Commentary

Idaho’s two U.S. Senators issued a joint press release today, calling upon the Secretary of Health & Human Services to investigate whether Planned Parenthood is violating federal law with its program of harvesting the tissue and organs of preborn children after abortions.  The two videos released so far showing discussions with senior Planned Parenthood officials strongly suggest that America’s largest abortion provider is intentionally manipulating women into undergoing later-term abortions in order to harvest more mature organs.  In addition, the description of abortion techniques by these same officials seems to be referring to Partial Birth Abortions, a procedure outlawed by both federal and state statute.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 23, 2015

Contact: Lindsay Nothern (Crapo), 208-344-1776

Suzanne Wrasse (Risch), 202-224-8078

Crapo, Risch Join Group of 50 Senators Raising Concerns with Planned Parenthood Practices

Senators call on HHS Secretary to comply with investigations, conduct assessment to facilitate congressional review  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch this week joined a bipartisan group of senators in calling on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to get to the bottom of what has been going on at Planned Parenthood.  In a letter to the Secretary, the Senators draw attention to the legal, ethical and policy issues raised by the recent video footage released by the Center for Medical Progress depicting senior Planned Parenthood Federation of America executives discussing in gruesome detail the organization’s role in the harvesting of the organs of unborn babies.  

“The footage raises a number of questions about the practices of the organization, including whether they are in compliance with federal laws regulating both the use of fetal tissue and partial-birth abortions,” the senators wrote. “In addition to questions about Planned Parenthood’s compliance with applicable federal law and medical ethics, we believe the footage prompts important policy questions surrounding the issue of abortions permitted so late in a pregnancy – sometimes even later than 5 months – that an unborn baby’s organs can be identified and harvested.” 

The senators also requested that the Secretary confirm the commencement or immediate initiation of “a thorough internal review of the compliance of the Department and Planned Parenthood – one of the Department’s grantees – with all relevant and applicable federal statutes, regulations, and other requirements.”

The full text of the senators’ letter can be found here.

I am shocked by the callous disregard for human life Planned Parenthood senior officials exhibit in recent videos.  Their heinous and atrocious violations against a human life are outrageous.  These conversations are proof positive this organization has no regard when it comes to the life of a baby.

Nearly all of my Republican colleagues and I sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell asking for Planned Parenthood to be investigated on whether it has violated federal regulations.  HHS awards federal grants to Planned Parenthood.  The letter also asks HHS to conduct an internal review of its compliance with related government regulations.  

I am strongly pro-life and always have been. 

During my time as Idaho’s governor, lieutenant governor and state senator, I worked to restore Idaho’s unborn citizens to full recognition and protection under the law.  As a United States senator, I am working to do everything I can to promote and protect the sanctity of life here and abroad. 

I cannot and will not support legislation that would destroy a human’s most basic right–the right to life.  This includes voting against government funding that would be used for promoting or performing abortions and that includes voting against Planned Parenthood funding.

– U.S. Senator James Risch, (R-Idaho)

A number of news organizations have reported on a macabre discovery at the Strasbourg Medical Institute, located in Strasbourg, France. Tissue samples, carefully collected from the victims of the Nazi holocaust for medical research, were acknowledged to exist by research center just this week. Turns out the vials contained such things as skin samples, and tissue from various victim organs – like liver, stomach, intestines.

The human experimental tissue was carefully marked with the matching identifying numbers from the tattoos used to track each of Jewish victims of the Nazi assault on humanity some 70 years ago.

According to news reports, the human tissue was originally collected for the medical experiments of an SS officer and doctor, August Hirt.

The current research director of Institute, Raphael Toledano, explained that the superb Nazi record keeping system allowed him to connect the tissue samples with 86 specific victims of the Holocaust.

We bring this story to your attention because it seems horribly connected to the recent revelations of Planned Parenthood’s dark practice of harvesting and selling tissue and organs from carefully destroyed human babies. Like the Nazi researchers before them, Planned Parenthood has justified such unethical conduct as “advancing medical science”.

Many people who have viewed the luncheon meeting of Dr. Deborah Nucatola have been dumbfounded: How can a person so casually discuss the dismemberment of a human baby while sipping a glass of red wine? How could anyone talk about harvesting livers and hearts from defenseless babies to meet the growing demand from medical research companies while chewing down a lovely Caesar salad at a high class restaurant?

The truthful answer is similar to the one to be discovered by confronting the evil of the Nazi regime. There is a powerful movie available on cable which recreates the scene of key Nazi leaders meeting at “liberated” Jewish mansion outside Berlin in about 1943 to discuss the “Final Solution” over wine and the most delectable cakes and sandwiches. The viewer is left wondering how men could talk about the destruction of millions of human beings while slurping down the finest wine? The answer, in part, is that Nazi leaders had convinced themselves that Jews were actually not people. They were vermin, who could be used, temporarily, for profit. Likewise the folks over at Planned Parenthood look at preborn human children as some kind of virus to be cleansed.

In the wake of WWII, civilization rose up to deliver a considered moral judgment on the madness of Nazism. Trials were held at Nuremburg – including a series of trials known as the Nuremburg Medical Trials. We will write more about the relevance of this history to today’s scandal involving Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of human tissue and organs.  It seems that we have lost the wisdom we purchased at such a terrible high price.

But the question we must ask ourselves right now is simple: What is the moral difference between the conduct of Nazi medical researchers and Planned Parenthood?

Will we allow this gross abuse of humanity to stand in our America?

Here is a link to the story in France:

A firestorm has been lit by the release of a video showing Planned Parenthood actively involved in the gruesome business of harvesting, packaging, marketing and selling body parts and human tissue harvested from the thousands of babies it destroys each day.

Many talking heads are rightly outraged. Plenty of fresh material for bloggers, presidential candidates and talk show hosts.  And, certainly, in the Age of Obama, the last thing Americans need is more cause for outrage: the bucket is overflowing.

But this issue is different.  This outrage carries with it tremendous spiritual and societal consequence.

What happens now?

We are guaranteed to have a week or so of media attention and discussion regarding the true scope of evil surrounding Planned Parenthood and legalized abortion in America.  We believe God has created a window, has pulled back the curtain on the institutionalized evil in our midst.  But after the shock passes, what will America do about this heinous practice?

Will we simply turn the page?  Go back to our comfortable space and pretend this is not happening?

Will we allow ourselves to be too disgusted to turn our outrage into persistent, undeniable demands for action by our government and elected officials?  Will Planned Parenthood be brought to account?  Will Congress enact legislation to clearly prohibit the disgusting practice of trafficking in human remains for profit?  Will they move to strip these gangsters of all public tax subsidy?

In short: Now that this huge morsel of evil is in our mouths … will we spit it out as the moral poison it is?  Or will we allow ourselves to swallow another chunk of evil, going back to the ball game, movie or even a discussion of any other political issue beside abortion and its broad bevy of consequence?

If we collectively digest this evil, America will fall another ten or twenty fathoms into the moral abyss.  One would be left to wonder what obscenity or practice Planned Parenthood could commit that would finally be “too much” for our collective conscience to bear.

Of course, the sale and marketing of fetal tissue pales in comparison to the industrialized slaughter of the babies themselves.  But it is a concrete place from which to reinvigorate our battle against evil.

So what is to be done?

First, we ask you to speak, personally, with your pastor or priest. We need the moral leadership of our clergy to confront this evil and to rally the Body of Christ to concrete action.

Second, we need to call upon on our Congressional delegation to ensure that there are broad investigations into this practice on a national scale – by both the House and Senate.

Third, we call upon Governor Otter and Attorney General Wasden to launch independent, state-based investigations into the practices of Planned Parenthood here in Idaho.  This is likely a criminal conspiracy, and it must be taken seriously at the local, as well as the national, level.  Not only is the trafficking in human tissue-for-profit illegal – the evidence produced thus far strongly suggests that Planned Parenthood may be violating the national and state bans on Partial Birth Abortions.  The state must also make demand on Planned Parenthood to establish whether the mothers involved in aborting their children have given informed consent regarding the harvesting and sale of their baby’s remains to various research firms and universities.

Will YOU take a moment to pick up the phone and demand action from your elected officials and pastors?

May God save us from spiritual lethargy at this critical hour.

Many Christians across America are grieving this weekend over the Supreme Court edict on homosexual marriage.  Many must be wondering: Where did my country go?  And where is it going?

Just a few years ago, homosexual behavior was illegal in every state of the Union.  Today, with the meandering paragraphs of a few judges, it has become a right.  How did it come to this?

Students of modern American history will see the obvious correlation between Roe v. Wade and the imposition of homosexual marriage upon a resistant nation.  The process for imposing “social change” came upon us in nearly identical fashion – through the blatant abuse of power by the federal judiciary and the possessed agitation of a motivated, moneyed, small band of conspirators.

So now we shall enshrine another sin in America’s Constitution, calling it “freedom”.  The two radical, lawless rulings share that commonality as well.

But they also share something deeper: They are edicts of death.  The sanctification of homosexuality will harm real people, enticing some to wander into a lifestyle with notorious health and spiritual hazards.  And for those homosexual couples who seek legalized marriage as a way to legitimize their unhealthy relationships, we predict they will find the institution of marriage to be very problematic.

A few years into this social experiment, it is rather easy to foresee dramatic rates of divorce among homosexual couples.  The legal and financial entanglements of the institution will become more of a burden than it’s worth to many in the homosexual community, renowned for a casual and promiscuous sexual ethic.

We don’t, however, think that huge problem will diminish the luster of the victory for activists in the homosexual community.  The drive to establish homosexual marriage is not about marriage, per se: it is an assault on Christianity.  And make no mistake – the dragon is now on the sanctuary steps.

How will the Christian churches respond to the threat by government that they jettison parts of the Gospel to preserve their tax benefits?  How will pastors and clergy react to charges that they are but purveyors of “hate speech”?  We have already seen many denominations and so-called clergy make their accommodations with evil.  It is likely more will do so.

But we predict many churches and pastors will be led by the Holy Spirit to a deeper appreciation of their duties under Christ.  We believe that the Lord is hard at work, even in this apparently dark hour for America, to intensify the light by which we might find our way out of this swamp.  Churches will not find it so easy to evade the issue of homosexual marriage as they have the abortion holocaust.  The dragon is coming to find them in the quiet of their communities.  They shall have to choose whom they shall serve.

Those who choose to proclaim the Gospel will be used by God to lead America into revival and redemption.

Christians are right to grieve over their nation, over the plight of those men and women who will be enticed into a destructive lifestyle by the Supreme Court and other social elites.  But this is no time for despair.  Christ specializes in taking what Satan has intended for our harm and turning it into a means for redemption.

The healing touch of the Savior is what this nation desperately needs.

Perhaps this is the hour that His Church will once again rise up to confront sin; to offer genuine love and hope for a sickened society

Sometimes it genuinely seems as if a substantial number of judges really don’t care much for women.

Take the recent ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court.

It just issued a ruling declaring that the Iowa Board of Medicine had acted “unconstitutionally” when it stopped the experimental practice of dispensing RU-486 via remote computer control.  The women and girls going to see Planned Parenthood didn’t even receive the consideration of a personal examination by a licensed physician.

After receiving complaints, the Iowa Board of Medicine held hearings about Planned Parenthood’s decision to expand its abortion practice by using a new, substandard level of medical of care.  Expenses were reduced, profits enhanced.  After days of hearings from medical experts and physicians practicing in the state, the Iowa Board of Medicine outlawed the practice of “tele-med” abortions.  It found that the practice was unsafe, as it became impossible for doctors to establish a genuine relationship with patients.

Planned Parenthood sued in state court.  A district court found that the Iowa Board of Medicine had acted responsibly to fulfill its statutory mandate to license physicians and establish standards of care.  The lower court found that the Iowa Board of Medicine had based its decision on sound medical and scientific evidence to protect the health and safety of women and girls considering a chemical abortion.

But the Iowa Supreme Court took a completely different view.  In striking down the Iowa Board’s findings, it also went on to herald a “right to abortion” under the Iowa State Constitution – something which has been hidden from the people of that state since 1846.

What is even more disturbing about the Iowa Supreme Court ruling is its failure to sanction Planned Parenthood for conducting massive medical experiments upon the women and girls of Iowa – most likely without their consent.  The national office of Planned Parenthood viewed Iowa as a vast laboratory they could use to lower the standards of medical care for women across the nation.  After denying for years that they were conducting “tele-med” abortions, Planned Parenthood revealed in court documents that it had performed 7000 chemical abortions in Iowa over the past several years.  And it is highly unlikely that in conducting such experiments, it ever revealed to the women and girls they treated that the care they were being given was experimental and failed to meet the minimum standards established by the FDA when it approved the killer drugs at the end of the Clinton Administration.

No, these women and girls were just data points.

The drive to make abortion easy, cheap and frequent has cost this nation dearly.  Tens of millions of babies have paid with their lives.  Millions of women have paid with their souls; thousands more have been injured or even died as a result of easy abortions.  Now we see more evidence of the corruption of our legal and medical institutions at the hands of Planned Parenthood.

Here is a disturbing report from our neighbors in Colorado:

The Boulder County Coroner has ruled the death of preborn child a case of “fetal demise”, language they use when describing miscarriage.

But the only miscarriage in this tragic case is one of justice and sanity.

Dynel Lane was arrested by police after she brutally attacked a pregnant woman in an attempt to steal the woman’s baby.  She used a knife to cut the 34-week old baby out of the mother’s womb.  The baby died from the assault, but Ms. Lane will not be charged with her murder.

Incredibly, the Coroner told the Denver Post that there was “no manner of death associated with the cause”.  Apparently the butcher knife retrieved from the scene was not compelling evidence for the ideologically-imprisoned person occupying this important office.

Instead, Ms. Lane is being charged with attempted murder of the mother, and “unlawful termination of a pregnancy”.  This latter charge is related to the fact that she was not a physician licensed to kill preborn children in the manner set forth by the oppressors who established Roe v. Wade.

So, despite the fact this precious baby could have easily survived outside the womb had she been delivered, no justice will be served for her.

These are days sadly corrupted by the evil of legalized abortion.

The local government of Washington, D.C. is clearly in the hands of radical pro-abortion groups.  They passed a new ordinance earlier this year called the “Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act”.  It would prohibit employers based in the nation’s capital from taking a person’s abortion views into account when hiring.

Pro-Life groups like the American Life League and Family Research Council could be forced into hiring pro-abortion advocates for their staffs.

The House of Representatives moved earlier to override this oppressive move against the conscience rights of pro-Life organizations, but that was blocked by President Obama.

The House Appropriations Committee continues to work to out-maneuver the abortion advocates running the DC government.  The committee approved language this past week in the Financial Services Appropriations bill which would block the DC government from using government funds to enforce its “Nondiscrimination Act”.  The bill is expected to be approved by the full House of Representatives.

As we rightly honor those women who brought us into this world today, who sacrificed so much of themselves to nurture our lives, it is also appropriate to pray for those women who are hurting today.

For all the brave talk and propaganda from the Abortion Industry, we know that women who submit to abortions are not simply killing their own children – they are plunging a dagger into their own hearts. They are cutting themselves off from the great gift of life. And separating themselves from the tremendous blessing God has offered to each mother.

That same God can and will provide healing, should a woman seek His help. But the loss of a child to abortion cannot be undone.

It is not hard to imagine that many women suffer deeply on a day like this. No magic marker cards or handmade clay bowls that can be used for any number of creative purposes. No burnt toast for breakfast from little hands with a need to show their abundant love for the woman who means the world to them.

While we celebrate the bravery of our mothers – who launched upon the great adventure of motherhood without much of a manual – let us remember those hurting women who struggle with the aftermath of their decision to abort. Let us ask that the Lord of Life gives them a gentle hug today.