Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) is on the move. It is building mega-clinics in places like Texas, Oregon and the Twin Cities. The bigger affiliates are gobbling up smaller ones as happened recently in Iowa and Nebraska. The goal is clearly to increase profit and expand its $1 billion empire.
Now comes unsurprising news that PPFA is going to “standardize its operations” and require that all affiliates perform abortions. News of the policy change comes from a story in a Texas newspaper covering the decision by Family Planning of the Coastal Bend to drop its affiliation with PPFA. According to the CEO, Amanda Stukenberg, PPFA was dropped because of the requirement to perform abortions.
To add insult, PPFA received $363 million in government grants and contracts in 2008-2009. Our taxpayer dollars at work for an organization which engages in work that is morally bankrupt.
It is no surprise whatsoever that the “death panels” which created such a furor in one of the versions of Obamacare have resurfaced in the form of regulations. The original provision which called for paying doctors to advise patients about advance directives disappeared from the final version of Obamacare.
The new policy, issued by rationing proponent, Donald Berwick, covers “voluntary advance care planning” under a provision which authorizes Medicare coverage of yearly physical exams. Under this rule, doctors can provide information on how to make out an advance directive.
In Oregon and Washington, where doctor-prescribed death is legal, presumably, our tax dollars could be paid to a doctor who helps a patient fill out an advance directive which requests doctor-prescribed death.
The goal of the new rule, according to Berwick, is to reduce costs. “Using unwanted procedures in terminal illness is a form of assault,” says Berwick. Most people would agree with that if it truly is what the patient wants. It should be noted that advance directives generally cover more than just situations of terminal illness.
Not lost on those who care about this issue is the timing of the announcement– the day after Christmas when few are paying attention.
Obamacare will become death by a thousand regulations.
Not satisfied with legal abortion on demand for any reason at any time during pregnancy, pro-abortion groups want to obliterate conscience rights for medical professionals who do not want to participate in abortions or be discriminated against in seeking employment.   Planned Parenthood and its allies have found a willing accomplice in the Obama Administration.
One of the last acts of the Bush Administration was to issue a rule to supplement conscience protection laws already on the books. The Bush rule prohibits those who receive federal money from discriminating against medical professionals who refuse to participate in medical procedures like abortion for reasons of conscience.
The Obama Administration has been working since early 2009 to rescind the Bush rule. In court papers filed in November and December, the Obama Administration states that “HHS expects to have a final rule published in the Federal Register within sixty to ninety days — i.e., as early as January 31, 2011, and no later than March 1, 2011. ”
Pro-life medical professionals are, understandably, very concerned, not only for themselves and their ability to practice medicine, but for patients who would be denied access to medical professionals who abide by moral standards in protecting human life. This pending rescission could create widespread fallout in medical facilities across the country.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s (PPFA) annual report is always depressing as one reads how gigantic the organization has become, flush with taxpayer dollars, and how its influence continues to grow.  Here are some salient points from the 2008-2009 annual report.
PPFA failed in this report to record the hundreds of thousands of abortions it performs, possibly because, as right-to-life commentators point out, this number dwarfs the paltry number of adoption referrals. The latest PPFA fact sheet reports 324,008 abortions in 2008 while the Guttmacher Institute numbers indicate that PPFA accounts for 26.8% of all abortions in the USA.
PPFA received $363 million from the government in grants and contracts. Â Is their a connection between increased government funding and increased numbers of abortions performed by PPFA?
PPFA is very active in promoting abortion internationally with the annual report singling out Kenya, Latin America and the Caribbean, and northern Nigeria as countries/areas where PPFA worked to decriminalize abortion or provide abortion referrals.
PPFA proudly cites the work of the Obama administration to overturn the Mexico City policy which prohibited the use of tax dollars to promote or perform abortions overseas; and restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund which assists China’s coerced abortion policy.
PPFA has conducted a series of mergers as the larger, more profitable affiliates have taken over the smaller ones.
All in all, PPFA continues to be the most dominant pro-abortion force in the country and around the world.
Read the full Planned Parenthood annual report here.
Rachel Campos Duffy, wife of Congressman-Elect Sean Duffy, has been a frequent visitor and commentator on “The View.” Not a staple program for me to watch, for certain, but it is interesting when someone who doesn’t fit the “profile” of the liberal, liberated woman — defined by someone else — shows up.
When Rachel visited “The View” this week, holding her beautiful baby daughter on her lap, Walters smugly asked: “Did you ever think, ‘I wish I had a career and I didn’t have six kids?’” Duffy responded: “Being a mom is the best job in the world!”
Rachel expounded on her response in a follow-up blog which can be read here. Reading Rachel’s well-expressed thoughts brought me back to the election, when some in the 7th Congressional District tried to depict Sean and Rachel as calculating individuals who were not really pro-life. This couple is pro-life in their very souls. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and Duffy was able to overcome these vicious attacks and win.
Look for Rachel at the Wisconsin Right to Life state-wide Conference in April and other events. She wants to use her skills and commitment to help WRTL further our great cause. We welcome her with open arms.
Philip Nitschke of Australia makes Jack Kevorkian look like a novice. Nitschke conducts “safe suicide” workshops wherever he can set up shop. According to the International Task Force on Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide (soon to be called the Patient Rights Council), Nitschke requires participants in his workshops to first pay a sizable fee to join his organization, Exit International. His target audience: older people.
To promote his cause and lure more people into it, Nitschke has produced a 45 second television ad and billboards. The television ad was banned in Australia and Canada but will be aired in New Zealand and Italy. Billboards are expected to go up in Melbourne and Brisbane. Billboards advertising death first appeared in the United States in San Francisco and New Jersey sponsored by the U.S. group Final Exit Network. Perhaps Nitschke was inspired by the U.S. group.
There is no length to which Nitschke will go to promote death. His preying on older people is despicable.
When announced earlier this year that the Madison Surgery Center had been abandoned as the site for second trimester abortions, UW tried to keep the issue alive by saying it was looking for a new location. Turns out it was a false front, as we thought all along.
UW spokesperson Lisa Brunette finally admitted that the entire plan has been abandoned. “UW Health is not currently looking for another location that would be safer for patients and does not have plans to look in the future,” she told the Badger Herald.
What a bitter pill for Madison, the pro-abortion bastion of the state, to swallow. Defeated on their home turf.
What a fantastic victory for unborn children! There are not enough words to thank the citizens of Wisconsin who rose up to defeat this plan. Power and strength comes from the people, and in this case, the people made unborn babies and mothers the winners!
Our colleagues at Iowa Right to Life are smack dab in the center of significant Planned Parenthood and abortion activity.
1. First, Iowa became the testing ground for telemed abortions done by med-cam with plans to spread this insidious abortion procedure throughout the country.  Exposed in Iowa newspapers, this procedure is now under investigation for possible violation of Iowa law.
2. Then, notorious late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart announced he would move his late-term practice to Council Bluffs, Iowa to avoid Nebraska’s new law which prohibits abortions after 20 weeks because the baby is capable of feeling pain.  The Council Bluffs City Council unanimously voted down Carhart’s request for land. Iowa legislators are working on a law similar to Nebraska’s to keep Carhart out of Iowa.
3. Now, Planned Parenthood has announced a big merger which will give the newly merged affiliate 25 clinics in Nebraska and much of Iowa.  Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (the group that developed and tested telemed web-cam abortions) is swallowing up Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa (PPECI).   Here’s the pattern. The larger affiliate, PP of the Heartland, does abortions and it acquires the smaller affiliate, PPECI, which was not doing abortions.  When asked if PPECI would begin doing abortions, the response was vague. Officials said that “abortions and offering RU-486 by telemedicine are among services being evaluated.” PP of the Heartland merged with Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs in 2009 and just opened up a new abortion clinic in Omaha.
These are activities to be closely monitored as it appears to be the PP pattern in many areas of the country.  How soon will this begin happening in Wisconsin?
A study recently published in the British Medical Journal reveals that almost half of the euthanasia deaths in the Flanders region of Belgium were not reported as required by law.  A different study published by CMAJ in May of 2010 concludes that 32% of euthanasia deaths in that same region were without the request or consent of the patient.
When laws are proposed to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide, they are “sold” by proponents as allowing acts of individual “choice” with sufficient “safeguards” to protect patients.  Choice goes out the window when consent is not obtained. Supposed safeguards rarely, if ever, adequately protect patients from potential abuse or overreach by family members, medical professionals or government agencies.
These studies from Belgium are another indication of how, once a law is passed, criteria is expanded for who will get euthanasia, and oversight becomes lax.
In 2008, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) gave large gifts to some of its affiliates. The Wisconsin PP was one of the top 15 recipients and received $547,297. This information is available from the PPFA 990 filed with the government.
PPFA is a $1 billion organization which paid its CEO $346,285 in 2008 plus additional compensation of $38,476. A large grant also went to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the organization’s advocacy and political arm that worked for pro-abortion candidates.
Of significant interest is PP’s stated purpose:
“To provide leadership — in making effective means of voluntary fertility regulation, including contraception, abortion, sterilization , and infertility services, available and fully accessible to all as a central element to reproductive healthcare; — in achieving, through informed individual choice, a U.S. population of stable size in an optimum environment……”
Abortion is featured prominently in PPFA’s purpose and should be “available and fully accessible to all.” This explains PPFA’s adamant commitment to providing and gaining “rights” to abortion not only here in the U.S. but worldwide. It’s also interesting that the view their role as one of advocating population control.
PPFA and its affiliates performed 324,008 abortions in 2008.
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