction from the pro-life community was generally positive. (Komen’s CEO announced on a conference call Thursday that the organization’s own contributions are up 100%, according to blogger Jill Stanek, suggesting pro-life citizens have recognized how best to say thanks.)

But an “apology” issued by Komen at our press time on Friday muddied the earlier announcement. Mrs. Stanek opined soon after the bombshell apology – no doubt after checking with her “insider” source – “Be savvy. Nothing has changed. Komen is merely trying to get some breathing room.”

The Komen withdrawal was attributed by the organization to the Congressional probe of Planned Parenthood for reported transgressions against a variety of laws, including questionable financial management of its hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds. The “apology” indicated Komen’s disqualification of Planned Parenthood had been seen as a political move and implied the Congressional investigation could be viewed as a political probe. “We will amend the [eligibility] criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”

In announcing the Planned Parenthood cutoff earlier in the week, Komen stated it had adopted a policy of withholding support from organizations undergoing investigations at the federal, state or local level, leading Mrs. Stanek to observe, “Those will never end. There will always be another [probe]. [Komen] does not plan to fund Planned Parenthood ever again.” (We hope you’re right, Jill!)

What is more, the Komen Foundation backing for Planned Parenthood was always said by Komen to be funding breast cancer screening programs at Planned Parenthood, but the abortion behemoth had to admit last year that its facilities do not offer mammograms. Oops.

Admitting initial skepticism on our own part, we’re publishing below excerpts from three “inside scoop” columns by Mrs. Stanek to aid you in evaluating whether this cut-off is real.

Correction

LAST WEEK WE REPORTED on the closure of two Illinois abortuaries. We are grateful to Bill Beckman, executive director of Illinois Right to Life Committee, for advising us in the interim that one of those shops has not actually closed but has ceased committing surgical abortions; chemicals are still being used to kill babies at the shop in Chicago-suburban Lincolnwood.

A couple of pro-life citizens placed “at least three calls” to the Lincolnwood business, Mr. Beckman tells us, learning the shop is “definitely not closed, but it does appear that they are no longer committing surgical abortions (even though these are still shown on their website).

 “The large fine that they avoided paying apparently forced them to stop committing surgical abortions,” Mr. Beckman writes, “but they are still offering RU-486 abortions. [One of the volunteer callers] was told that they may be moving to another location, but he was under the impression that they would not resume surgical abortions there.

“It is not clear,” comments Mr. Beckman, “why the reporter [whose work we relied on] ended up stating that they were closed when they were not.”

The confusion about this shop’s status illustrates a pitfall for pro-lifers in focusing solely on surgical abortion. We have held back, for example, from reporting on the reports out of Illinois of a significant, seemingly rather inexplicable drop in the number of reported abortions. Such statistics typically reflect surgical abortions; Planned Parenthood and other abortion outfits are known to be promoting chemical abortions in many sites, which we find – as in the instance of the Lincolnwood shop – a plausible though sad explanation for what seem to be encouraging numbers.

State legislation mandating statistical reporting of chemical abortions as a distinct category would help policymakers – and reporters – gain a better understanding of the actual abortion death toll and of practices within the abortion industry. We encourage our readers to take this idea to their favorite state lawmakers.

Chemical Abortions Not Safe Either

THE ABORTION LOBBY HAS FILED A LAWSUIT challenging North Dakota’s new law seeking to regulate RU-486 chemical abortions and outlawing “telemed” abortions, by which the Red River Women’s Clinic is dispensing RU-486 and Cytotec without its customers being examined by doctors.

“The new law would virtually ban medication abortions in North Dakota,” reports Operation Rescue (OR), in a news release on the lawsuit, “and would place the requirement that a licensed physician be present when the drugs are administered.

“This would prevent what is known as telemed or ‘webcam’ abortions from taking place,” explains OR, “where unlicensed and inadequately trained workers dispense the dangerous drugs after the patient has had a brief consultation over an Internet video conferencing connection with an abortionist in another location.”

Plaintiff lawyers have been imported from New York for the lawsuit, sent by the Center for Reproductive Rights. They use the usual argument, reports OR, that the protective new law “creates an ‘undue burden’ on women.”

But the already shaky argument stretches credulity at Red River, where the standard operating procedure is to violate the protocol issued for administration of the dangerous abortion drug by the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

“Currently the Red River Women’s Clinic uses an off-label application of the abortion pill,” notes OR, “in conjunction with an ulcer drug called Cytotec (misoprostol) to force women to artificially abort their preborn babies in an event that simulates miscarriage. Manufacturers of Cytotec,” reports OR, “have issued warnings against using the drug to induce abortions.”

The North Dakota abortion outpost also violates the FDA protocols, notes OR, “which require at least two office visits in addition to follow-up care and limit the use of RU-486 to under seven weeks. Red River improperly uses the abortion pill through nine weeks of pregnancy. The medication abortion process causes the body to reject the implanted baby and forces contractions to expel the remains,” writes OR. “It can be a long, painful process that lasts multiple days.” What is more, notes OR, “the abortion fails seven to twenty percent of the time, creating a potentially life-threatening condition that requires surgical intervention. …

“‘It is ludicrous to say that requiring steps to ensure patient safety creates an “undue burden” on them,’” said OR senior policy advisor Cheryl Sullenger in the release. “‘I’d rather be inconvenienced than dead.’” This lawsuit, she said, “‘is really about keeping that abortion clinic open, no matter who suffers.’”

Bottom line: Abortion is a racket, a decriminalized but truly criminal enterprise, which will cut corners at the expense of the health and safety of a vulnerable segment of our society and the very lives of the most vulnerable of all. Abortion itself is an undue burden on America.

Komen Cutoff – ‘Inside Story’ & Early Reaction

Excerpts from Feb. 1, Feb. 2 and Feb. 3, 2012, commentaries by Jill Stanek at JillStanek.com

Feb. 1: … I have a source who reaches into the Susan G. Komen [SGK] board of directors. My source told me in December this split was in the works but that SGK did not want to make a big splash about it. Their plan was to disentangle from Planned Parenthood quietly and move on.

It was Planned Parenthood, not SGK, that tipped off the Associated Press with the news of the break, just as it was Planned Parenthood that tipped off the AP about Live Action’s sex trafficking sting and Planned Parenthood that tipped off Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff about Congressman Cliff Stearns’s investigation.

Planned Parenthood’s modus operandi is to try to destroy its enemy first. Planned Parenthood does this to try to manage the messaging and ameliorate the damage. … My source said Planned Parenthood broke the story for an additional reason: to frighten other corporations from trying to do what SGK did. “See what will happen to you if you dare” is Planned Parenthood’s underlying warning. My source said this will not work; other organizations are anticipated to follow SGK’s lead.

People are speculating whether SGK will begin funding PP again if the Stearns investigation goes nowhere. The answer is no. Two reasons, according to my source: First, PP burned a bridge by breaking the story. Second, note SGK’s new criteria that stipulate it will give no grant money to “organizations that are under local, state or federal investigations.” Aside from the federal investigation, PP is currently being investigated in several states. Those will never end. There will always be another. SGK does not plan to fund PP ever again. …

The biggest reason SGK stopped funding Planned Parenthood? “Nancy Brinker (SGK chairwoman) said she was spending nearly half her time dealing with the Planned Parenthood issue,” said my source. “She decided she just couldn’t do it any longer.” Quite simply, Planned Parenthood is poison. …

Feb. 2:Huffington Post gleefully reported today that three Komen officials have now resigned and one more is threatening to, as the “backlash gains steam” over its decision to sever financial ties with Planned Parenthood.

The fools don’t realize what is happening. Every Komen exec who quits over the PP flak is good news for our side – one less pro-abort with clout in the United States’s most influential breast cancer foundation. Komen is undergoing a cleansing of its liberal bastion.

Perhaps now Komen will acknowledge the link between abortion and breast cancer, which, thanks to the Planned Parenthood flak, is getting renewed attention.

CEO Nancy Brinker’s eyes have certainly been opened these past couple days. I’m sure the former friend of Planned Parenthood is reevaluating a lot of things. She needs our prayers.

My source inside Komen tells me its e-mail system crashed several times today due to the volume of e-mails. … At last count, e-mails in support of Komen were at 20,000 and those in opposition straggled behind at 10,000. … Meanwhile, Brinker said on a conference call today donations are up 100% since Komen announced it was severing its financial relationship with Planned Parenthood. … Conservatives who have been withholding funds from Komen are loosening their purse-strings.

There is also now an interesting battle of Congressional letters emerging. ABC has posted a letter signed by 26 Senators asking Komen to restore funding to the United States’s largest abortion provider. No surprise, the signers are all Democrat pro-aborts, save one Independent/Socialist pro-abort [Bernard Sanders of Vermont].

But never fear, I’m told a pro-Komen letter is now circulating in Congress. The final count of legislators supporting Komen vs. opposing Komen should go our way, although I doubt the media will be interested in reporting that. …

Feb. 3: … [From Komen’s Friday statement] ‘We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to meet the needs of their communities. It is our hope – and we believe it is time – for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women.’

This statement represents nothing new. Komen and CEO Nancy Brinker had already stated they would continue to fund Planned Parenthood’s existing grants through 2012 (one through 2013). Brinker told [a reporter] that number was three; other reports and my source say the number is five.

If Planned Parenthood is found guilty [in] criminal investigations – several of which are ongoing around the states (Medicaid fraud in Texas and California; fraudulent reporting and illegal abortions in Kansas, and, yes, the federal Congressional investigation, etc.) – Komen’s criteria will still disqualify Planned Parenthood from receiving grants, as it should.

This [apology] is Komen’s attempt to get the abortion mafia off their backs. Planned Parenthood and its thugs have engaged in typical shakedown: Give us money or we will destroy you.

Be savvy. Nothing has changed. Komen is merely trying to get some breathing room.

March for Life Speech Transcripts

Continuing our series of Congressional speeches at the March for Life, Jan. 23, 2012; transcribed by Life Advocacy from recorded-live video. Our speakers today are the co-chairmen of the House Pro-Life Caucus and the House Majority Leader.

Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ): Along with my wife Marie, let me thank you for being part of the greatest human rights movement on earth, the selfless struggle that by prayer, fasting, and hard work seeks to defend the weak and the vulnerable. As you know, under the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Boehner, whom you just heard, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Whip Kevin McCarthy, and Jeb Hensarling, who is our conference chairman, the House has overwhelmingly approved HR-3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the Protect Life Act, and voted to completely repeal ObamaCare and to defund Planned Parenthood. Now we must work hard to change the Senate so these bills can go forward and reclaim the White House.

Tomorrow night in his State of the Union message, President Obama will issue a call to –quote – return America to American values.  Mr. President, the violent destruction of children in the womb, killing babies, is not an American value.  Mr. President, stop violating conscience rights. Stop violating religious freedom. That is not an American value. Abortion is not, never will be, an American value. And stop exporting abortion to the four corners of the earth.

The past three years, my friends, of abortion extremism by President Obama is a mere foretaste, a mere foreshadowing of what will be if he is reelected.  Mr. Obama’s abortion extremism will significantly worsen in a second term. Given four more years, Obama will pack the courts and will – especially the U.S. Supreme Court – with litmus tested pro-abortion judges. Unfettered by any concern of a future election, Mr. Obama will aggressively use the coercive power of the state to compel abortion conformity. So make no mistake about it: We don’t have the luxury of disunity or nominee disappointment or apathy. No one who values life can sit this one out. Failure to unite, failure to mobilize, sends the abortion industry’s enabler-in-chief Barack Obama back to the White House. So for the sake of the innocent, failure to unite is simply not an option. Thank you.

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL): Good afternoon, I’m Dan Lipinski, Representative from the State of Illinois. I want to thank all of you for being here today. We have a lot of work ahead of us to conquer the culture of death and spread the culture of Life in Washington and all across our nation. And we know that it’s not going to be easy. I especially know that, as a Democrat here in Washington. It is not easy to be pro-life. But we must let America know – and I want to let America know and all of you know – that we will not back down, and we will not go away.

Your presence here today – especially so many students – really strengthens my hope and my faith that with God’s help, we will turn around the culture of death and we will make our nation respect and cherish and protect the life of the most innocent among us. And so today, we again rededicate ourselves to that, to protecting the lives of the innocent in our nation. God bless you.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA): Good afternoon, I’m Eric Cantor from the Seventh District of Virginia and Majority Leader of the US House. It is always so amazing to look out on this crowd – people who travel from all across the country and brave the cold to fight for Life. I especially want to recognize those who made the trip from Virginia and for those who came up from the Seventh District today on five buses. Your belief and commitment to the right to life gives all of us even more inspiration to never, ever give up the fight.

We come today to stand together and voice our belief that innocent life is precious and the taking of life morally wrong. Millions of Americans across this country agree with us that we must stop government from assisting in the assault on innocent life. Millions of Americans agree with us that we should defund and stop giving of government dollars to Planned Parenthood. Our dollars should never be used to take life. It is time to protect conscience rights for those who oppose abortion.

As you know, we cannot do this alone. We need your help; we need more Chris Smiths and Dan Lipinskis, who’ve dedicated their lives to our cause. Their passion, their courage and their fight sends a clear message to the American people that we all – we all – stand proudly for life. And let us not give up the fight. Thank you very, very much.