Commentary

Operation Rescue provided more background information on the grave injustice playing out in Houston, where undercover investigators are facing criminal charges – but the baby butchers walk.

The first thing we learn is that the Grand Jury impaneled by DA Devon Anderson never even took a vote on whether to indict Planned Parenthood for violations of federal statutes like the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. (Despite video evidence that Houston Planned Parenthood doctors engage in such practices in order to harvest more valuable organs and tissue).  In fact, it is not clear that the Grand Jury in Houston was even presented with evidence about potential wrong-doing by Planned Parenthood officials.

We suspect that Ms. Anderson’s true agenda was to protect the Abortion Industry. From the beginning of her “investigation” she indicated that she would be looking closely at the behavior and methods of the undercover reporters who stunned America with their findings.

Despite being appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the post, Ms. Anderson has a rather questionable past with respect to the Abortion Industry.

In 2013, Operation Rescue brought a complaint in Houston against an abortionist named Douglas Karpen. They uncovered a pile of evidence showing that Karpen was operating a practice very similar to that of Kermit Gosnell: killing babies after birth by snapping their necks.  Turns out that the attorney who defended Karpen (Chip Lewis) is a close personal friend of D.A. Anderson – and a major donor to her political campaigns.

Just as interesting: Anderson assigned the same female deputy to run the Planned Parenthood grand jury as botched the Karpen grand jury. (Karpen walked away from those 2013 charges).

It seems quite obvious that justice is going to be a very difficult thing to find in Houston. Hopefully Governor Abbott will have greater success at the state level.

Along with most Americans, we were shocked to hear that Planned Parenthood of Houston has been “exonerated” by the Houston DA – while the investigators will face criminal charges. Is this not a perfect example of the corrosive effect of legalized abortion upon our legal system?

We are a long way from Houston, and do not know the Houston D.A., Devon Anderson. We don’t know her politics or position on abortion.  But we do know that she has an attorney working in her office who also serves on the Board of Planned Parenthood – Houston, the very organization Anderson set out to “investigate”.

The pressure Planned Parenthood is bringing to bear on the noble souls who exposed their butchery-for-profit scheme is unbelievable. It demonstrates the Mafioso-like ethics which animate Planned Parenthood: Just a week or so ago, they brought suit in San Francisco against David Daleiden, leader of the Center for Medical Progress.  It is the second lawsuit filed by the Abortion Industry to silence Daleiden, and to prevent America from being confronted with the ugly truth about legalized abortion.

In response to the criminal actions by the Houston D.A., Mr. Daleiden issued the following statement:

“The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws…. Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admissions from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see.”

That is a fairly careful, if pointed statement. No doubt, Mr. Daleiden’s response was drafted with help from his attorney since he must now mount a criminal defense.

We prefer the statement issued by Congresswoman Diane Black (R-TN):

“It is a sad day in America when those who harvest the body parts of aborted babies escape consequences for their actions, while the courageous truth-tellers who expose their misdeeds are handed-down a politically-motivated indictment instead.”

Amen.

We are going to have to hold Mr. Daleiden in prayer, and we are going to have rise, as a community, to help support him as he works his way through the legal harassment Planned Parenthood has laid for him.

In the meantime, we must also not lose heart: Gov. Abbott (R-TX) is vigorously pressing a state-led investigation into Planned Parenthood’s activities, which may go a long way toward correcting this blatant injustice at the hands of Ms. Anderson.  He said today that the antics in Harris County will have no impact on the state’s determined investigation into Planned Parenthood.

And we can also take heart by remembering the words of the prophet Isaiah, who faced incredible levels of social corruption in his day:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil … who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent … for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the Lord’s anger burns ….”  (Isaiah 6:20 -25).

Today marks the 43^rd year in which America has been shackled by an edict which allows for the mechanized destruction of some 4,000 innocent babies every day.  The official total is something like 58 million babies lost to abortion – but that figure understates the carnage by a considerable degree.

A day like today is one in which we should take stock of the price being paid by this great nation for legalized abortion. The great scandal of organ harvesting revealed last year is an alarming sign of the darkening of America’s soul.  Of course it is ghoulish to imagine Planned Parenthood chopping babies in the back room in exchange for Lamborghinis.  Yet we must ask: Where is all the money coming from?

Behind the curtain of Planned Parenthood scandal is the mountains of money being spent to procure organs and tissue from tiny human beings who could not defend themselves. Presumably “respectable” companies and institutions are using these babies as organ farms to pursue research that once would have been widely denounced as clearly unethical.  Does not the silence point to a coarsening of the American conscience?

Yet there are signs of awakening, as well: The U.S. Congress has finally had its fill of financing America’s largest abortion provider.  The number of abortion clinics is at an historic low.  Planned Parenthood is having serious trouble recruiting new abortionists.  And the number of pro-Lifers continues to grow.

That strength will be on display today as the national March for Life takes place in the midst of a big winter storm. Snowflakes or not – tens of thousands of Americans will stand up for those who cannot defend themselves. That march offers the nation an invitation to repentance, to healing, to real freedom.  May the Lord amplify those voices raised today and awake a people in need of healing.

In celebration of Planned Parenthood’s early and passionate embrace of her candidacy, Hillary Clinton immediately responded with a gush of promises to move their agenda forward if she is elected.

Among her commitment: Repeal the Hyde Amendment restriction on using tax dollars to directly pay for abortions.

Here is her quote:

“Any right that requires you to take extra measures to access it is no right at all. Not as long we have laws on the books like the Hyde Amendment making it harder for low income women to exercise their full rights.”

This revelation of Clinton’s radical agenda requires serious reflection because the implications are many.

The first thing we must note is that the Clinton/Planned Parenthood agenda on tax-funding abortions helps reveal the true motives behind President Obama’s drive to impose their “contraceptive” mandate on Americans. The press to impose “free contraceptives” is but the first round in a larger agenda. They want free abortions as well.  We see all across the nation a coordinated drive to conflate “abortion rights” with guaranteed access to abortion.

Let’s skip – for a moment – the dark moral consequences of Clinton’s radical position.

Consider the rationality of the Clinton/Planned Parenthood argument: A constitutional right must be obtained for the citizen by the government. This would be akin to arguing that, since the 2^nd Amendment guarantees Americans the right to bear arms – the government is required to purchase guns and ammunition for every citizen desiring a weapon, but who feels they cannot afford a firearm and the ammunition necessary to use same.  (Imagine the Democrat response to such an absurd demand!)

But, of course, the pro-Life community’s defense of the Hyde Amendment is not based on saving tax dollars. It is based on the obvious fact that taxpayer funding of abortions means more abortions.

So the direct implication of Clinton’s demand for “free abortions” is a substantial increase in the number of abortions occurring in America. That cannot be disputed.  That is evil.

We credit Rush Limbaugh for seeing that this policy push by Clinton has even darker practical implications. “Free abortions” means tax funding abortions for poor women through the Medicaid program.  A disproportionate share of women on Medicaid are minorities.  Thus, one of the unavoidable consequences of Clinton’s cry for more abortions is the destruction of even greater numbers of black and brown babies.

Here is how Rush Limbaugh framed the matter earlier this week:

“Here’s Mrs. Clinton promising free abortions, which is an incentive for Medicaid recipients. Now, if a Republican came out and said this, the first person erupting like a jack-in-the-box would be the Reverend Jackson, followed closely by Al Sharpton.  They would both be screaming that this is tantamount to racial genocide, that this Republican is giving away abortions to the poor, and they would say, ‘We all know who the poor are’….”

But here we have the self-anointed champion of minorities pushing for a radical policy change that will actually lead to greater decimation of the black and Hispanic communities in America, and Democrats across the nation applaud.  How shameful.

We will take this matter even further: At this point in her career, Hillary Clinton has become indistinguishable from her heroine, Margaret Sanger. Now Mrs. Clinton is too smart to use the hateful rhetoric of the Planned Parenthood founder – which means she is plenty smart enough to know that her rabid support of abortion will achieve the goals articulated many decades ago when Sanger proudly sought to weed out the human race of undesirables.

Sound too harsh? Comparing Hillary Clinton with Margaret Sanger?

Consider this: When Hillary Clinton received the Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood in 2009, Clinton said that she was “in awe” of Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger.  And she is much too smart, too educated, not to be fully aware of Margaret Sanger’s contempt for minorities and the poor; or Sanger’s admiration for authoritarians like Hitler and Stalin willing to use their police powers to impose anti-Life policies upon their peoples.

At all hazards, Hillary Clinton must be stopped from following Barack Obama into the White House. Within months, she will make Obama’s awful abortion record look like some kind of pro-Life march.

For more background on the important issues raised in this commentary, see the excellent article by Professor Paul Kengor now on LifeNews.

A straw poll was held in Boise this past weekend around the meeting of the Idaho GOP Central Committee. The party hosted a reception on Friday evening, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz won 40% of the votes cast by party leadership.  A total of 143 votes were cast.

Marco Rubio came in second, with 18% of the votes cast, followed by Donald Trump at 13%. Ben Carson also finished in double digits (11%).

Following the vote, the Cruz Campaign in Idaho issued a statement, in which State Treasurer Ron Crane said, “Ted Cruz has a proven record of not wavering or ducking the tough battles, and he stands with Idahoans and Idaho values by opposing Washington’s reckless spending and infringement on our rights.”

And just yesterday, Operation Rescue issued a statement stating that the national pro-Life organization will be supporting Ted Cruz for president in upcoming GOP primaries and caucuses. In doing so, OR President Troy Newman argued that Cruz “is the most solid, dependable and trustworthy pro-Life hero running for president.  And he can win.”

Idaho will hold its first-ever Presidential Primary on Tuesday, March 8^th.

The “leader” of the free world wielded his immense authority on Friday to defend not those little babies being chopped up for luxury cars – but the butchers at Planned Parenthood. Their treasury dollars are safe for a few days more.

As the very fiber of our civilization is threatened by harvesting and trafficking in human baby parts, Mr. Obama chose to stand up for those doing the whacking and chopping. Rather than offer this nation authentic leadership at a time of clear moral crisis, Mr. Obama chooses to perpetuate the lie that dismembering babies for cash is somehow essential to protecting women’s health.

Obama’s failure of moral leadership is more than disconcerting. It is a heartbreaking moment in our history.

Yet we refuse despair. In fact, let’s take this opportunity to celebrate the courage displayed by leaders in Congress who pressed through the obstacles of Senate Democrats, overcame the scorn of the nation’s big media, and forced the president’s hand.  For the first time, Mr. Obama was forced to stand up in front of the American people and choose.  Sadly, he chose death.

We are hopeful that this historic fight over funding is not a defeat – but a milestone on the road to ending our evil partnership with America’s largest abortion chain.

The pro-Life movement saw some significant gains in 2015, victories and progress for which we ought give thanks to the Lord and his generous people.

Here are a few of the blessings:

A recent story on LifeNews.Com reports that pregnancy centers around America helped save some 300,000 babies from abortion in 2015. The number of babies saved by the pro-Life movement is likely much higher – given that many babies are saved through churches, direct personal intervention and private charities not associated with national organizations like Heartbeat International.

The latest available data from the CDC (2012) finds that there was a decline in reported abortions between 2011 and 2012 – by some 31,000. The downward trend is confirmed by an analysis of Planned Parenthood’s 2014 Annual Report, conducted by the American Life League.  Planned Parenthood reports that it killed 323,999 babies in 2014, a decline of 3,654 preborn children from its pace of 2013.  While that decline may seem modest, Jim Sedlak of ALL notes that this is the smallest number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood since 2007.

That same report also shows that Planned Parenthood’s claimed client visits declined to 2.5 million, the lowest number of victims since 1998. Overall, PP reports that it provided 11% fewer services in 2014 than it did the year before.

Perhaps most encouraging is the fact that Planned Parenthood received $38 million fewer private donors dollars in 2014 than in 2013. And it is important to note that this drop-off occurred before this year’s shocking revelations about Planned Parenthood’s organ harvesting/trafficking operations.

LifeNews.Com also reports that the number of abortion clinics in America continues its historic decline. Last year alone, another 53 abortuaries closed their doors.  In fact, the number of abortion clinics has dropped by some 81% since the high tide year of 1991.

As we’ve noted before, the pro-Life community can also celebrate the first-ever vote by the U.S. Congress to shut-off federal subsidies of Planned Parenthood, which remains the nation’s largest abortion provider. We understand that the House will complete its work on the Reconciliation measure next week and send the final legislation to President Obama.  Congressmen are already preparing for an override vote in the weeks ahead.

And here at home, we can rejoice over passage of Idaho’s first law limiting the use of RU-486 in the killing of babies.

This year also saw the marking of Idaho Chooses Life’s 20^th year in the battle to end abortion.  We are most grateful for those friends and supporters who have so faithfully sustained us over these two decades.

We look forward with hope and courage to 2016 because of our faith in a merciful Lord – who will certainly end abortion and the terror it represents to women, babies and families. We look for new victories in 2016, and we ask the Lord to richly bless your family and the great state of Idaho in this important election year.

Without doubt, the most important development of 2015 was the expose of Planned Parenthood’s dark trafficking in baby organs and tissue. The revelation was so disturbing that even the Congress determined it had to take action.  While the federal government continues to fund America’s largest Death Chain, we believe the handwriting is on the wall: With the election of even the worst Republican presidential candidate next year, Planned Parenthood’s days of massive subsidy from the American taxpayer are numbered.  After all, for the first time in history, both chambers of the U.S. Congress voted to defund the organization.

Congressional committees are just beginning their investigation into the dark empire that is Planned Parenthood. And even the Inspector General at the Department of Health & Human Services recently announced he will conduct a thorough audit of Planned Parenthood’s operations and its compliance with federal law governing organ harvesting and trafficking.

As we’ve written before, it is more than understandable that the nation is shocked by the film of abortionists sitting around eating salad while discussing the crushing of innocent preborn human children. This is the darkness to which legalized abortion has delivered us.  But, of course, the real tragedy, the real cause for heartache, is the wanton destruction of those tiny babies in the first place.  The evil harvesting of their organs for profit merely draws attention to the moral corruption we are suffering.

And those videos present America with a moment of profound decision: Is this the kind of society in which we wish to live? Are we prepared to tolerate the macabre mutilation of human beings for exploitation by those more powerful and wealthy?  We pray not.

The videos have served to undermine Planned Parenthood’s claim that it is a legitimate health care provider. Many Americans – despite the mainstream media’s attempt to bury the story – are now aware that Planned Parenthood is a very dark enterprise, staffed by deeply disturbed people.

As we prepare to enter a new year, we are hopeful that the pro-Life movement can take advantage of the opportunity created by the Center for Medical Progress and their tremendous work at ripping the cover off Planned Parenthood. It is a time for earnest prayer that the Lord will move our nation to a place of repentance.

For an excellent review of the videos, click here.

Christmas Day Is Here! The time of miracles.

It is a time for celebrating God’s merciful intervention on behalf of men. No mortal could envision the powerful impact this tiny baby would have upon the future of mankind when a sojourning couple sought shelter in a Bethlehem barn.  Yet this vulnerable new life would grow to become the Captain of the Heavenly Host, the mightiest Hope of mankind.

Among the many mysteries of Christmas is the fact that Jesus was unplanned – at least by Mary and Joseph. Yet they accepted the invitation to participate in God’s plan for their lives, for mankind.  Even with the help of angels, these humble parents could never have imagined how much love their sacrifice would unleash upon all the peoples of the earth.

How magically appropriate that the true reason for the pro-Life movement should come in the form of a humble newborn wrapped in pieces of available cloth. In the Christmas Miracle, Jesus is not only the Son of God made flesh – he is a stand-in for every baby conceived.  He shows us that every baby is a miracle, rich with possibilities.

May the Lord richly bless your family with His presence as you celebrate the Miracle of Christ’s birth.

This week brought news that ISIS – the barbarian tribe spreading death and mayhem across the Middle East, Europe and the United States – has launched a new kind of “cleansing”.

Breitbart reports that ISIS has now launched something of a jihad against disabled children within the boundaries of their nascent state. A “fatwa” has been issued which authorizes the killing of children and babies with Downs Syndrome and other congenital disabilities – all in the name of “Allah”.

For some months now, we have been treated to nearly daily news of atrocities and barbarities against Christians, women, homosexuals and others deemed to have offended some mad sensibility or another. Beheadings for internet ratings.

But now, a Facebook posting by the barbarians claims that some children have already been killed in towns controlled by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. An underground organization, Mosul Eye, claims to have confirmed 38 slayings of newborns have already been accomplished either by suffocation or lethal injection.

Nothing compared to the barbarity of Planned Parenthood – but still noteworthy because these evil actors at ISIS are just getting warmed up, while Western leaders fete each other over glasses of champagne for fixing the global climate.

What is to be said about this escalation of evil? Quite a bit, actually.

In the face of such mad barbarity, we note the continued apologetics of the American Left – beginning with our own president, Barack Hussein Obama. He continues to play at stopping ISIS while passionately seeking an accord to fix the climate and destroy the liberties of American citizens.

Liberals like Hillary Clinton continue to defend open borders and the importation of persons about whom we intentionally know very little.

The truth is, we have not seen such naked evil since the days of Nazi Germany. (Recall Hitler’s program against their own disabled citizens – which amounted to a practice run at the Holocaust).  It is truly challenging to comprehend the scale and darkness of such evil.  Most of us will want to recoil from the horror, hoping in the quiet of our hearts that it won’t find us or our families.  We pray the San Bernardino slaughter is some odd aberration.  We hope that somehow our national leaders – despite their obvious disabilities –  will find a way to protect us.

The temptation is strong to slide into denial, some more Christmas shopping. Minimization of the threat is a natural response.  Looking for historical perspective, we can now see that the failure to recognize the depth of the Nazi threat resulted in millions being destroyed who might otherwise have been saved.

As we watch the inept and limp response of our national leaders to this growing horror, it is hard not to feel a kind of supernatural judgment descending upon our nation. We are presently plagued by “leaders” who wander about in a stupor so irrational that it defies easy explanation.

It seems clear that we must be in earnest prayer for our nation and civilization itself. America must seriously consider a path of repentance if we can reasonably hope that God will raise up a new generation of leaders capable of meeting the ominous darkness emerging.  That repentance must begin by confronting the unabated slaughter of innocents which has daily continued since the tyrannical arrogance of our Supreme Court imposed its own “fatwa” upon the nation in 1973.