Posts

GOP Fails Pro-Life Voters by Refusing to Defund Planned Parenthood

/0 Comments/in , /by

As the final weeks of the GOP-controlled Congress draw to a close, pro-life voters look on with great disappointment at the Republican politicians who failed to follow through on their most crucial promise: to defund Planned Parenthood. In about a month, Democrats will take over the House of Representatives and any hope of stripping the abortion giant of federal funding will pass away.

With precious little time left in the lame-duck session, GOP congressional leaders have chosen to ignore the persistent urgings of pro-life leaders. Just last week, leaders from Live Action, Students for Life America, the Susan B. Anthony List, Heritage Foundation and the March for Life sat down with White House officials to remind them of the paramount campaign promise that catapulted this administration to victory. . .

In separate letters sent to the president, Live Action President Lila Rose and Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins pleaded with Trump not to let millions of pro-life Americans down by compromising on what is for many the number-one reason they voted Republican.

While Trump has threatened to veto a proposal that compromises on his agenda, House Republicans have made it clear that they will not cede ground when it comes to Planned Parenthood, according to Politico. Alice Miranda Ollstein notes that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz “briefly tried — and failed — to rally support for one last bid to push through Planned Parenthood cuts, Obamacare repeal and other conservative priorities,” but most of his Republican colleagues dismissed these concerns amid fears of a government shutdown over Trump’s border wall. (Read more from “GOP Fails Pro-Life Voters by Refusing to Defund Planned Parenthood” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Want to Defund Planned Parenthood? Shut down the Government — or Lose

/0 Comments/in , /by

With the news that congressional Republicans are giving up on defunding Planned Parenthood, pro-life conservatives must face reality: Planned Parenthood is not going to be defunded under President Trump’s administration, or any Republican administration, even with full control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency.

Individual conservative lawmakers may continue the fight for protect unborn life, but a principled opposition by itself is not victory. A vote on a bill is not victory. Policy is victory, and to achieve policy leadership in Congress, the pro-life movement must be willing to adopt the means necessary to advance it. As of now, it is not.

As was demonstrated repeatedly this year, Republicans in Congress were not willing to attach language defunding Planned Parenthood to any of the must-pass spending bills advanced in Congress with full Republican control of government. According to Politico, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has been urging his Republican colleagues to make one more attempt at defunding Planned Parenthood and advancing other conservative priorities in the lame-duck session of Congress, but GOP Senate leadership refuses to risk a government shutdown, even now that the election is over. Some pro-life leaders are complicit in this surrender. Politico reports that in a meeting with the White House, when Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins urged President Trump to veto any spending bill that does not keep Republican promises to pro-lifers, a representative of an unnamed organization objected. “A shutdown strategy doesn’t work,” this individual reportedly said, calling for “a longer term vision for incremental progress.”

With Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., set to resume the speakership, the expectation from Republicans is that conservatives will permit them to move on from this fight until some future election.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s top provider of abortions, literally rips apart babies in the womb and sells their body parts for profit. American taxpayers are subsidizing that evil right now through the U.S. Congress. And pro-life conservatives are expected to tolerate and fund that abominable organization because shutting down 17 percent of the federal government’s operations might be politically risky?

In reality, a government shutdown is the only means of actually defunding Planned Parenthood. The Democrats and two openly pro-abortion Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowksi, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, must be forced to choose between surrendering on this policy or keeping the federal government shut down indefinitely, and they must be forced to go to voters with their choice. Short of having that fight, there is nothing Republicans can do without a majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate to enact conservative policy.

An “incremental progress” strategy is not actually achieving anything. President Trump’s administration may succeed in cutting Title X funding for Planned Parenthood via administrative action, but a federal court will issue an injunction blocking the move swiftly, as federal courts have done for many of President Trump’s policies. Then the next Democratic president will overturn that rule. States like Alabama and West Virginia may advance state constitutional amendments to strip Planned Parenthood of funding when Roe v. Wade is overturned, but those state policies are moot until the Supreme Court actually overturns the precedent. There is no indication whatsoever that there are five votes on the court to overturn Roe, even if Chief Justice Roberts agreed to hear a case that could have that outcome. In the meantime, courts are overturning state abortion restrictions, and Republican governors like John Kasich, R-Ohio, are threatening to veto pro-life bills.

“Incremental progress” is an excuse for inaction on policy. Inaction on policy in Congress permits lawmakers to avoid taking risks that might cost them their seats. Inaction on policy lets pro-life groups continue to fundraise on fighting abortion without ever winning the fight.

No Republican administration will successfully defund Planned Parenthood or advance any conservative policy until GOP leadership and the conservative movement are willing to do what it takes, even shut down the government, to force action in Congress. (For more from the author of “Want to Defund Planned Parenthood? Shut down the Government — or Lose” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Planned Parenthood President Avoids the Word ‘Abortion’ in Debut Interview

/0 Comments/in , /by

This morning, Planned Parenthood’s new president, Dr. Leana Wen, started her first official day of work with a softball interview with “CBS This Morning.”

Despite running an organization notorious for providing abortions, Wen somehow — with the help of a cadre of perky CBS hosts — manages to avoid the word “abortion” and skirt around the topic for nearly the entire interview. I must give credit where it’s due: Planned Parenthood has managed to completely rebrand abortion into “reproductive rights” and “women’s healthcare,” with what seems like great success, given how many pro-choicers proudly profess their support nationwide, using these exact curated terms. Just because something is popular, though, does not make it right, and just because something sounds good does not mean it is true.

Wen does an excellent job of toeing the party line, as is to be expected from the leader of an intensely political-but-not-technically-political organization. The real issue, though, is that CBS’s journalists let Wen prattle on with anesthetized talking point after talking point. For example, Wen claimed early on, “We do more to prevent unintended pregnancies every year than any other organization,” and that the organization provides cancer screenings and birth control, in addition to life-saving care for millions of people annually. CBS accepted this claim totally uncritically. . .

Many objections center around wanting to protect the rights of the innocent unborn fetus that is indisputably developing, and will continue developing into a baby inside the woman’s uterus, if unhindered. Distrust of women, although a convenient way of framing it, is not the real issue. Lots of pro-lifers, conservatives, and libertarians are interested in protecting an individual’s right to make their own choices. The issue comes when those choices fundamentally harm other living beings, creating a more complex trade-off than most pro-choicers are comfortable admitting. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood President Avoids the Word ‘Abortion’ in Debut Interview” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

New Evidence Suggests Planned Parenthood Lied to Congress About Aborted Baby Part Profits

/0 Comments/in , /by

Late last week, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) submitted evidence to a federal judge in Oakland, Calif., to back up a new accusation Planned Parenthood and partners may have doctored records about their revenues from aborted fetal body parts and lied to Congress about them during 2015 testimony.

Could this new evidence, along with the fact that the organization is still under FBI investigation, finally push the GOP to end the organization’s massive taxpayer-funded subsidies? . . .

In 2016, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley referred Planned Parenthood to the FBI for investigation following PP’s testimony in front of Congress. CMP asserts the reason for that might be that Planned Parenthood fabricated key information it submitted to Congress.

After years of footwork and lawsuits, CMP has asked the judge in California to force Planned Parenthood and their suspect business partner, Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), to produce the original records from their baby body parts harvesting programs. As a result of CMP’s undercover work, ABR is also now also under federal investigation for working with Planned Parenthood to procure aborted baby body parts, which the company sold to government-funded researchers.

In the last few weeks, CMP has helped make public the fact that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had a hefty contract with ABR. As a result, in late September, HHS announced that it had terminated the contract because they were “not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements.” (Read more from “New Evidence Suggests Planned Parenthood Lied to Congress About Aborted Baby Part Profits” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Here’s How Much of Planned Parenthood’s Campaign Activity You Helped Pay for This Election Cycle

/0 Comments/in , /by

One of the most prominent of the Republican Party’s unkept promises from the 2016 election will hurt them in more ways than one in 2018.

A new report from the pro-life nonprofit Live Action contains the latest numbers outlining what it calls “Planned Parenthood’s political money laundering scheme.” The report clearly shows that taxpayers ultimately contribute hugely to the abortion giant’s pro-abortion political activities on the campaign trail and beyond.

Planned Parenthood plans to spend a total of $20 million by itself in support of pro-abortion candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. The group is also taking part in another $30 million investment with three other groups for a political action committee called Win Justice PAC to mobilize voters in key battleground states.

This is all possible, the report explains, because — despite scandals involving its “health care services,” undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, new allegations that clinics failed to report rape and abuse, and GOP control of the federal government since January 2017 — Planned Parenthood’s medical operations are subsidized by the American taxpayer to the tune of around half a billion dollars per year.

And while the group’s clinical and political arms are technically separate, that’s just not how things pan out in the real world, the report shows.

“While Planned Parenthood and its political arms are separate on paper, because taxpayers are forced to give the abortion chain over $500 million a year, donors are freed up to direct their money to Planned Parenthood’s political agenda rather than to fund what nominal health services Planned Parenthood itself provides,” explains Live Action CEO and founder Lila Rose in a press release.

“The corrupt bargain between Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion politicians must end,” continues Rose. “It’s paid for by taxpayers and with the lives of over 320,000 preborn children every year. Congress and the president must fulfill their promise to defund Planned Parenthood of all taxpayer dollars.” (For more from the author of “Here’s How Much of Planned Parenthood’s Campaign Activity You Helped Pay for This Election Cycle” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

‘Pro-Life’ Senator Struggles to Defend His Vote Against Defunding Planned Parenthood

/0 Comments/in , /by

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) struggled during a radio interview Monday to defend his vote last week to keep Planned Parenthood funded despite labeling himself a “pro-life Democrat.”

He was asked three times by Hoppy Kercheval on MetroNew’s Talkline to explain his vote against Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. Manchin continually insisted that his vote was about funding healthcare for women in his state and that he didn’t believe the money went directly to abortions.

“How can you continue to argue that you are pro-life when you voted against that amendment that would’ve stopped funding for Planned Parenthood which performs abortions,” Kercheval initially asked. “I know that the money does not go specifically for abortion but it does go to support Planned Parenthood which is the largest abortion provider in the country.”

“First of all there’s not a penny of public dollars that go to support abortions from Planned Parenthood,” Manchin insisted. “I’ve checked it inside and out, with the Hyde Amendment it can’t happen it’s against the law.”

“I am pro-life and I think everyone knows I mean look at my record, I voted with Lindsey Graham on the 20-week ban on abortion,” he added. (Read more from “‘Pro-Life’ Senator Struggles to Defend His Vote Against Defunding Planned Parenthood” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Planned Parenthood’s Favorite Republicans Block the Senate’s Latest Defund Effort. Yes, Murkowski Is Involved

/0 Comments/in , /by

The two most reliable pro-abortion Republicans in the United States Senate joined with Democrats yet again yesterday to snuff out the latest effort to cut off Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded gravy train.

The vote Thursday came after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the amendment’s sponsor, made a lot of noise on the Senate floor about Republicans trying to block the effort. He asked, “What is more important to these Republicans: Saving lives or spending money?”

Of course, these are the same two Republican senators who voted with most Democrats on whether it should be legal to abort an unborn child after 20 weeks. They’re the same Republicans who introduced legislation defending Planned Parenthood’s government funding months after the first undercover videos came out in 2015. They’re the same Republicans who voted to keep an Obama rule prohibiting states from making their own decisions about funding Planned Parenthood. And these are also the same two who also stood shoulder to shoulder with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and a handful of others to kill even the most watered-down version of Obamacare repeal last year.

Of course, some standard-issue establishment types were none too thrilled about the amendment either, as it might have presented a legislative “spoiler” and government shutdown.

It’s been over three years since the first undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s gruesome behind-the-scenes practices was released. During fiscal year 2016-2017, the abortion giant managed to pull down over $500 million of your federal tax dollars.

And while the Republicans may use the vote as campaign fodder to hurt vulnerable Democrats in the midterm elections, they never think of going after Collins and Murkowski with the same fervor. No, in Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Senate, both will keep their committee chairmanships and continue carrying water for the abortion lobby with absolutely no consequence whatsoever.

Despite the videos, despite the breathless campaign promises, despite the best efforts of the legitimate pro-lifers on Capitol Hill, hundreds of millions of your tax dollars will continue to go to an organization that takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of unborn children in the United States every year.

But hey, at least we’re avoiding another government shutdown, right? (For more from the author of “Planned Parenthood’s Favorite Republicans Block the Senate’s Latest Defund Effort. Yes, Murkowski Is Involved” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Vote Alert: An $854 Billion Spending Monstrosity That Funds Planned Parenthood

/0 Comments/in , /by

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., canceled the August recess, there was an expectation that Republicans would use the extra time to confirm a backlog of Trump nominees and to fight for conservative priorities. Instead, the Senate passed an $854 billion spending package that kicked conservative reforms to the side in favor of placating the Democrats and their priorities.

Senate leadership combined a $675 billion defense appropriations bill with a bill to fund the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, known as a “minibus.”

The $179.3 billion Labor-Education-HHS components of the package include a $541 million increase for the Department of Education, a $2.3 billion increase for HHS, and an increase in the National Institutes of Health’s record funding to $39.1 billion. These spending levels blow past the requests President Donald Trump made in his budget. The bill also fully funds the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s unaccompanied alien child refugee program without making needed reforms to confirm that those seeking asylum in the U.S. are suffering from legitimate forms of persecution, in addition to continuing funding for Title X “family planning” programs, which give taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s number one abortion provider.

The Senate claimed it would use the August recess to confirm a backlog of more than 180 Trump nominees and pass conservative legislation. Senators have only confirmed two nominees in August so far.

As for bills passed, the bottom line is that Republicans worked with Democrats to increase government spending for both military and domestic programs. The Senate irresponsibly increased funding for the Department of Education, Obamacare, welfare programs, and abortion providers. And the $21 trillion national debt continues to grow.

The Senate passed this minibus appropriations bill on August 23, 2018 at 5:15 p.m. in a roll call vote of 85 – 7. (For more from the author of “Vote Alert: An $854 Billion Spending Monstrosity That Funds Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Great but Doomed: Rand Paul Introduces Promise-Keeping Amendment to Defund Planned Parenthood

/0 Comments/in , /by

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wants Republicans to fight to defund Planned Parenthood in the government spending bill currently making its way through the United States Senate.

In a statement released Friday, Paul said it was time for Republicans to change words into action.

“One of the top priorities for a Republican Congress that professes pro-life values on the campaign trail should be to stop taxpayer funding for abortion providers. This is our chance to turn our words into action, stand up for the sanctity of life, and speak out for the most innocent among us that have no voice,” he said.

According to Paul’s office, the amendment would not block health care providers that do not perform abortions from receiving federal funding.

In the 2016-2017 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood received a total of $543.7 million in federal funding at the taxpayer’s expense.

According to The Hill, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., warned that Paul’s amendment would be a “spoiler” to the massive Defense, Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Education funding bill. GOP leadership has promised to avoid adopting “poison pill” proposals to these funding bills.

What that means, in plain English, is that Senate leadership is unwilling to force the Democrats to choose between funding abortion providers with taxpayer dollars or shutting down the government. Murdered babies aren’t worth the effort for most Republicans. (For more from the author of “Great but Doomed: Rand Paul Introduces Promise-Keeping Amendment to Defund Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Journalist Has ‘Most Damning’ Videos on Planned Parenthood’s Baby Body Part Sales, but Courts Are Shutting Him Up

/0 Comments/in , /by

Center for Medical Progress (CMP) founder and investigative journalist David Daleiden is trying to lift a gag order prohibiting him from releasing at least a dozen undercover videos which allegedly further expose Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers’ unsavory and possibly illegal organ-harvesting operation.

Daleiden told the media that his attorneys are filing motions to lift a gag order so he can release the videos, which he says “includes some of the most damning and incriminating footage we ever recorded.”

CMP began releasing disturbing undercover footage of the abortion industry leader in 2015, showing Planned Parenthood officials openly haggling over the prices of body parts of aborted babies and nonchalantly discussing their gruesome procurement methods.

The videos were largely buried or ripped apart by the mainstream media (who care so much about a “free press”), and the abortion lobby found a new enemy in Daleiden, targeting him with lawsuits and working overtime to discredit the Center for Medical Progress’ work. The National Abortion Federation (NAF) — the organization which put on the two conferences where CMP journalists interacted with abortion officials — successfully shut up Daleiden with a federal suit.

“We’re pressing for the entire thing to be dismissed,” said Daleiden, according to The Washington Free Beacon. “You could expect a solid dozen more videos really in the same vein as the original undercover [material]. … This gag order should be dissolved in October, and we should be able to release the tapes at that time.” (Read more from “Journalist Has ‘Most Damning’ Videos on Planned Parenthood’s Baby Body Part Sales, but Courts Are Shutting Him Up” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.