planned parenthood

Upon hearing the news that the budget compromise includes funding for Planned Parenthood, the reactions from anti-choice groups have ranged from resigned to resistant as there will only be a separate vote on defunding the women’s health group that is likely to fail in the Senate. The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer likened Speaker John Boehner to Pontius Pilate and Nazi apologists over the deal, and now the AFA’s President Tim Wildmon said Boehner “failed pro-life Americans.” In an email message to members, Wildmon urged activists to demand their representatives and senators vote to defund Planned Parenthood. But he also asked members join him “in praying for Barack Obama” because “this man should repent before God Almighty” for his pro-choice views. Wildmon writes:

With the budget compromise including funding for Planned Parenthood, There is still time to let your congressman know how you feel about the budget deal struck between President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and Speaker of the House John Boehner which DID NOT exclude Planned Parenthood (PP) and National Public Radio (NPR) from receiving federal tax dollars. The AFA believes that it is long past time to defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives $350 million in taxpayer funds while aborting 324,000 babies a year.

On behalf of AFA, I have expressed to Speaker Boehner's office how disappointed we are that he gave in to Obama on the matter of tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood. The decision was Boehner's to make and -- for whatever reason and for whatever good he may have accomplished in this deal otherwise -- on the insistence that Planned Parenthood be defunded, he failed pro-life Americans. There is no other way to put it.

…

P.S. For Barack Obama's part, this man should repent before God Almighty for defending and advancing the evil practice of killing unborn babies. He is by far the most pro-abortion president America has ever had. Will you join me in praying for Barack Obama today?

Bryan Fischer’s recent attacks on African Americans, Native Americans, Muslim Americans, and the Constitution haven’t seemed to bother leading Republicans, who consistently appear on his show. But now, Fischer is going after the highest-ranking Republican official in the country: House Speaker John Boehner.

As part of the budget compromise to avert a government shutdown, Boehner withdrew the Republicans’ extreme and unpopular policy rider to defund Planned Parenthood. Defunding the women’s health organization was on the top of the agenda for Religious Right groups. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid guaranteed a vote on the defunding measure in the Senate separate from the budget deal.

Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, likens Boehner’s compromise on Planned Parenthood’s funding to Pontius Pilate approving the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and to “protecting the Nazi regime” during the Holocaust:

Pilate folded under politically-correct pressure, caved-in, and handed Christ over to their will. So Pilate new exactly what he was doing, he was caving-in to political pressure from his political opponents. What I think, frankly, John Boehner did on Friday night…. John Boehner blinked, rather than standing to defund Planned Parenthood and defend unborn human life, he caved, he folded, he capitulated…. One million dollars a day going to Planned Parenthood while they are butchering a population the size of Cincinnati. This is like the gas chambers, this is like Auschwitz, this is like protecting the Nazi regime while they are gassing Jews. Ladies and gentlemen it is absolutely no different in terms of the moral implications and the moral issues that are involved.

• I honestly cannot believe that NOM is actually quoting Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall.
• Speaker John Boehner and the GOP will probably cave on defunding Planned Parenthood ... but apparently he is still an anti-choice hero.
• Newt Gingrich's Renewing American Leadership is starting its own prayer alert network.
• FRC thinks its work was so vital to one anti-health care reform lawsuit that it is getting involved in another.
• Finally, Bryan Fischer says there are too many questions about repealing DADT that are being left unanswered: "And what about families who rely on on DoD schools for their children’s education? If LGBT personnel teach and pro-gay indoctrination is allowed in military-run classrooms, does the DoD have any way of determining how many families will choose not to re-enlist because of this? If pro-marriage service-members want educational alternatives because of LGBT curricula in DoD classrooms, will alternatives be provided, or will they be forced to suffer the brainwashing of their children as long as they serve?"

Religious Right activists have frequently found themselves at odds with the prominent health organization the American Cancer Society, attacking the group over its support for stem-cell research, the approval of an HPV vaccine, and for an anti-smoking program by an Iowa Planned Parenthood clinic. Josh Braham, the director of Right to Life Central California and the host of Life Report, has taken this antipathy to a new level, calling for a boycott of American Cancer Society activities because of the group’s support for stem cell research. Writing for the anti-choice website LifeNews, Brahm calls for a boycott of the Relay for Life and claims that supporting the group is no different than aiding Nazi scientists:

A friend of mine and strong pro-life advocate, Clinton, found himself in an awkward situation last week. His Christian band had agreed to play at a Relay For Life not knowing that some of the money goes to HESCR. While meeting with Clinton, this question came up: “which is worse, giving up a ministry opportunity where Christian music could be heard by non-believers, or supporting something contrary to one’s beliefs?”

I responded by offering this analogy:

Imagine you’re in a German Christian band in 1941. You’ve happily agreed to play at a rally in support of research and treatments for hypothermia. It sounds like an important cause, raising money to treat a condition that plagues many people around the world every year. However, a few days before the event you learn that a portion of the money raised at the rally will be sent to support the research of Dr. Rascher at the Dachau concentration camp. Dr. Rascher conducted human experiments on Jews, for the purpose of creating treatments for hypothermia, an issue Nazi soldiers were struggling with on the Eastern front. One study forced subjects to endure a tank of ice water for up to five hours. Another study placed prisoners naked in the open air for several hours with temperatures as low as 21°F. Approximately 100 people are reported to have died as a result of these experiments. Would you still play at the rally?

…

If human embryos are just as human as you or me, than the Dachau analogy is a fair one, except that embryos don’t feel pain when they’re experimented on or killed. This doesn’t affect the moral equation much though, as what Dr. Rascher did would have still been considered a heinous human rights violation even if he anesthetized the Jews before using them for unethical experiments.

Arizona Congressman Trent Franks is preparing a campaign for US Senate following the retirement of Jon Kyl. According to Politico, Franks intends to “campaign to the right” of already-announced Republican Congressman Jeff Flake in the primary. Running to the right of Flake or almost any other Republican shouldn’t be difficult for Franks, who was tied for first as the most conservative member of the House.

Franks is a frequent critic of President Obama, even going so far as to call him an “enemy of humanity” at a right-wing conference, and later claimed unconvincingly that he simply meant he was an “enemy of unborn humanity.” He even wanted to impeach Obama over his decision not to defend unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act and warned that Obama has an “ideological commitment” to “weaken America.” Most recently, Franks joined Rick Santorum to claim that Obama and his allies were deliberately trying to destroy America. Such rancid statements shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Franks has floated Birther conspiracy theories and said Obama consistently “acts un-American.”

Expect the Religious Right to rally behind Franks against the more libertarian Flake. Franks is a noted proponent of the charge that abortion providers are leading a genocide against African Americans, and said that African Americans were better off under slavery than in America with reproductive freedom. He even introduced legislation barring “race-based” abortion along with leading anti-choice figures, believing his bill will “blow a fatal hole in Roe v. Wade,” and also screened the discredited documentary Maafa 21, which argues that Planned Parenthood wants to exterminate African Americans, in Congress. Moreover, Franks participated in Lou Engle’s militantly anti-choice and anti-gay The Call rallies, and worked with Dominionist groups.

The possibility of a Franks candidacy has already forced Flake to abandon his previously pro-reform position on immigration to compete with Franks, who is an anti-immigrant hardliner. Politico reports that Franks is poised to announce following a fundraiser with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Michele Bachmann:

Currently in his fifth term, Franks has solidified himself as the most conservative member of Arizona's delegation and indicated in early March he felt like he had a "responsibility to give the people a chance to choose between my perspective and Mr. Flake's."

Franks' Senate announcement will come after a $250 morning fundraiser hosted by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arizona insiders warn that Flake's flip on immigration gives Franks's candidacy immediate room to grow in a state still consumed by border violence and crime by undocumented workers. The key question is whether Flake will be able to replicate Sen. John McCain's conversion on the white hot issue.

"If it's a two-person fight, I believe Trent wins. Flake's flip on immigration kills him. He cannot effectively do a McCain and rebrand himself. McCain spent millions against a weaker opponent to rebrand himself. Flake will not have that luxury," according to one GOP operative currently unaffiliated with either campaign.

As part of their campaign to defund Planned Parenthood, the Susan B. Anthony List is running television advertisements featuring Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood staffer now with Lila Rose’s LiveAction group. As RWW previously reported, Johnson baselessly asserted that Planned Parenthood has abortion “quotas” and requires their staff to “coerce” women and minors into having abortions:

In addition, the Texas Monthly poked numerous holes in Johnson’s story:

Johnson’s departure from Planned Parenthood turned out to be a more complex story than it first appeared. At a court hearing for an injunction sought by Planned Parenthood to prevent Johnson from divulging confidential information to her new allies, two of Johnson’s former co-workers testified that she told them in the days before she resigned that she was afraid she was about to be fired. At one time, Johnson, who was named the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate’s employee of the year in 2008, seemed to have a promising future with the organization. By mid-2009, however, her relationship with her employer had begun to deteriorate. Salon reported that on October 2, Johnson was summoned to Houston to meet with her supervisors to discuss problems with her job performance. She was placed on what Planned Parenthood calls a “performance improvement plan.” It was just three days later, on Monday, that Johnson made her tearful appearance at the Coalition for Life. The following day she faxed Planned Parenthood a resignation letter, which mentioned nothing about a crisis of conscience.

...

Other questions about Johnson’s credibility arose during our interview. She told me, for example, that there had never been any threats of violence against the Bryan clinic; however, Johnson herself received a series of threatening letters in 2007. “God will punish you for killing the innocent or we will,” read one. “You are not taking us seriously. You were at the clinic alone. Not very smart,” read another. In fact, the threats were taken so seriously that security cameras were installed at Johnson’s house, as she later acknowledged. Johnson also claimed that while most services at Planned Parenthood were provided by a nonprofit corporation, abortions were done by a for-profit corporation. Both she and Carney seemed to sincerely believe this was true, though all services at Planned Parenthood are, in fact, provided by a pair of separate nonprofit corporations.

As confounding as these inconsistencies are, there may be a much larger problem with Johnson’s story. Johnson has told the story of her journey from pro-choice activist to pro-life celebrity many times in many venues, and the crux of the tale is always the same: her moving description of what she saw on the ultrasound that September day in the Bryan clinic’s operating room ... Johnson’s account is so plausible and rich in detail that even Planned Parenthood seems not to have investigated whether this event ever took place. At my request, the staff at the Bryan clinic examined patient records from September 26, the day Johnson claims to have had her conversion experience, and spoke with the physician who performed abortions on that date. According to Planned Parenthood, there is no record of an ultrasound-guided abortion performed on September 26. The physician on duty told the organization that he did not use an ultrasound that day, nor did Johnson assist on any abortion procedure. “Planned Parenthood can assure you that no abortion patients underwent an ultrasound-guided abortion on September 26,” said a spokesperson. It’s difficult to imagine that Johnson simply got the date wrong; September 12 was the only other day that month that the clinic performed surgical abortions.

Could clinic staff and the physician be mistaken? The Texas Department of State Health Services requires abortion providers to fill out a form documenting basic information about each procedure performed at a clinic. This document is known as the Induced Abortion Report Form. The Bryan clinic reported performing fifteen surgical abortions on September 26. Johnson has consistently said that the patient in question was thirteen weeks pregnant, which is plausible, since thirteen weeks is right at the cusp of when physicians will consider using an ultrasound to assist with the procedure. Yet none of the patients listed on the report for that day were thirteen weeks pregnant; in fact, none were beyond ten weeks.

Earlier this year, Cindy Jacobs spoke at a conference in Arizona where she stated that "one of my friends in Congress" told her that because of Planned Parenthood in America, more than a billion abortions have taken place throughout the world and went on to recount a prophesy she delivered several years ago that one day abortion would be outlawed in the United States and that a memorial would be built on the National Mall remembering the "holocaust of the unborn":

I, for one, would be very interested to know just which member of Congress is friends with Cindy Jacobs.

When the state of New Jersey ordered the closure of a school named after President Barack Obama over waning enrollment numbers, right-wing commentator Jeannie DeAngelis knew who was responsible: President Obama. Not because of the President’s education policies, but for his support of a woman’s right to choose. DeAngelis, like many others in the anti-choice movement, espouse the erroneous conspiracy theory that abortion providers are targeting the African-American community. Writing for RenewAmerica, the conservative blogger blames Obama’s advocacy of abortion-rights for having black children “eliminated long before they could register for kindergarten”:

Sad to say, but Barack H. Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park, New Jersey, a school whose student body is 94% black, is being forced to close its doors. Due to a "steep decline in total enrollment" this summer, the school will shut off the loudspeaker and ring the dismissal bell for the very last time.

"Bruce N. Rodman, the state-appointed official who manages the school district's finances, said enrollment at the Obama school had seen a 35 percent drop over the past ten years."

How ironic, an institution named after a President who is a champion of Planned Parenthood, an organization that prides itself on providing accessible "reproductive services" to black women, is being forced to close because potential students were eliminated long before they could register for kindergarten.

The empty seats at Barack H. Obama Elementary School, formerly known as Bangs Elementary, are a visible testimony to the success of the abortion policies America's first black president proudly supports. If the school's namesake were invited to speak at a school assembly, thanks to the type of pro-abortion policy he promotes the guest of honor would find the auditorium filled with a small cluster of children and only hear a faint echo of clapping from somewhere in the last row.

…

Instead the school is closing, and when it does, the unintentional message is that the students emerging through those double doors are a but a small percentage of living, breathing survivors who, despite Planned Parenthood's efforts, miraculously managed to escape being victims of an abortion policy the "Barack H. Obama" brand continues to endorse.

• FRC talked a big game about how they were going to hold the GOP responsible if they passed another Continuing Resolution that didn't defund Planned Parenthood.  That is just what the GOP did and all FRC can do is thank those members who voted against it.
• Phyllis Schlafly says she has had a great career and owes exactly none of it feminism ... just relentlessly attacking feminism, I guess.
• Hey, Stephen Baldwin directed a music video.  You know you want to watch it.
• Sharon Angle is running for Congress.
• Richard Land demonstrates that dedication to fighting equality begins at home.
• We can now add Rep. Tim Huelskamp to the growing list of members of Congress who have no problem associating with Bryan Fischer.