. . .This year city officials told the devout Catholic family [Tennes family] that their blueberries and sweet corn were not welcome at the farmer’s market — and neither were they.
Last year, someone posted a message on Country Mill’s Facebook page inquiring about whether they hosted same-sex weddings at the farm. Tennes told the individual they did not permit same-sex marriages on the farm because of the family’s Catholic belief that marriage is a sacramental union between one man and one woman.
City officials later discovered the Facebook posting and began immediate action to remove Country Mill from the Farmer’s Market — alleging the family had violated the city’s discrimination ordinance.
“It was brought to our attention that The Country Mill’s general business practices do not comply with East Lansing’s Civil Rights ordinances and public policy against discrimination as set forth in Chapter 22 of the City Code and outlined in the 2017 Market Vendor Guidelines, as such, The Country Mill’s presence as a vendor his prohibited by the City’s Farmer’s Market Vendor Guidelines,” read a letter the city sent to the family.
It also did not seem to matter to city leaders that the farm is located 22 miles outside the city limits — and had absolutely nothing to do with the business of selling blueberries at the farmer’s market. (Read more from “City: You Can’t Sell Blueberries Unless You Affirm Gay Marriage” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/blueberries-690072_960_720.jpg639960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-01 22:20:032017-06-03 22:32:37City: You Can’t Sell Blueberries Unless You Affirm Gay Marriage
The March for Life, along with over a dozen other organizations, signed a letter released Tuesday asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe to investigate Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the selling of fetal tissue.
“We, the undersigned representing millions of Americans, strongly support an investigation into paid fetal tissue transfers involving Planned Parenthood,” the signers write.
The letter is prompted by the work of David Daleiden, an investigative journalist who founded the Center for Medical Progress, a nonprofit organization of “citizen journalists dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances.”
As part of his work, “Daleiden recorded doctors, executives, and staff-level employees discussing various aspects of the fetal tissue procurement industry,” the signers write.
Daleiden and a contractor hired by Center for Medical Progress, Sandra Merritt, are currently facing criminal charges in California over their undercover video work. Daleiden called the charges “bogus.”
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told The Daily Signal in an interview Thursday that pro-life organizations want justice to be served.
“Essentially, we’re asking the administration to take it up in its proper format, so it should have been looked at through the Justice Department in the Obama administration,” Mancini said. “Of course, that never happened, so we’re asking the Trump administration to rightly take up this in the Department of Justice.”
The letter comes days after the May 24 release of a video from the Center for Medical Progress that shows footage from the conventions of the National Abortion Federation in 2014 and 2015.
“An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross,” Dr. Uta Landy, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Consortium of Abortion Providers founder, said during a panel discussion at a National Abortion Federation convention.
Deb VanDerhei, national director for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America America Consortium of Abortion Providers, directly addressed revenues.
“But the truth is, that some might want to do it for, to increase their revenues,” VanDerhei said. “And we can’t stop them.”
The Center for Medical Progress has released multiple videos taken by undercover journalists showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing the selling of fetal tissue.
A video released in April by the Center for Medical Progress shows Dr. Mary Gatter, Planned Parenthood Foundation of America’s Medical Directors’ Council president, speaking about the price of fetal tissue.
“Yeah, $50’s on the low end, $50 [per specimen] was like 12 years ago,” Gatter said.
The last Congress, the letter said, investigated Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the selling of fetal tissue.
“The 114th Congress responded to the videos by holding hearings and initiating investigations that culminated in the House of Representatives creating the Select Panel on Infant Lives to further investigate the matter,” the letter reads.
The letter states that the panel “found evidence of violations of laws protecting human research subjects and patient privacy; laws regulating anatomical gifts for transplantation, therapy, research, and education; laws protecting late-term and born-alive infants; and laws pertaining to public funding for fetal tissue research and abortion providers.”
The panel, according to the letter, “made 15 criminal and regulatory referrals of tissue procurement companies and abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, and investigations are underway around the nation.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which investigated the selling of fetal tissue, made seven criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, according to the letter.
Planned Parenthood did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. Previously the organization has pushed back against Daleiden’s coverage.
“The videos generated by the discredited ‘Center for Medical Progress’ are a fraud aimed at single purpose: to end women’s access to reproductive health care, including medically safe and legal abortion, and to damage Planned Parenthood,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement last year.
The signers of the letter wrote that President Barack Obama’s administration “decided to turn a blind eye to the wrongdoing,” and are asking the Department of Justice to “continue the investigation into the practices surrounding this scandal.”
David Christensen, vice president of government affairs at the Family Research Council, a conservative policy organization, told The Daily Signal Thursday this request to the Department of Justice should be heeded.
“It was really important to see the Obama administration put its incredible support for Planned Parenthood and abortion rights over and above the law and justice,” Christensen said. “President [Donald] Trump has spoken strongly in favor of life and…we would like to see the Department of Justice follow up by appraising the law.”
This article has been modified since publication. (For more from the author of “March for Life Wants Justice Department to Investigate Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/March_for_Life_in_Washington_D.C._2013_01.jpg970972Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-01 21:44:392017-06-01 21:49:29March for Life Wants Justice Department to Investigate Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood’s annual report, covering the fiscal year ending in June 30, 2016, is now ready for public consumption, and there are some key takeaways.
More abortions: The nation’s largest abortion provider saw a slight uptick in abortions over the year covered in the report – listing 328,348 procedures. This is an increase of 1.34 percent from the previous year’s numbers, according to a report at the Washington Examiner, and adds up to just over 37 abortions per hour.
A low rate of prenatal care: Earlier this year, LiveAction – a pro-life advocacy organization – went under cover at multiple Planned Parenthood locations, finding that many of them did not actually provide prenatal care. While the report does list prenatal services, those are vastly outpaced by abortion procedures. According to the group’s own admissions, abortions outnumber the approximately 9,000 listed prenatal services on the report by over 35 to one.
More money — a lot more, actually: The era of Trump’s rise has been good to Planned Parenthood from a financial standpoint, at least. The report details that the organization’s total revenue increased by more than $1.35 billion over the previous year, with over $550 million of that coming from government sources and $445.8 million coming from private donations.
A state-supported industry: The current version of the GOP’s health-care bill would defund Planned Parenthood for a year by barring the organization from receiving reimbursement from government funding. The group’s financials show why defunding Planned Parenthood in this manner would be a big problem for the organization, as a 41 percent plurality of the group’s revenue comes from the government, with donations and charges for service coming in second and third.
A year of big wins: Anyone who has ever worked at a nonprofit will tell you that the main goal of an annual report is to show off your accomplishments to your board and your donors. This one is no exception. The report touts victories like the prosecution of citizen journalist, the failures of states to defund the group, and the Supreme Court’s Whole Women’s Health ruling as big pluses for the organization.
The numbers are staggering in some cases and unsurprising in others. What remains to be seen is whether or not they will be enough to spur a GOP-controlled Congress and White House to deliver on one of their biggest promises to the American people: a complete defund. (For more from the author of “5 Sickening Takeaways From Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report” please click HERE)
Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill that will make it easier for transgender people in Oregon to shield any updates they make to their birth certificates, a process typically conducted through the court system without privacy from public view . . .
The new law eliminates the requirement that changes to someone’s name or gender identity must be posted publicly by the courts. It also allows court cases involving gender identity changes on birth records to be sealed.
HB 2673 passed the Democratic-controlled Oregon Legislature earlier this month with some Republican support at a time when, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage, the nation remains largely divided as to how to balance LGBTQ rights and religious freedoms. (Read more from “Oregon Shields Birth Record Changes for Transgenders” HERE)
For employers that don’t want to provide birth control and abortifacient coverage in health insurance plans, relief may be on the way.
President Donald Trump’s administration “is poised to make changes to Obamacare’s birth control coverage mandate by granting broad exemptions to employers that object on religious or moral grounds,” The Hill reported.
The proposed move is being cheered by some conservatives.
“Better late than never,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit legal organization, said in a statement.
“At long last the United States government acknowledges that people can get contraceptives without forcing nuns to provide them,” Rienzi added. “That is sensible, fair, and in keeping with the Supreme Court’s order and the president’s promise to the Little Sisters and other religious groups serving the poor.”
The Becket Fund represents the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns who fought the Obamacare contraception and abortifacient mandate all the way to the Supreme Court.
Last year, the Supreme Court “‘vacated,’ meaning erased, all of the lower court cases and required them to reconsider the claims brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor and others that the regulations promulgated pursuant to Obamacare violate their religious exercise in light of the government’s admission that it could indeed provide contraceptive coverage without the Little Sisters’ collaboration,” wrote The Heritage Foundation’s Elizabeth Slattery and Roger Severino, a former Heritage employee, at the time.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an organization that promotes pro-life and family values, said the proposed rule change is good progress.
“While this apparent leaked document is a draft, it is a very positive sign to see the federal government work to cease its hostility toward Christians and those who object to the Obama-era health care mandates,” Perkins said in a statement. “This draft regulation shows that [Health and Human Services] Secretary Tom Price and President Trump intend to make good on their pledge to vigorously protect and promote [America’s] First Freedom.”
Birth control advocates, such as Keep Birth Control Copay Free, an organization that promotes birth control access, are not supportive of the potential rule change.
“President Trump has been clear that religious liberty is important and that religious orders, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are deserving of that freedom as well,” a White House spokesperson told The Daily Signal in an email.
The leaked rule “would leave in place the religious ‘accommodation’ created by the Obama administration, making that route available to groups that choose to continue using it,” according to the Becket Fund.
The Becket Fund also noted in its press release that many Americans remain on health insurance plans that do not have to provide abortifacients or birth control:
One hundred million Americans—nearly one in three—don’t have insurance plans that must comply with this mandate. The government was already exempting large corporations like Exxon and Visa, and even its own government-run plans for the disabled and military families.
Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel at Becket, told The Daily Signal in an email that the proposed rule could be published in the next week or in the next several weeks. (For more from the author of “Trump Administration Considering Rule That Would Help Little Sisters of the Poor” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Nun_Deep_in_Prayer.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-05-31 21:38:182017-05-31 21:38:18Trump Administration Considering Rule That Would Help Little Sisters of the Poor
A farmers market and Facebook posts have opened a new front in courtroom battles over religious freedom.
It started when Steve Tennes, who owns a 120-acre farm in Charlotte, Michigan, expressed his traditional view about marriage on the farm’s Facebook page.
This drew a warning from an official more than 20 miles away in East Lansing, Michigan, that if Tennes tried to sell his fruit at the city’s farmers market, it could incite protests.
No one showed up to protest that August day last summer, though, and Tennes continued selling organic apples, peaches, cherries, and pumpkins at the seasonal market until October, as he had done the six previous years.
Nevertheless, East Lansing moved earlier this year to ban Tennes’ farm, the Country Mill, from participating in the farmers market when it resumes June 4. The city cited its human relations ordinance, an anti-discrimination law that includes sexual orientation.
So Tennes and his wife sued the city for religious discrimination.
As a Marine veteran who is married to an Army veteran, Tennes told The Daily Signal, this was consistent with his philosophy of defending freedom:
My wife Bridget and I volunteered to serve our country in the military to protect freedom, and that is why we feel we have to fight for freedom now, whether it’s Muslims’, Jews’, or Christians’ right to believe and live out those beliefs.
The government shouldn’t be treating some people worse than others because they have different thoughts and ideas.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal aid organization, is representing the Tenneses.
Neither East Lansing’s public information office nor the city manager’s office responded Wednesday to phone calls about the case from The Daily Signal.
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows told the Lansing State Journal that the city’s decision to exclude Country Mill—also known as Country Mill Orchard—from the farmers market had nothing to do with religious beliefs, but with the farm’s “business decision” not to host same-sex weddings.
“This is about them operating a business that discriminates against LGBT individuals, and that’s a whole different issue,” Meadows said.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, says of Steve and Bridget Tennes’ perspective, in part:
Plaintiffs support the rights of citizens and other businesses to express their views about marriage. Plaintiffs simply seek to enjoy the same freedom.
Yet, East Lansing’s policy strips plaintiffs of their constitutional freedoms, including free speech and the free exercise of religion, by punishing plaintiffs’ viewpoint on marriage, going so far as to prohibit Country Mill from continuing its long history of participating in the farmers market because plaintiffs publicly stated their sincerely held religious view that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
The suit also says the farm “has employed people from a wide variety of racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds, including members of the LGBT community.
Country Mill hosts a corn maze, birthday parties, weddings, and other events.
In 2014, two lesbians sought to be married in a wedding ceremony at Country Mill, but Tennes turned them down.
This occurred before the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage across the country.
According to his legal complaint, Tennes had a “civil” discussion with the women, and said his venue didn’t host same-sex weddings because of his religious beliefs. But he referred the women to an orchard that held same-sex weddings.
In 2015, the two women were married at another orchard. On Aug. 22, 2016, one of them wrote a Facebook post discouraging consumers from doing business with Country Mill.
In response, Tennes initially said the farm would cease holding any weddings, writing on Facebook:
After this post, the East Lansing official asked Tennes not to sell produce at the market, saying he feared protests.
Tennes did anyway, and no protest occurred, according to the lawsuit.
In December, Tennes announced on Facebook that Country Mill would resume holding weddings:
This past fall our family farm stopped booking future wedding ceremonies at our orchard until we could devote the appropriate time to review our policies and how we respectfully communicate and express our beliefs. The Country Mill engages in expressing its purpose and beliefs through the operation of its business and it intentionally communicates messages that promote its owners’ beliefs and declines to communicate messages that violate those beliefs.
The Country Mill family and its staff have and will continue to participate in hosting the ceremonies held at our orchard. It remains our deeply held religious belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and Country Mill has the First Amendment right to express and act upon its beliefs. For this reason, Country Mill reserves the right to deny a request for services that would require it to communicate, engage in, or host expression that violates the owners’ sincerely held religious beliefs and conscience.
Furthermore, it remains our religious belief that all people should be treated with respect and dignity regardless of their beliefs or background. We appreciate the tolerance offered to us specifically regarding our participation in hosting wedding ceremonies at our family farm.
East Lansing city officials determined that these public statements violated the city’s 1972 human relations ordinance prohibiting discrimination. That law was the first in the state to recognize sexual orientation as a protected class from discrimination.
But this brought up a jurisdictional issue on top of First Amendment concerns, the farmer’s lawsuit says.
East Lansing, the complaint says, “has no authority to enforce its ordinance based on Tennes’ religious beliefs and their impact on how he operates Country Mill.” The farm, it says, is 22 miles outside the city.
The lawsuit also notes that the city has not taken action against a vendor that promoted same-sex marriage.
In March, East Lansing sent Tennes a letter denying Country Mill’s application to be a vendor at the 2017 farmers market:
It was brought to our attention that the Country Mill’s general business practices do not comply with East Lansing’s civil rights ordinances and public policy against discrimination as set forth in Chapter 22 of the City Code and outlined in the 2017 market vendor guidelines.
“As such,” the letter reads, “Country Mill’s presence as a vendor is prohibited.” (For more from the author of “This Farmer Won’t Host Same-Sex Weddings at His Orchard. Now a City Has Banned Him From Its Farmers Market.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Leaving_Seattle_City_Hall_on_first_day_of_gay_marriage_in_Washington_2-1-1.jpg19362936Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-05-31 21:27:422017-05-31 21:27:42This Farmer Won’t Host Same-Sex Weddings at His Orchard. Now a City Has Banned Him From Its Farmers Market.
The saga of the Charging Bull and the Fearless Girl is back in the news. It seems New York sculptor Alex Gardega objected to feminists’ appropriating the Wall Street icon. So he added something: a pug, relieving itself on the girl.
I couldn’t put my finger on it. But something about the Fearless Girl statue didn’t sit well with me. Social media fawned over the diminutive addition that bravely stood in front of Charging Bull in New York’s financial district. But the statue seemed like a cheap way to score political points. My cynicism grew the more I considered her underlying message.
The plaque at Fearless Girl’s feet reads: “Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference.” “SHE” is both a descriptive pronoun and the NASDAQ ticker symbol for the organization that funded her. Fearless Girl’s message is to promote workplace gender diversity. And to encourage companies to recruit women to their boards. Those pleasant enough politically correct platitudes.
The artist of the Charging Bull has himself complained that Fearless Girl distorted the meaning of his bronze. It transformed the bull from a symbol of strength and prosperity into one of a villain. In response, New York City Mayor de Blasio tweeted, “Men who don’t like women taking up space are exactly why we need the Fearless Girl.”
But there is more to the story than just political posturing and man-shaming. Mayor de Blasio has already made it clear that the statues’ meanings are fluid. So let’s consider what happens when we move these two statues somewhere else in the world. How does changing the context change their meaning?
Move Those Statues to Africa
If Charging Bull and Fearless Girl were on the African continent, people might think they are a Public Service Announcement. “Caution: Wild Bulls.” Locals seeing a little girl in the path of a raging bull might not find it so — well, inspiring. In fact, they would see it as quite the contrary. Any child left alone in such circumstances is a tribal (or village) failure. They know the inevitable outcome.
And what if the bronzes were moved to India or Nepal? There Hinduism is practiced, and all things bovine — including their dung and urine — are revered. Honoring cows is so weighty that U.S. diplomats are warned that if while driving they are faced with the choice of hitting a person or a cow, the better thing to do is hit the person. Perhaps again Fearless Girl might not inspire the same sort of “You go, girl!” spirit. Suddenly, Fearless Girl is no longer a heroine, but merely a bystander while the bull holds center stage.
Of course, worshiping bulls is nothing new. It never leads to anything good. Just ask the ancient Greek queen of Crete, Pasiphae, how worshiping the white bull worked for her. Their coupling created the monstrous Minotaur: the bull-headed man who devoured Athenian. Nor did the Israelites profit from worship of their golden calf. It nearly got them wiped out as a nation.
We have our own sacred cow. The West thinks that equality between men and women can only be reached by erasing their differences. Such “equality” rests squarely on the notion that women must be free from the burden of childbearing and therefore must have abortion on demand — no restrictions.
Worshiping the Golden Calf of Abortion
Abortion was sold as “safe, legal and rare.” But that golden calf has grown up into something fierce and terrifying. Today, worship of the bull of abortion is a rite of passage for any woman who craves power, prestige or fortune. Nearly every public woman in the corridors of influence from New York to Washington to Hollywood has offered her pinch of incense to the abortion behemoth — Planned Parenthood.
So what if we moved Fearless Girl and Charging Bull back to New York, but consider yet another meaning for each? What if we see Charging Bull as the abortion juggernaut, and Fearless Girl as all those who worship him?
This new, fierce and ferocious bull devours the innocent like the Minotaur. Instead of 15 males and 15 females a year, the numbers are closer to 1500 males a day and 1500 females a day in the United States alone.
Like the golden calf worshipers of old, the new bovine worshipers are not left unscathed. Tragically, all these women who worship abortion have been frozen as little girls — as if in bronze — never to grow up and become true women, but to forever remain stuck in a feminist frenzy: a vicious cycle of victimization, foot stomping tantrums, illogic, perpetual aping of men, and vulgar pink hats.
Sadly, unlike Africa, there are no more grown-ups in the village to come and protect them, for these little girls are the grown-ups; they are the cultural elite; they are culture makers. And yet little girls they remain — fearless and foolish — and try as they might, unless or until they find healing, there they will remain stuck in the path of the charging bull of their own making. (For more from the author of “Should Fearless Girls Worship the Golden Calf of Abortion?” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/1024px-Abortion_Quick__Pain_Free_sign_Joe_Slovo_Park_Cape_Town_South_Africa-3869.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-05-30 23:07:332017-05-30 23:07:33Should Fearless Girls Worship the Golden Calf of Abortion?
Sanctuary city jurisdictions are local governments that seek to trample upon and undermine the federal government’s constitutional role in enforcing immigration law by offering cover to illegal aliens. However, another sort of “sanctuary” legislation in the U.S. seeks to continually and legally trample the human conscience to protect abortion.
Religious groups in Missouri are now suing to overturn a St. Louis “abortion sanctuary” city ordinance that would have disastrous effects on the freedoms of religion, speech, and association. The AP reports:
A group of St. Louis Catholics filed a lawsuit against the city Monday over a local ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on “reproductive health decisions,” saying the law could force employers or landlords to go against their religious beliefs. The law, enacted in February, bars employers from hiring or firing people based on whether they have had an abortion, get pregnant outside of marriage, or use contraceptives or artificial insemination. Landlords also can’t refuse to rent to someone based on those criteria. Opponents say they law makes St. Louis a sanctuary city for abortion. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Roman Catholic grade schools operating under the Archdiocese of St. Louis; Our Lady’s Inn, a home for pregnant homeless women; and a private company whose owner is Catholic. It seeks to stop the city from enforcing the ordinance.
“The passage of this bill is not a milestone of our city’s success,” said St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson at a public press conference after filing the lawsuit on Monday. “It is rather a marker of our city’s embrace of the culture of death.”
Alderwoman Megan Green, 15th ward, who originally sponsored the legislation, called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“We know that discrimination does exist. (The ordinance) was done to make sure we are protecting women in making their own medical choices,” Green said Monday, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
This is pure pro-abortion politician-ese.
Brushing past Alderwoman Green’s too-commonly-held assumption that abortion is simply just another “medical choice” — rather than a willful taking of human life (dressed up in a lab coat) — the ordinance does nothing to affect any St. Louisan’s ability to procure an abortion or means of contraception (aside from forcing employers to pay for the latter).
Rather, it seeks to elevate actions that just happen to be in concert with their worldview to a protected class (over the First Amendment rights of all else in the city who disagree with them), draping it all in the language of “anti-discrimination.”
And the measure goes far beyond just freedom of religion, but also freedom of speech as well. The law prohibits any housing or job listing “which expresses directly or indirectly any preference, limitation, specification, or discrimination because of reproductive health decisions.”
At the same press conference on Monday in St. Louis, Thomas More Society special counsel Sarah Pitlyk said: “It’s like a page right out of George Orwell’s ‘1984,’ in which people could be prosecuted for ‘thought crimes.’
One has to wonder: Was there really an epidemic of landlords asking women for their medical history in the city? Are these sorts of questions commonplace, across the board, in St. Louis job interviews? If not, what other ends would this serve (aside from creating a means to punish those who disagree with the abortion lobby’s established orthodoxy)?
This is several steps past the contraception mandate that brought the owners of Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Instead of making nonprofits violate their deeply held beliefs in order to merely remain operational, such abortion-sanctuary measures would actively undermine conservative groups’ own goals by forcing them to hire people whose worldviews fundamentally contradict the mission of pro-life organizations.
What this law implicitly teaches is that the killing of preborn children – and one’s support of the procedure – are in effect more important to the St. Louis government than the fundamental rights of conscience of anyone who dares disagree. It is not enough to be able to do so legally, but nobody may dissent to that action in any meaningful way, even with their own property.
The fundamental right of conscience are a sanctuary for the human soul. Now the federal courts will consider whether that ancient, inalienable refuge should even still exist in the city of St. Louis. (For more from the author of “A Sanctuary City … for Abortion?!” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/6149265334_0d19d4eb34_b-8.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-05-30 22:31:442017-06-03 23:21:58A Sanctuary City … for Abortion?!
Each year, Planned Parenthood Federation of America issues an annual report outlining the abortion giant’s medical service data, revenue and expenses, and advocacy and educational activity.
This week, the 2015-2016 report went public. These reports are typically published in December or January, but this year’s highly anticipated report was inexplicably released several months later than expected.
As previously explained at The Daily Signal, these annual reports provide Americans on both sides of the abortion debate with important information about abortion incidence and other services provided by Planned Parenthood, which receives over half a billion dollars from taxpayers each year.
The report opens with the revelation that Planned Parenthood served 100,000 fewer women in 2015-2016 compared to 2014-2015, and that in the same period the number of Planned Parenthood health centers and affiliates declined.
Planned Parenthood performed more abortions last year (328,348) compared to the previous year (323,999). In the same period, contraception and cancer screening and prevention services declined.
Specifically, Planned Parenthood served fewer female reversible contraception clients, performed fewer vasectomies and female sterilization procedures, and provided fewer emergency contraception kits in 2015-2016 compared to the previous year.
Planned Parenthood also performed fewer breast examinations, fewer HPV vaccinations, and fewer colposcopy and cryotherapy procedures in 2015-2016. Despite often repeated claims to the contrary, Planned Parenthood provides zero mammograms.
The report reveals a dramatic decline in prenatal services. Planned Parenthood provided 9,419 in 2015-2016 compared to 17,419 in the previous year—meaning 8,000 fewer women and their unborn children received prenatal care in just one year.
This sharp decline reinforces the findings of a pro-life organization’s investigative report. Earlier this year, Live Action—a nonprofit dedicated to ending abortion and protecting the right to life—contacted 97 Planned Parenthood clinics searching for prenatal care and was turned away by 92 of the centers.
Despite the declining number of Planned Parenthood clinics, clients, and many services, the abortion giant continues to receive half a billion dollars from taxpayers each year.
For the year ended June 30, 2015, Planned Parenthood reported $553,700,000 in “government health services grants & reimbursements.” For the year ended June 30, 2016, Planned Parenthood reported a slight increase to $554,600,000.
Planned Parenthood also reports increased excess revenue and net assets.
In fiscal year 2015, its excess revenue was nearly $59 million and net assets totaled more than $1.4 billion. For fiscal year 2016, Planned Parenthood’s excess revenue increased to $77.5 million and net assets now total over $1.5 billion.
The information in the latest report is particularly relevant as Congress considers a budget reconciliation bill to repeal Obamacare. The bill includes a provision that would disqualify Planned Parenthood affiliates from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for one year after enactment of the bill.
Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report underscores why taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the abortion giant. As the number of abortions increases, fewer women are turning to the group for care like cancer treatment and prevention services, contraception, and prenatal services.
Government funds currently flowing to Planned Parenthood could instead be directed to the thousands of centers that provide health care for women without entanglement in on-demand abortion.
It’s time for Congress to end taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, its affiliates, and other abortion providers once and for all by sending the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature. (For more from the author of “These Numbers From New Planned Parenthood Report Show Need to Defund Abortion Giant” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Planned_Parenthood_in_Houston_Texas_2010.jpg30004000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-05-30 22:16:442017-05-30 22:16:44These Numbers From New Planned Parenthood Report Show Need to Defund Abortion Giant
Lt. Col. Christopher Raible died three days after the 2012 Benghazi attack in the little-remembered Taliban siege on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan.
Raible’s mom, Kim, along with the family of fellow fallen Marine Sgt. Bradley Atwell, waged a vigilant battle to keep their heroes’ memories alive and to hold their government accountable for its malfeasance and cover-up.
This past month, Kim Raible has had to wage another fight on behalf of her son. A few weeks ago, she recounted on Facebook how her request for a local Memorial Day banner in the Pittsburgh suburb of Norwin honoring her son was rejected:
As we enter the month of May, the month that has so much meaning to me, our military, and their families, I was astounded today at the cruel blow the Norwin Rotary handed to me this morning. A few years ago, that Rotary started a banner program making these beautiful military banners that were hung in our town to anyone that wanted their military loved one on a banner. I was approached by a member of the Norwin Rotary to use our son Christopher Raible (KIA September 14, 2012) on the flyer that would be put into businesses for families to pick up and fill out to order a banner for their military loved one and in that same year for using our son on their flyers—a banner was hung in his honor.
Last year, there was not a banner in his honor and I did not understand why. This year, I dropped a check at the office of Dr. Aiello to hope to pay for a banner to be hung (they were members of the rotary and the people that initiated the banner program) so to be sure he was not forgotten. I received a call from Mrs. Aiello asking me what the check was for, as the banners were free, and I had told her to keep the check as a donation anyway and order the banner for my son. She then told me that my son’s banner could not be hung as the Norwin Rotary was not allowing KIA soldiers to be included on the streets of Irwin for this program, only active military. She stated that they would not have enough money to pay for KIA soldiers, too…. wow, not enough money to pay for a soldier that paid with his life.
I was willing to pay for my son’s banner but was still told they were not allowing KIA solders in their program. I was beyond blown away as I asked her why, and was told it was only for active military and not KIA soldiers. Apparently, no one at this Rotary must know the true meaning of Memorial Day or the reason for its observance.
Mrs. Raible told me that after she voiced her frustration with the policy, other families of KIA soldiers came forward to protest. She also found out that other local organizations had adopted similar policies, including “the VFW of North Huntingdon/Irwin as well as the American Legion.”
A military mom never forgets.
Here’s the good news.
Last week, in response to Mrs. Raible’s pleas, the Irwin City Council approved the flying of banners displaying the photos of three local servicemen who were killed in action at the entrance to a local park. “In addition,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, “the borough plans to allow the posting of banners for other military personnel not included in an existing banner program that honors service members from Irwin, North Huntingdon and North Irwin.” Jim Halfhill, the region’s director of public works and a former Marine, volunteered to put the banners up himself.
A military mom never forgets. And must never rest. Mrs. Raible’s fight for her son’s memory is a fight for all of our fallen. It’s a fight about never taking our freedom for granted—and never, ever forgetting those in uniform who paid the ultimate price for it. (For more from the author of “Fallen Marine’s Mom Teaches Powerful Memorial Day Lesson” please click HERE)
