A multi-state abortion provider boasting a high-end, “spa-like” experience is attempting to de-stigmatize the procedure through a crowd-funded ad campaign in Atlanta.
Carafem has designed its abortion clinic to look like a spa and offers the women who go there to abort their unborn babies “hot tea” and “comfy robes.” They gained national attention last year for an advertising campaign that some suggested “glamorized” abortion.
Carafem opened its first facility in the greater Washington metro area in spring 2015, boasting comfy chairs and hot tea for women seeking abortions.
“It was important for us to try to present an upgraded, almost spa-like feel,” Melissa S. Grant, vice president of health services for the clinic told the Washington Post.
The organization subsequently announced its capital city arrival with brash, hot pink ads saying “Abortion? Yeah, we do that,” on the D.C. metro system. Now, it hopes to bring the same advertising experience to the Peach State.
For its new location, which open in Atlanta this summer, the abortion provider plans to roll out a “Doors Open Atlanta” campaign, proffering abortion, birth control, and other services to women in the same “bold and unapologetic” hot pink motif, according to a Monday press release.
In addition, Carafem is looking for some extra scratch via Crowdsourcing in order to pay for the ads, LifeNews reports.
The abortion business said its ads have been censored three times; but now it wants to raise enough money to try again. Carafem recently launched a fundraising campaign to pay for ads in Atlanta. The ads are hot pink with emoji images and the word “abortion” printed in bold letters.
“As we just opened our doors in Atlanta and need to get the word out, we thought why not try and shake things up by advertising our services in a major conservative newspaper for a year,” the business wrote.
The message Carafem wants its advertising to convey is that abortion is safe, clean, even caring, all the while letting women know where to get abortions in a way that “normalizes and destigmatizes” the procedure.
“We don’t want to talk in hushed tones. We use the A-word.” Carafem President Christopher Purdy said. “It’s fresh, it’s modern, it’s clean, it’s caring. That’s the brand we’re trying to create.”
Pro-Life groups are up in-arms.
The president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said “Even people who support abortion rights don’t necessarily see it as something to celebrate. They want to think about [abortion] as a necessary evil.” National Right to Life president, Carol Tobias, added, “Abortion is not pleasant and trying to put pretty wrappings around the procedure isn’t going to make any difference.”
Whether an abortion takes place at a run-down Gosnell-like facility or at a “high-end salon,” abortion always, 100% of the time, kills an unborn child and hurts the family involved.
(For more from the author of “Abortion ‘Spas’: The Left’s Latest Attempt to Glamorize Murdering the Unborn” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-122.jpg10801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-06 18:14:302016-06-07 02:35:32Abortion ‘Spas’: The Left’s Latest Attempt to Glamorize Murdering the Unborn
Republicans on a special House panel investigating the market for fetal tissue released new documents that they said show the procurement company StemExpress marked up the price for body parts, organs, and other tissue from aborted babies 400 to 600 percent when selling the samples to researchers.
One example of such markups of four to six times cost is seven brains sold by StemExpress to Yale University School of Medicine for $715 each, according to the documents.
The documents also appear to show that three abortion clinics, including two Planned Parenthood affiliates, illegally granted StemExpress access to personally identifiable information protected under federal privacy law.
And, the documents suggest, the clinics used invalid patient consent forms to obtain permission to harvest body parts from aborted babies.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., chairman of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, sent two letters Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services requesting a “swift and full investigation” into “systemic” violations.
“There’s a business contract between StemExpress and the abortion clinics under which both sides make a profit from the baby body parts inside the young woman’s womb,” Blackburn said in a prepared statement, adding:
The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman: Her baby is now a profit center. This betrayal of a young woman’s trust should disgust us all. It takes financial advantage, obtains consent through coercion, and deceives the woman, all in violation of federal privacy laws.
StemExpress told The Daily Signal that Blackburn is making “continued unfounded accusations.”
Specifically, Blackburn says documents obtained through the panel’s investigation show StemExpress and several abortion clinics violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and federal regulations governing research involving human subjects.
HIPPA is a federal law that gives patients the right to determine where and when their private medical information is disclosed. This includes personally identifiable information such as name, age, and Social Security number, along with any present, future, or past health data.
In her letters, addressed to two officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, Blackburn said several abortion clinics provided StemExpress—which is not covered by HIPPA—with personally identifiable information so that StemExpress could fulfill orders from researchers for tissue from aborted babies.
HIPPA covers abortion clinics such as Planned Parenthood, Blackburn notes.
‘Unfounded Accusations’
In a statement to The Daily Signal, a spokesman for StemExpress said the tissue procurement company is “confident there has been no violation of law and appropriate consents were made for every fetal tissue donation,” adding:
We welcome the opportunity to answer any questions from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or any other agency related to Representative Blackburn’s continued unfounded accusations. StemExpress will continue to support lifesaving research.
The three abortion clinics named in the investigation are all in California: Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in San Jose, Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific in Concord (currently known as Planned Parenthood of Northern California), and Family Planning Specialists Medical Group in Oakland.
The Daily Signal sought comment from the organizations, which did not respond to phone calls before publication of this article.
Blackburn’s letters, first reported by Fox News, ask the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate potential violations of HIPAA and federal regulations pertaining to the fetal tissue market. The letters are addressed to Jocelyn Samuels, director of the Office of Civil Rights, and Jerry Menikoff, director of the Office for Human Research Protections.
In her letters, Blackburn said the Department of Health and Human Services maintains the right to impose civil money penalties on covered entities, such as Planned Parenthood, that fail to comply with the privacy rule.
In addition, Blackburn wrote, “both a covered entity that discloses, and any person who knowingly obtains, [protected health information] in violation of [HIPAA] can face criminal fines or imprisonment.”
Brain Bonuses
Evidence of the House panel’s allegations included StemExpress documents that feature compensation rates for tissue and blood procurement. Effective Jan. 1, 2013, StemExpress paid procurement technicians $10 per hour, plus what the company calls a tissue or blood bonus ranging anywhere from $10 to $75 per specimen.
“StemExpress paid the abortion clinic for each fetal tissue and each blood sample and then marked up the tissue four to six hundred percent for sale to the researcher,” Blackburn wrote.
In one case, in January 2012, StemExpress billed $5,175 to Yale University School of Medicine for seven brains priced at $715 each. The total included two charges of $85 for Fedex priority overnight shipping.
The $715 price per brain, Blackburn’s letter implies, would include the markup of 400 to 600 percent.
According to the StemExpress compensation policy, procurement technicians get a $35 bonus for procuring anywhere from one to 10 fetal brains in addition to their $10 hourly rate.
While transportation costs were included in the documents released by Blackburn’s panel, investigators are seeking to obtain accounting records from StemExpress to further clarify the price discrepancy between the procurement technician’s compensation rates and the total amount billed to research institutions such as Yale.
The Daily Signal sought comment from Yale via email, but has not received a response.
What Is Legal
The National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 prohibits any person or organization from profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. However, it is legal to provide payment and accept payment to cover reasonable costs for “transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.”
Lawmakers and pro-life activists raised questions about whether abortion clinics and middleman procurement companies such as StemExpress profit from transactions involving organs, body parts, and other tissue from aborted babies after the Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover videos last year.
The hidden-camera videos, produced by the center’s David Daleiden, showed officials at Planned Parenthood affiliates discussing the buying and selling of baby body parts and other tissue, raising questions about whether abortion clinics and middlemen companies are profiting off these transactions.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America consistently has denied any wrongdoing and was cleared in multiple state investigations so far. In October, after facing questions about its tissue donation practices, Planned Parenthood announced it no longer would accept any reimbursement. (For more from the author of “StemExpress Sold Baby Body Parts for 4 to 6 Times Cost, House Probe Alleges” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/baby-feet-833375_960_720-1.jpg640960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-06 03:06:582016-06-06 03:06:58StemExpress Sold Baby Body Parts for 4 to 6 Times Cost, House Probe Alleges
The Congressional panel investigating the fetal tissue research company StemExpress, which the Center for Medical Progress exposed in its groundbreaking undercover videos about fetal body parts trafficking, found that StemExpress and the abortion centers with which it contracted violated federal patient privacy and informed consent regulations.
In two letters to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives Chair Rep. Marsha Blackburn detailed the panel’s findings on StemExpress’s cozy relationships with abortion facilities. The panel found that StemExpress employees had access to confidential patient health information—which they had no medically necessary reason to see and the abortion centers had no reason to disclose—in order to streamline their workflow and thus maximize profits. According to the Panel, StemExpress was allowed to use this confidential information to be matched up with patients whose aborted babies matched their tissue demands.
The letters indicate that StemExpress employees were working alongside abortion workers in ways that appear to conflict with regulations related to research on human subjects and federal privacy law.
Blackburn wrote that federal regulations require specific procedures to be followed when research is being conducted on human subjects. Research on human subjects must be approved by a valid Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure that the research is ethical and safe.
StemExpress didn’t follow these procedures when obtaining informed consent from abortion clinic patients, Blackburn wrote. Blackburn’s letter said it’s unclear whether patients consented to donating tissue from their aborted infants before or after the abortion procedures took place and the manner in which patient consent was obtained raises “serious concerns” about whether patients were coerced or unduly influenced into donating fetal tissue. (Read more from “House Panel Says Abortion Centers, Fetal Harvesting Company Violated Federal Law” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/baby-feet-833375_960_720.jpg640960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-01 22:03:282016-06-02 02:06:43House Panel Says Abortion Centers, Fetal Harvesting Company Violated Federal Law
Senator Ted Cruz (A, 97%) may have suspended his presidential campaign, but he is keeping his promise to continue to fight for conservative principles, vowing to challenge Donald Trump on the abortion plank of the Republican Platform.
During an interview on the “Today” Show on NBC in late April, Trump said he would change the Republican Party platform on abortion, adding exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother to the party’s pro-life position.
Cruz, speaking to Oklahoma radio host Pat Campbell, pledged to use his delegates to the Republican National Convention to fight that change.
“You have my word. One of the reasons that we are continuing to work to elect conservatives to be delegates, even though Donald has the delegates to get the nomination, we intend to do everything we can to fight for conservative principles to prevent Washington forces from watering down the platform,”
Cruz continued:
“The platform is a manifestation of what we believe as a party, and I think it is important that it continue to reflect conservative values, free-market values, constitutional liberties, Judeo-Christian principles, the values that built this country, and that is exactly what I intend to fight for.”
In his speech announcing an end to his presidential campaign, Senator Cruz made a promise:
“I am not suspending our fight to defend the constitution, to defend the Judeo-Christian values that built America. Our movement will continue and I give you my word that I will continue this fight with all of my strength and all of my ability.”
His vow to fight to keep the Republican Party platform unequivocally pro-life shows that Cruz intends to keep that promise. (For more from the author of “Ted Cruz Vows to Fight Trump on Abortion” please click HERE)
Babies born at 22 weeks and 23 weeks of gestation are likely to survive if given proper care, according to a new study of infants born at a German hospital. 25 percent “born at the border of viability and offered active care survived without severe complications.” The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics.
The University of Cologne Medical Center’s study, which looked at babies born from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2014, found that 67 percent of these babies who were given “active pre-natal and postnatal care” were discharged from the hospital alive. Out of 106 babies born at 22 or 23 weeks, 86 received that kind of care and 58 survived to be discharged.
“The survival rate was 61% (17 of 28) for infants born at 22 weeks of gestation and 71% (41 of 58) for infants born at 23 weeks of gestation,” according to the online abstract for the study. Half of the babies who died died from respiratory failure and one-quarter from multiorgan failure. Others suffered from severe complications.
The study’s publication came shortly after a 21-week old unborn child was left to die at an abortion clinic in Arizona. In a statement, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser tied the study’s results to her organization’s support for a ban on abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation as well as the Born Alive Protection Act. The latter would require doctors to give proper medical care to babies who survive abortions.
The recorded 911 call made from the Arizona clinic showed that the child was not given care that would have helped it survive. According to Dannenfelser, the baby “suffered, awaiting medical care the abortion clinic was incapable of providing.”
SBA spokesperson Mallory Quigley told The Stream that the German study shows the survivability of extremely premature babies is “approaching what the survival rates would be for babies born later in pregnancy.” (For more from the author of “Two-Thirds of Babies Born at 22 and 23 Weeks of Gestation Survive If Given Care” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/pregnant-woman-1130612_960_720.jpg640960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-26 22:41:492016-05-26 23:45:42Two-Thirds of Babies Born at 22 and 23 Weeks of Gestation Survive If Given Care
A pro-life advocacy group published a series of man-on-the-street interviews to make the case that some pro-choice Americans shift to a pro-life position when encountered with the reality of abortion.
On Tuesday, Live Action,a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Va., released a video that showcases a series of self-proclaimed pro-choice Americans watching a four-minute video made in late February. It portrays former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino describing in detail the steps of a second-trimester dilation and evacuation abortion.
Live Action aims to uncover and shed light on abortion procedures in an effort to make the practice illegal in the U.S. Their mission is to “end abortion by leading the culture to embrace the rights and dignity of every person.”
Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive policy organization, states that “nearly half of pregnancies among American women in 2011 were unintended, and about four in 10 of these were terminated by abortion.” This statistic is just one of many that prompted groups like Live Action to take action.
“We wanted to show America that most people who support abortion have no idea what it actually entails for the mother and the defenseless child inside her,” Live Action president and founder Lila Rose told The Daily Signal. “We also wanted to show how quickly hearts and minds can be changed when we simply expose people to the truth with the four-minute ‘Abortion Procedures’ videos . We hope this stunning man-on-the-street video encourages people to share the ‘Abortion Procedures’ videos with everyone they know until millions more have come over to the pro-life position.”
If born at 24 weeks and given sufficient medical care, a baby can make a full recovery and live a healthy life, according to Baby Center, a tool for expecting mothers. Because abortion up to 24 weeks is legal in many states across the country, Live Action decided to show Americans what an abortion at 24 weeks really looks like.
According to a statement released by Live Action, the video also includes “medically accurate animations to give viewers a window into the womb during an abortion and show how developed a baby is during the procedure.”
When asked to describe their stance on abortion, all eleven of those interviewed believed women should have the right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. After watching the four-minute video, every one of them expressed a completely different opinion.
One interviewee’s stance changed from, “I think the person should have a choice to have an abortion or not,” to “abortion shouldn’t be legal.”
While some questioned the legality of the abortion procedure, others questioned the humanity. One observer said, “I believe that’s, like, murder right there–what I saw.” Others labeled abortion “inhumane” and “heinous” after viewing Dr. Levatino’s presentation.
Brian Gottstein, chief communications director of Live Action, told The Daily Signal that the ‘Abortion Procedures’ videos, released over the last three months, have received “over 42 million views,” and are “changing hearts and minds about abortion.” (For more from the author of “How a Pro-Life Video Changes Minds on Abortion” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/89084976_1b6e3d4387_b.jpg6791024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-26 01:40:122016-05-26 01:40:12How a Pro-Life Video Changes Minds on Abortion
Alabama has become the fifth state to protect unborn children from being dismembered in the womb, as Governor Robert Bentley signed the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act” (S.B. 363) today.
The new law bans dismemberment, formally known as dilation and evacuation (or “D & E”) abortion, which accounts for 96 percent of all second-trimester abortions.
Alabama Citizens for Life National Director Cheryl Ciamarra said the new law will end a “barbaric inhumanity in our state.”
Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist who performed more than 1,200 abortions during his career, described the grisly procedure in a viral video, as well as heartrending Congressional testimony.
While performing the abortion, he would tear a child limb-from-limb, removing the larger limbs before having to “reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart, and lungs.” (Read more from “Alabama Becomes Fifth State to Ban Dismemberment Abortions” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-47.jpg7201280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-13 00:42:422016-05-13 00:42:42Alabama Becomes Fifth State to Ban Dismemberment Abortions
The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban abortion clinics from operating “within 2,000 feet of the property or campus of a public school.” The bill is now on Republican Governor Robert Bentley’s desk and if he signs it, the law will be challenged by the ACLU and a Huntsville abortion clinic.
The bill, which passed 73-18, says that “the Alabama Department of Public Health may not issue or renew a health center license to an abortion clinic or reproductive health center that is located within 2,000 feet of the property or campus of a public school.”
The bill’s sponsor, Alabama State Senator Paul Sanford (R), said in March that his hope with the legislation is that no more abortion clinics in the state “would ever open that close to small children.”
Sanford has said his bill is not intended to close clinics, but would prevent schoolchildren from seeing the “chaos” that sometimes surrounds them, according to the Decatur Daily . . .
The Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, which is located across the street from Edward H. White Middle School, would have to move if the bill becomes law. (Read more from “Alabama House Passes Bill to Keep Abortion Clinics Away From Schools” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-7.jpg7201280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-07 01:51:022016-05-07 01:51:02Alabama House Passes Bill to Keep Abortion Clinics Away From Schools
The abortion industry and the Obama administration have made it easier than ever to have a medication abortion, a procedure little known or understood outside medical circles. Dr. Anthony Levatino, who performed more than 1,200 abortions before becoming a pro-life advocate, has released a video detailing each step of the process.
The Live Action video eschews graphic imagery in favor of animation that accurately depicts the two-step process, which takes place over two to three days.
“An RU-486 abortion cuts off blood and nutrients to the growing preborn baby, slowly starving her inside the mother’s womb,” Live Action founder Lila Rose explains in a statement released today.
“It is important to note that, even after it has been taken, it is possible to reverse the effects of RU-486 and save the baby if progesterone is administered – the sooner, the better,” Dr. Levatino says in the video.
“Then the mother takes another drug” – misoprostol, conventionally known as Cytotec – “that causes intense contractions and heavy bleeding to force her dead baby from her womb,” Rose adds. (Read more from “Watch: As FDA Expands RU-486 Abortions, Former Abortionist Shows What They Look Like” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/6905446808_7cd1d441b5_b.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-05 02:04:152016-05-05 02:04:15Watch: As FDA Expands RU-486 Abortions, Former Abortionist Shows What They Look Like
The biotech firm StemExpress is refusing to turn over all documents to Congress related to its purchasing and reselling of body parts from aborted babies sold to it from Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses.
Chairman Marsha Blackburn has sent a letter to Cate Dyer, CEO of StemExpress, requesting full cooperation with the Select Investigative Panel’s efforts to obtain all business and accounting documents from the fetal tissue procurement organization.
“Over the last several months, we have made numerous attempts to acquire business and accounting documents from StemExpress that are necessary to complete our work at the Select Investigative Panel,” Blackburn wrote in the letter.
It continues: “All of these requests have been met with verbal and written objections from your attorneys. In light of recent public comments you have made and the consensus reached by witnesses at our April 20 hearing on The Pricing of Fetal Tissue that a complete review of StemExpress business and accounting documents was necessary, I am writing to personally request you turn this information over to our investigators.”
The letter says StemExpres is failing to turn over all of the documents the investigating committee has requested. (Read more from “StemExpress Refuses to Turn Over All Documents on Purchase of Aborted Baby Parts” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/3166520949_b31875c53b_b.jpg7681024kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2016-05-03 00:55:292016-05-03 00:55:29StemExpress Refuses to Turn Over All Documents on Purchase of Aborted Baby Parts
The biotech firm StemExpress is refusing to turn over all documents to Congress related to its purchasing and reselling of body parts from aborted babies sold to it from Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses.