Commentary

We had a great deal of hope going into this latest Congressional effort to defund the abortion mafia known as Planned Parenthood.  It seemed that the reconciliation process offered a perfect opportunity to obtain a clean Senate vote and avoid the filibuster by Planned Parenthood’s Democrat patrons in that body.  The reconciliation process requires only a simple majority to pass.

The measure to defund Planned Parenthood has already passed the House by a large margin, and awaits Senate action.

Yesterday, the Senate Parliamentarian gave her approval to the measure, certifying that the bill could be enacted through the “Byrd Rule” – allowing a simple majority.  Everything seemed on course for an historic vote to end the unholy partnership between the American taxpayer and Planned Parenthood – forced upon us for over forty years by a badly misguided Congress.

And now we learn that our hope hangs by a thread.  It is no surprise that the liberal Republicans in the caucus are balking.  But there are still enough votes if conservatives stand tall.  But that weird purity virus has surfaced – threatening to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Sens. Mike Lee, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are threatening to vote against the reconciliation bill because it doesn’t go far enough in repealing provisions of ObamaCare – another feature of the bill.

What makes this so darn frustrating and even silly is the simple fact that Obama will veto the measure in any event.  Purity makes little sense in this context.

What does make sense is for the entire Republican Congress to make a final and clear statement about ending our partnership with Planned Parenthood.  While the effort to improve health care for women will require a new president to take effect – Republicans are foolish not to force an Obama veto heading into a critical election year.  Instead of losing this fight over defunding in the byzantine halls of the Senate – let us expose Obama as the champion of abortion, the defender of human baby organ trafficking.

Please take a moment to call the offices of the normally pro-Life Senators having trouble figuring this situation out:

Sen. Marco Rubio:           202-224-3041

Sen. Ted Cruz:                   202-224-5922

Sen. Mike Lee:                  202-224-5444

For more background on the issue click here.

The full House of Representatives approved a resolution yesterday, creating a special Select Committee to investigate numerous issues surrounding the harvesting and trafficking in organs and tissue from babies killed by abortion.

The committee will have special powers to subpoena witnesses and records under oath – similar to the panel investigating the Obama Administration’s failures in Benghazi. The measure was approved on a vote of 242-184. Idaho’s Congressmen Simpson and Labrador voted to empanel the special investigation.

The 13 member panel has been given the charge of looking into 6 broad issues highlighted by the horrific videos released over this summer and fall by the Center for Medical Progress:

1. The medical and business practices used by entities involved in fetal tissue procurement;
2. Any other issues related to fetal tissue procurement;
3. Federal funding issues related to abortion providers;
4. Practices of the abortion industry which may encourage late term abortions and partial birth abortion procedures in order to obtain tissue from born-alive infants;
5. Whether abortion providers are violating the Born Alive Infants Protection Act;
6. Issue recommendations regarding changes in law or regulation.

While the wheels of justice grind ever slowly, this is a major step forward in the battle to hold Planned Parenthood accountable. The mandate and authority of this panel is pretty broad, and should allow members to dig deeply into the web of evil which is Planned Parenthood.

One of the more critical issues facing the panel is how and why American taxpayers have become coerced partners of the Abortion Mafia.

Planned Parenthood has long contended, for instance, that it follows federal law with respect to keeping its massive public funding separate from funds it uses to pay for abortion. This is required by the Hyde Amendment.

However, just today, a former Planned Parenthood director, Sue Thayer, has issued testimony before a Congressional Committee arguing that Planned Parenthood regularly engages in Medicaid fraud by bill Medicaid for some of the services related to performing abortions.

Thayer served as a center business manager for Planned Parenthood in Iowa for 17 years. She told the committee:

“Because I had access to the billing system for the whole affiliate, I also know that Planned Parenthood would bill Medicaid for abortion-related services – ultrasounds, office visits, blood tests, medications, and other services that were part of an abortion.”

We had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Thayer this past winter when she came to Boise to testify in support of our legislation clamping down on Planned Parenthood’s use of RU-486 to perform chemical abortions. She is a soft-spoken woman demonstrating tremendous courage in going public about how Planned Parenthood actually operates.

For any member of Congress who isn’t owned by the Abortion Industry, her testimony about the flagrant abuse of taxpayer dollars should be enough to finally end our partnership with this criminal conspiracy.

The present move to defund Planned Parenthood is long overdue. While the energy for the effort stems largely from the horrific organ trafficking scandal – the truth is, there is a laundry list of abuses by Planned Parenthood, any one of which should be sufficient grounds to end their special taxpayer subsidies.

Many conservatives are angry with the Congress and GOP leadership. Frustrated may be a better word. We sense a profound disconnect between the conservative principles and platforms which motivate many to donate, volunteer and support Republican candidates. On many levels, that frustration is justified.

However, it is also important not to miss what is happening in the nation’s capital. We are in the midst of an unprecedented battle for Life which has fairly raged for months. No doubt the scandalous videos released by the Center for Medical Progress are providing much of the jet fuel for this multi-faceted debate – but it is important to appreciate that we are blessed with a genuinely pro-Life Congress.

The Congress continues to take up pro-Life legislation at an amazing clip. The House has passed a Ban on Late Term Abortions, and voted to defund Planned Parenthood. The House has conducted multiple investigations into Planned Parenthood. It has approved legislation to add criminal penalties for violating the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. And it just passed a bill to empower states to deny Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood.

Now there is serious talk about appointing a Select Committee to delve deeper into the criminal enterprise which is Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The U.S. Senate has also been very active on the Life issue. It has voted twice to deny public funding for Planned Parenthood. It has also considered legislation to end most abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation. Of course, passage of pro-Life legislation in the Senate is more problematic because Democrats have stood as a disciplined Legion of Death to filibuster each pro-Life bill brought to the floor for consideration. While that is frustrating, the effort and time devoted by a majority of the Senate to protecting Life must be acknowledged.

We are especially appreciative of the work and leadership being provided by Idaho’s delegation. From the jump, Congressman Labrador has staked out an aggressive position in support of ending our dark partnership with Planned Parenthood. But Congressman Simpson has been engaged as well, becoming a co-sponsor of the separate bill to defund Planned Parenthood.

Idaho’s two senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, have been stellar. Just the other night, they were among the 17 brave souls who opposed a Continuing Resolution that would protect “business as usual”. They are standing tall on principle.

While there have been set-backs, the fight to defund Planned Parenthood is not over.

We are praying that a way can be found to use the Reconciliation process to get around the Senate Democrats’ fake filibuster; we would count it as a major victory to force the first Obama Veto of the new Republican Majority. That moment would help educate America about the dark radicalism of our current president.

If we have any complaints, it is with the Republican messaging over Planned Parenthood funding. This is a perpetual weakness in the Congressional Republican effort to help lead America to a better place. Of course, this fight to end our partnership with Planned Parenthood is about the evil they practice. But it is also about women’s health. We believe that a major theme in GOP messaging should be the disservice being done to women by encouraging them to seek their care from such an ideologically-driven organization. The money spent on reproductive health care should be spent at real health care facilities, where real doctors are present to offer a range of needed services to low income women. Women deserve better. And Congressional Republicans should be talking loudly about improving access to quality health care, and offering to increase funding for such programs.

But we don’t want our suggestions to get in the way of our deep gratitude for the energy and courage on display these past few weeks. May the Lord richly bless these men and women, particularly our Idaho delegation, for their kindness and leadership.

While Mitch McConnell appears to be struggling with his opportunity for leadership, Bishop Robert Deeley of Maine urged him and other members of Congress to find their moral strength and end our dark partnership with Planned Parenthood.

“The videos are shocking,” Deeley said in a statement originally printed in the Bangor Daily News. “Our elected officials should act to cease funding Planned Parenthood. I call on those who distribute the resources from the taxes we all pay to examine this issue and remove any funding which supports such evil as the harvesting of organs from an unborn child.”

According to a story now running on LifeNews, Planned Parenthood immediately pounced to denounce Bishop Deeley and defend women who decide to abort their babies:

“No woman should feel shamed or judged because of her decision”, said Nicole Clegg, public flack for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

Of course not. Let’s celebrate a world without moral judgment about anyone’s behavior or malice toward others – especially if you are Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood’s wicked sense of values argues that babies are merely an inconvenience – though a very valuable one for those employed by the organization. Look away, America, and judge not.

Can members of Congress seriously find a way to look themselves in the mirror if they use their power to impose a continued public partnership with Planned Parenthood upon us all?

Congress has created the behemoth which is Planned Parenthood, and only they can slay this dragon.

Let us pray that the Lord of the Universe will touch hearts in Congress this week. Let our leaders judge correctly according to the natural laws written upon the heart of every man.

We ask for pro-Lifers across the state to engage in earnest prayer on behalf of our national leaders as they engage in various efforts to hold Planned Parenthood accountable for its heinous treatment of preborn children.

Investigative hearings will soon begin in the U.S. Senate, and 3 different House committees have already opened hearings into the barbaric organ harvesting practices of Planned Parenthood. (You can see a clip here of Rep. Raul Labrador participating in the House Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday).

We need our congressional leaders to take decisive action to defend the American people from this organization. Specifically, we need to enact a ban on abortions after 20 weeks – legislation that has long been championed by Rep. Trent Franks and co-sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Crapo.

Secondly, we need Congress to end our partnership with Planned Parenthood. Taxpayer subsidization of this evil organization must simply end. Congress is largely responsible for turning Planned Parenthood into the huge dragon they have become – with some 45 years’ worth of financial subsidies. And only Congress can slay this beast.

Like Tolkien’s Smaug, Planned Parenthood lays across the nation’s treasury, making an eternal claim upon our wealth and spiritual health.

Driving the dragon from our midst won’t be an easy proposition, particularly given the special relationship between President Obama and Planned Parenthood. But like the brave villagers of Dale, we must finally take a stand.  We urge you to contact our congressional delegation and urge them to do everything in their power to end public funding of Planned Parenthood.  We believe particular attention should be paid to Congressman Mike Simpson, who is especially well-positioned in the Appropriations Committee to force a clean vote on ending our partnership with this evil organization.  You can send Congressman Simpson an email by clicking here.

“We can’t stop the president with just the House.  We need the Senate.  You need to give us control of the Senate.  We need to control the chairmanships and the committees, and once you give us the Senate we’ll be able to do things.”  Okay. The 2014 midterms come around and we vote, and we give the Republicans the Senate.  And now they are still paralyzed and can’t do anything, and now Mitch McConnell and Boehner say, “Well, we don’t have the White House.

“You know, we… we… we can’t do anything here because Obama’s gonna stop everything we do.  I mean, there’s nothing we can do.”  So in 2010, “You need to give us the Senate and then you’re gonna see some action.” In 2014 they got the Senate. “Sorry, can’t do anything!” The most recent illustration: Planned Parenthood defunding. Mitch McConnell said, “Sorry.  I just don’t have the votes here.  We’re gonna need a Republican in the White House for this.  We don’t have it; can’t get it done.”

They don’t want to, folks, for whatever reason. What a golden opportunity! I mean, just in the politics of this, what a golden opportunity to defund Planned Parenthood during the Obama administration.  Make President Obama take action to maintain funding for all that we have learned that goes on in there! What has happened to the…? I’m sounding like a broken record along with everybody else.  What in the world has even happened to the political instincts of the opposition party?

Even if you don’t have the votes, you don’t think, to override a veto, make him veto it!  Defund Planned Parenthood!  Everybody in the world needs to find out what’s happening in that place.  These videos have reached an audience, but they haven’t reached a wide enough audience ’cause the Drive-Bys are ignoring it.  Okay, so the Republicans in the Senate and the House pick up the movement to defund Planned Parenthood; this creates its own story. People say, “Why?  Why?” 

“Take a look these videos, Average American. Low-information voter, take a look at this!” Get the videos out, and you broaden the base of understanding and knowledge.  And then you get people all fit to be tied over what’s happening in these clinics, those that will be fit to be tied anyway. Not everybody would be; liberals being liberals. But the point is in the world of politics, even when you can’t win you can, because you can turn this around on the Democrats and make this president veto efforts to defund this.

Put the Democrat Party firmly in everybody’s mind on the side of infanticide. 

Republicans don’t want to do it.

They don’t want to get anywhere near it.

RUSH LIMBAUGH; SEPT 2, 2015

This week has produced even more ghastly revelations about Planned Parenthood’s organ harvesting business. The details of the horror show that is Planned Parenthood are almost too much to discuss in public.

Dr. Theresa Deisher, a prominent biomedical researcher, has reviewed the emerging videos in detail. It is her opinion that, at least in some cases, Planned Parenthood abortionists are harvesting organs from babies still alive. In an interview with Breitbart News, Dr. Deisher explained that “time is of the essence for biomedical researchers in harvesting fresh organs”. Some of those babies must be alive, particularly when one is trying to harvest a beating heart.

“I have always suspected that the babies in some of these cases were alive until their hearts were cut out,” Deisher said.

If her analysis is correct, then these abortionists are not only violating the federal Ban on Partial Birth Abortions – but the Born Alive Infants Protection Act as well.

But, of course, the issue here is not simply a discussion about legalities or even the criminal conspiracy which is Planned Parenthood. No. These revelations go much deeper.

This is barbarity, evil barbarity. And it is frightening.

It is relatively easy – unless you are a Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or Mayor De Blasio – to condemn Planned Parenthood. What is harder to face is the grave challenge this practice, now revealed, poses to our society. Will we allow it to continue? Will we allow our federal and state elected officials to continue their financial partnership with the criminals who chop up innocent babies for profit?

This is a time for resolve. We must demand that our government sever its entanglement with Planned Parenthood. And then we must demand that Planned Parenthood be brought to the bar of justice for its crimes against humanity.

LABRADOR DISGUSTED BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTIONS AND COMMENTS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, issued this statement after watching videos showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of fetal organs:

“I am sickened and disgusted by the inhumane attitude Planned Parenthood officials displayed as they discussed the sale of aborted fetuses over lunch. Their attitude towards human life should be condemned. I believe that all life is sacred, and should not be for sale. The fact that these officials view aborted fetuses as mere commodities is a sad commentary on our society.

“As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I will participate in a vigorous investigation into whether Planned Parenthood is illegally profiting from the sale of organs and body parts from aborted babies. Nothing is more sacred than human life. Indifference to these grotesque practices demeans every American, regardless of their view on abortion.

“These videos pull back the curtain on the horrors of the abortion industry. Today I am joining as a cosponsor of a new bill, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, to place a one-year moratorium on any federal funding of Planned Parenthood. I also urge the Senate to schedule a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support in May.”

Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards has a thought about the perfect Valentine’s gift: buy your girlfriend an abortion.

After all, what could be more thoughtful? For only $300 – $500, a girl could have a lifetime of kind returns: It carries a lifetime of guilt and remorse, long after the boyfriend has moved along to greener pastures.

LifeNews reports on a web video Planned Parenthood has produced, with their president holding a heart. Inside the heart is an inscription: “What Women Need for Valentine’s Day: Safe + Legal Abortion”.

The organization is infamous for abusing holidays to spread their message of casual death for preborn children, so this is certainly nothing new. It is not even the most outrageous. (Their blasphemy during the Christmas Season cannot be measured).

Nevertheless, the contempt for women and girls on display is very disturbing. Even more troubling is their trivialization of the destruction of another innocent human being.