Friday, July 31, 2015

Unsurprisingly and unconvincingly, the Detroit Free Press defends Planned Parenthood

The Detroit Free Press editorial board has issued an editorial defending Planned Parenthood’s practice of trafficking in the body parts and organs of unborn human beings.  

The Free Press works diligently to downplay Planned Parenthood’s role in the abortion industry, parroting the typical talking points.  Free Press readers would be surprised to learn that Planned Parenthood is the leading abortion provider in America, providing more than 300,000 abortions a year, and that by any reasonable estimation abortion makes up a very sizable portion (30%-40%) of their clinic revenue.         

The editorial claims the videos exposing Planned Parenthood are a “sophisticated, concerted attack unparalleled in its history, aided and abetted by presidential politics.”

The Free Press says the videos are “carefully edited.”  Notably, the Free Press editorial doesn’t link directly to the full, unedited videos for readers to make up their owns minds.  Nor does the Free Press even seem to be aware that two more videos were released this week.  There’s a reason for that.  The Free Press would prefer to brush aside discussions and images of hearts, lungs, livers and brains being harvested and trafficked by saying, “Some comments made by Planned Parenthood officials are, without question, distasteful.” 

Any sensible person would wonder which comments were distasteful and why they were so distasteful.  The Free Press feels no need to share that information. 

That’s because the editorial board at the Detroit Free Press doesn’t have the courage to look at what’s on those videos, much less defend it.  They don’t want their readers to know that a Planned Parenthood employee says, “And another boy!” after sifting through the remains of an unborn child and discovering male genitalia.

Or hear Mary Gatter, the President of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director’s Council, haggle over what price their affiliate would be compensated with for the tiny organs. 

Or hear Savita Ginde, Vice-President and Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, say, “I think a per item thing works a little better, because we can see how much we can get out of it.”

Also missing from the Free Press editorial is any mention of how Planned Parenthood abortionists openly discussed changing their techniques in order to retrieve organs that are intact. This is a violation of law and the consent agreement Planned Parenthood provides to women. The Free Press wouldn’t want their readers to know that Planned Parenthood Medical Director Deborah Nucatola describes how she crushes the body of an unborn child above and below the abdomen but attempts to preserve the abdomen so the organs remain intact. 

The Detroit Free Press editorial board gladly blind themselves and their readers to the atrocities which occur everyday in Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.  They do this because they realize that if America sees what really happens behind closed doors, support for abortion may dwindle as our society begins to recognize that these aren’t clump of cells being removed, but tiny humans with intact organs who are being dismembered. 

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Contact U.S. Senators, urge them to support defunding Planned Parenthood

Within the next week, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to defund Planned Parenthood.  In the wake of a series of videos exposing Planned Parenthood's practice of trafficking in the body parts and organs of unborn children, legislation has been introduced stop federal funds from going to the abortion industry giant.  The legislation, S. 1881, is sponsored by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and will prevent funds from going to Planned Parenthood and make those funds available to community health centers.

While both of Michigan's U.S. senators, Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator Gary Peters are long time abortion advocates and supporters of Planned Parenthood, prolife people must let them know where we stand.  

Contact information for Senator Stabenow and Senator Peters can be found here.  

Let them know that tax dollars shouldn't be going to an organization willing to traffic in the body parts of unborn human beings.  According to their latest annual report, Planned Parenthood and their affiliates received more than $528 million from taxpayers in 2013-2014. An organization caught trafficking in body parts does not deserve 1/2 a billion dollars in taxpayer funds. 

Fourth video exposing Planned Parenthood selling parts of children released

The Center for Medical Progress has released their fourth undercover video exposing Planned Parenthood’s practice of selling the body parts of aborted children.  This video takes place in Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains and features a conversation with abortionist Savita Ginde, who is Vice President/Chief Medical Officer at Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains.

The video also features conversations in the POC (product of conception) room where Ginde, a medical assistant and the actor look at the remains of aborted children and discuss which parts are usable including brain, eyeballs, stomach, kidney, and heart. At the end of the video, the medical assistant sees male genitalia in the remains and says “And another boy!”

You can view the video below.  It contains disturbing footage of what happens every day in abortion clinics around our country. 



UPDATE: Below is the full footage.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Prolifers rally in Lansing to defund Planned Parenthood

Both MLive and WLNS covered a rally at Michigan’s Capitol yesterday which called on the federal government to defund abortion giant Planned Parenthood in light of the recent videos exposing Planned Parenthood selling parts of unborn children after they are aborted.

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America, performing more than 300,000 abortions a year. 

From the MLive story:

The non-profit reproductive health organization has been under fire in recent weeks after the release of secretly filmed videos, including a clip of an official negotiating the sale of fetal tissue from aborted fetuses for research purposes.

"I'm absolutely horrified by it," said Marie Gatica of Students for Life of America at the University of Michigan-Flint.

"We're here today to say enough is enough. We have tolerated Planned Parenthood for far too long," said Gatica, 18.

LEARN MORE ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S ABORTION AGENDA

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Third undercover video exposing Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby body parts released

The third video released by Center for Medical Progress is entitled, “Human Capital - Episode 1: Planned Parenthood’s Black Market in Baby Parts.”  It features an interview with Holly O’Donnell, a woman who formerly worked for StemExpress.  StemExpress is a company which buys parts of aborted children from Planned Parenthood affiliates. 

The video also features footage inside a Planned Parenthood “POC”(product of conception)  room where the organs and parts of unborn children are sorted after they are aborted.          

In the POC room while discussing how much the actors would pay the clinic for the organs, Colorado-based abortionist Savita Ginde says, “No, and the, I think a per item thing works a little better, because we can see how much we can get out of it.”
   
View the video below.  Some of the contents may be disturbing. 

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Senators Stabenow and Peters should support Planned Parenthood investigation

Right to Life of Michigan calls on U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters to support an investigation into Planned Parenthood Federation of America's fetal organ harvesting programs.

On July 22, a bipartisan group of 50 U.S. Senators sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell asking for full cooperation with congressional investigations. Neither Senator Stabenow nor Senator Peters signed the letter.

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "Michigan citizens deserve to have their elected officials advocating for them. They must make sure federal laws are being followed and citizens' hard-earned tax dollars are not supporting organizations that violate the law."

Two recent undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress show statements from Planned Parenthood staff discussing the sales of fetal organs following abortions, and the changing of abortion procedures to accommodate organ harvesting. Selling human fetal tissue for valuable consideration and altering abortion procedures in order to obtain fetal tissue are violations of federal law.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates received $528.4 million in tax dollars in 2013-2014, according to their annual report. They performed 327,653 abortions in 2013.

Listing said, "People are uncomfortable with this callous disregard for the value of human life, whether or not they support abortion. Their voices must be heard."

A full investigation is needed to determine the truth, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America should comply with all congressional requests for information and statements from their staff.

Michigan elected officials speak out about Planned Parenthood

In response to videos showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the selling of fetal body parts, elected officials in Michigan are speaking out.  

On July 21, both Representative Bill Huizenga and Representative Tim Walberg spoke on the floor of Congress to support the unborn and against Planned Parenthood.





On July 22, Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley released a statement regarding the videos.    
The footage released is more than disturbing and although there have been no formal complaints or allegations in Michigan, it is important for the state to be proactive for the protection of our residents. I will be working closely with LARA and DHHS to review inspection protocols, as well as adherence to laws, policies and procedures in Michigan to ensure illegal practices are not occurring.

LEARN MORE ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S ABORTION AGENDA

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Summer 2015 issue of RLM News now online

The Summer 2015 issue of the Right to Life of Michigan News is now online

It includes stories about our media campaign, youth awards, the uncovering of abortion clinic abuses and features our former Director of Public Information looking back and looking forward

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Second video exposes Planned Parenthood executive haggling over prices of fetal body parts, willing to change abortion technique

The Center for Medical Progress has released the second video in a series of undercover investigations into the abortion industry and the exchanging of fetal body parts for money.  The first video showed Planned Parenthood Director of Medical Services Deborah Nucatola discussing how Planned Parenthood affiliates sell the body parts of aborted children.  The second video, released this morning, features a conversation with Mary Gatter, the President of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director’s Council and the Medical Director at Planned Parenthood Pasadena. 

During the conversation Gatter is asked how much it would cost for “intact tissue.”  She responds by saying, “Well, why don’t you start by telling me what you’re used to paying.”

Gatter also shows a willingness for her clinic to alter their abortion technique in order to get more intact specimens even though she admits this is violating protocol. 

She says, “And then if want to pursue this, mutually, I’ll mention this to Ian to see how he feels about using a less crunchy technique to get more whole specimens.”

View the video below.



Update: The full footage of the video has been released.


Monday, July 20, 2015

“Heavily edited” excuse doesn’t fly for Planned Parenthood

The recent undercover video of a Planned Parenthood executive casually discussing fetal organ harvesting over lunch is shocking to many, but it really shouldn’t be surprising. Planned Parenthood is no stranger to undercover videos. In the past they’ve dealt with issues ranging from failing to report sexual abuse to approval of sex-selection abortions. Their defense has always been that such videos are “heavily edited,” and that quotes are taken out of context.

Thankfully the Center for Medical of Progress has released the full, almost 3-hour unedited video on YouTube for all, and it doesn’t make Dr. Deborah Nucatola look any better. Watch the entire video and let her speak for herself. Let’s consider a couple of items from the unedited tape.

At one point Dr. Nucatola discusses an argument over abortion methods, whether it’s worth poisoning the baby first. Apparently some abortionists prefer the babies to literally be kicking as they tear off limbs in a dismemberment abortion, one-by-one.

“There’s like a culture war on feticide,” she said. “People on the west coast seem to prefer feticide, people on the east coast seem to not believe in feticide. Everyone has their own styles.”

That’s just their style; it’s almost like a cook talking shop about tips for roasts or marinades.

Consider Planned Parenthood’s flat denial that they profit from organ harvesting. Dr. Nucatola’s words create some doubt about that denial.

“I think for affiliates, at the end of the day, they’re a non-profit, they just don’t want to—they want to break even,” she said. “And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that.”

In the end, Planned Parenthood may be able to conjure up documentation to assert that every payment they received is “reasonable,” and thus legal. Later in the tape she says they don’t profit from the organ sales, but which is it? Doing better than breaking even is the definition of profiting. A thorough investigation is needed to determine the truth.

Nucatola justifies the sales by saying Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit, that “every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient.” Planned Parenthood made a profit of $127.1 million in 2013-2014, according to their Annual Report. They spent $33.6 million on lobbying government that same year. They spent $15 million on the 2012 election.

Planned Parenthood receives almost half of their budget ($528.4 million) from taxpayers, and they turn around and spend millions lobbying for more. It’s outrageous that people who object to abortion and to fetal organ harvesting are being forced to support a highly political organization. Recently the Michigan budget zeroed out funding for Planned Parenthood, and everyone else should do the same.

Michael Wear, a writer for the Atlantic and a former staffer in the Obama White House, summed up this issue perfectly on Twitter: “It should bother us as a society that we have use for aborted human organs, but not the baby that provides them.”

Friday, July 17, 2015

Video exposes abortion and that makes us uncomfortable

In light of an undercover video showing Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director for medical services, cavalierly discussing how she aborts children with the goal of saving specific organs to provide to researchers, both Tim Carney and Timothy Stanley write how the video washes away the euphemisms pro-abortion groups use and the general public often accept when talking about abortion. 

In a CNN column, Stanley writes,

Planned Parenthood is sensitive to us getting the wrong idea about what it does. But we're sensitive about not having to find out.

Whoever thinks about the reality of abortion unless they actually have to participate in one? Whoever considers the crushed organs: the hearts, lungs and livers? We all prefer to mask this truth behind euphemisms, of which Planned Parenthood is simply the market leader. Reproductive health centers. Medical services. Procedures. Anything but calling it what abortion really is -- the obliteration of a fetus.

Now, we may argue that sometimes abortion is necessary or a matter of privacy between a woman and her doctor. But that shouldn't stop us from being honest about it. On the contrary, what's troubling about modern society is its habit of dressing up difficult things in comforting language -- discouraging people from dwelling too hard on the realities of what they are doing.

In his column for the Washington Examiner, Carney writes,

If you consider literally that euphemism for a human baby's body parts — "the products of conception" — it describes President Obama, the reader of this column, Dr. Nucatola, and all her corporate partners just as accurately as it describes the flesh the abortionists are selling, whether it be at cost or for profit.

But that sort of euphemism points us toward the reason much of the major media has steered clear of this story as much as possible (it will get far less press than it deserves). Abortion is grisly and barbaric. When we talk about it in detail, we are reminded that it involves taking a human life with a scalpel, scissors or forceps.

When an abortion is over, the abortionist has extinguished a life. Inconveniently, the body remains — a head, two hands, kidneys, a liver and a heart.

Many in our society have come to accept abortion as something which should be legal because they are willing to avert their eyes from what abortion really is and what abortion does to the body of a developing human being.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

New video shows Planned Parenthood director discussing the sale of baby body parts

A new video released by the Center for Medical Progress shows Planned Parenthood Director of Medical Services Deborah Nucatola discussing how Planned Parenthood affiliates sell the body parts of aborted children. 

While at lunch, Nucatola (who is also an abortionist) shares how abortionists will kill unborn children differently if they know their customers want certain body parts (including hearts, liver, lung and lower extremities). 

Nucatola explains how she won’t crush the abdomen of an unborn child so the body parts will remain intact: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
   
View the video below. 






Update: The full 2+ hour video can be viewed below.



Thursday, July 9, 2015

Group of Congressional Democrats want tax dollars to pay for abortions

Yesterday, a group of Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a bill which would require tax dollars be used to pay for abortions.         

The legislation entitled The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act would remove the Hyde Amendment and use Medicaid funds to pay for abortions. 

The legislation is dead on arrival as a strong majority of the House of Representatives is prolife. 

The legislation, the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Woman Act, is backed by dozens of women's health groups, who say it will help reduce unplanned pregnancies. About 65 lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors.

Under current law, women enrolled in Medicaid, the government’s low-income insurance program, are not covered for abortion. The Hyde Amendment, though not part of a permanent law, has been attached to appropriations bills since 1976.

FULL STORY

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Cord Blood Awareness Month: Give life twice, give cord blood!

July is National Cord Blood Awareness Month

What is cord blood? Cord blood is found in a baby’s umbilical cord and is a rich source of ethical stem cells.

Why is cord blood important? A transplant of stem cells from cord blood can help someone with a life-threatening disease. There are more than 80 diseases cord blood can help treat including: leukemia, lymphoma, and anemia. Your baby has the power to save someone that has a serious illness!

Want to donate?
  • Go to http://www.miblood.org/donating-cord-blood/ and fill out the preliminary screening form. 
  • Twelve weeks before your due date the donation kit will be mailed to your house. 
  • Fill out the paperwork in the kit and mail the paperwork back to the Cord Blood Bank. 
  • They will mail instructions to your doctor. 
  • Take the collection kit with you to the hospital when it’s time for delivery. 
  • The doctor will collect the donation and send it to the blood bank. 

When should you start this process? Before or during your 28th week of pregnancy.

Where you can donate cord blood in Michigan?
  • Borgess Medical Center - Kalamazoo
  • Bronson Methodist Hospital - Kalamazoo
  • Covenant Medical Center Harrison - Saginaw
  • Mercy General Health Partners-Hackley - Muskegon
  • Holland Hospital - Holland
  • Lakeland Hospital St. Joseph - St. Joseph
  • Lakeland Hospital Niles - Niles
  • Mercy Health Saint Mary's - Grand Rapids
  • Metro Health Hospital - Wyoming
  • MidMichigan Medical Center - Midland
  • Munson Medical Center - Traverse City
  • North Ottawa Community Hospital - Grand Haven
  • Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital - Grand Rapids
  • Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial Hospital - Fremont
  • Spectrum Health Zeeland Community Hospital - Zeeland

Cord blood donation is easy, free, and painless. It doesn’t affect the birthing process. Rather than throwing away the umbilical cord as medical waste, donate and you could help to save someone’s life!