US House votes to defund Planned Parenthood, but not without controversy

CNA ^ | Washington D.C., Oct 23, 2015 | Matt Hadro

[GonzoII]

Washington D.C., Oct 23, 2015 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid continuing controversy over fetal tissue harvesting at abortion clinics, the U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday to defund Planned Parenthood and to reroute funding to community health centers.

“Women have the most to gain from congressional action to reroute these tax dollars to community and rural health centers, which provide comprehensive health care services to women, but do not abort the lives of unborn children and harvest their body parts,” the pro-life political action committee the Susan B. Anthony List said Oct. 23.

The bill also guts key parts of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, including the repeal of the law’s individual health insurance mandate and the employer health insurance mandate. This ultimately drew the opposition of Democratic pro-lifers.

"We fully support reallocating Planned Parenthood’s Title X funding to the 13,000 community health centers and rural health care clinics,” said Kristen Day, president of Democrats for Life of America.

However, she objected that linking the defunding of Planned Parenthood to gutting the health care law “will cost votes and defeat the bipartisan effort to prevent federal funds from going to the largest abortion provider in the nation.”

The Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 passed the House Friday on a party line vote, 240-189. Only one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted for it.

The act is a budget reconciliation bill that temporarily blocks any mandatory funding of abortion providers while the House continues to investigate Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The bill would also block any Medicaid dollars from going to Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Planned Parenthood receives over $500 million in public funds per year. Most of this funding comes through Medicaid payments and funds from Title X, a federal health program for low-income Americans.

The House bill also invests $235 million into community health centers, touted by pro-life advocates as a women’s health care alternative to Planned Parenthood. For example, many federally qualified health centers offer mammograms that Planned Parenthood clinics do not.

These health centers do not perfrom abortions.

There are around 9,000 federally qualified health centers in the U.S. that serve almost 23 million patients yearly, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List. There are also 4,000 rural health centers across the country.

Planned Parenthood has become embroiled in controversy after the release of a series of undercover investigative video reports by the citizen journalist group Center for Medical Progress. They showed Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the offering of fetal body parts of aborted babies to harvesters for compensation.

The series of videos showed Planned Parenthood doctors in California, Colorado, and Texas discussing how clinics partnered with different tissue harvesters.

Those producing the videos claimed the transactions were illegal under laws that allow only a “reasonable” compensation to cover operational expenses incurred in fetal tissue harvesting.

Planned Parenthood has denied that it broke any laws and accepted illegal compensation. The organization has announced that it would no longer accept any compensation for fetal tissue from harvesters.

Kristen Day said that support for Planned Parenthood funding declines “once people know the truth, that Planned Parenthood will continue to harvest body parts from aborted babies.”

In a Reuters poll released in August, support for federal funding of Planned Parenthood fell 20 percentage points after poll respondents heard a description of the videos.

About 54 percent of respondents initially supported federal funding of Planned Parenthood. According to the Reuters poll, after respondents heard about the videos only 34 percent said federal funding should continue. Another 39 percent backed an end to government funding.

Chuck Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, argued that even if Planned Parenthood clinics close because of lack of funding, the federal health centers will easily handle an influx of their clients.

At present, federally qualified health centers serve almost 23 million people per year, while Planned Parenthood serves under three million, Donovan said. If the organization lost its federal money and a proportional number of clinics had to close, the federal health centers could still easily handle the influx of women patients, he continued.

Also on Friday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the members of a special panel to investigate Planned Parenthood. Two House committees have already launched separate investigations into the organization but have not concluded that it took part in illegal activity.

The Select Investigative Panel includes Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Vicki Hartzler (R-Mo.), and Mia Love (R-Utah).

Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser praised the panel, saying it includes “all-star” pro-life members.

“This select panel is an encouraging restart to an investigative process that is long overdue,” she said. “We are encouraged to see such passionate and articulate pro-life women and men – including doctors and a nurse – lead the charge to expose the abortion industry’s exploitative practices.”

[rawcatslyentist]

Praise God!

[Crazieman]

Show of hands for people who think we can live in harmony with disgusting freaks that are fine with dismembered babies shipped around the country for research.

One nation, right?

[scooby321]

wow

[fatnotlazy]

I don’t think this will go far. The king will veto it and then Congress will once again fold.

[exnavy]

Washington city is awakening from its liberal slumber?

[jsanders2001]

Don’t celebrate yet. The kickback scheme will probably be repurposed and called something else with them still getting the funding.

[Vinnie]

Only one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted for it.

By MSM standards that makes it bi-partisan support.

[Tupelo]

Obama vetoing it?

this is just another bill that will be D.O.A in the Senate.
Do any of you out there think Harry Reid will allow it’s passage? Hell, I seriously doubt he will allow it to get out of committee. If it gets that far.

[Liz]

Remember when the "kind-hearted and compassionate" Clintons (Bill
was then-President) assured us that abortion would be "safe, legal and rare?"

============================================

Oops. The kindly Clintons plumb "forgot" to mention that they
themselves opened the gates so that Planned Parenthood could traffic
(and profit) in baby body parts.

(EXCERPT--WND.COM). Then-Pres Clinton is credited w/ opening up the market in fetal body parts. Since Clinton signed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993, “fetal-tissue research” has expanded into a federally subsidized multi-million dollar industry of selling human spare parts salvaged from abortions.

For example, the NIH budgeted $21 million in fiscal year 1999 for grants and awards for fetal tissue research. At the University of Washington, the NIH subsidizes the central laboratory for human embryology.

According to a lab notice obtained by WorldNetDaily, it “can supply tissue from normal or abnormal embryos and fetuses of desired gestational ages between 40 days to term. Specimens are obtained within minutes of passage, and tissues are aseptically identified, staged, and immediately processed according to the requirements of individual investigators.” The notice is signed by Alan G. Fantel of the department of pediatrics.

At the time, two organizations that profited from this growth industry were (the now defunct) Opening Lines, a business formerly located in West Frankfort, Illinois...... and Anatomic Gift Foundation, headquartered in Laurel, Maryland.

Opening Lines gives credit to President Clinton for opening up the lucrative business in fetal tissue trade.

According to Opening Lines, on January 22, 1993, Clinton lifted the moratorium on federal funding. “This action created a great demand for fetal tissue and has made possible the development of treatments for individuals afflicted with serious diseases and disorders,” says the sales brochure.

Both companies served as wholesalers for the marketing of baby body parts to researchers, drug companies, hospitals and universities. These groups harvest the baby parts from abortion clinics and ship them to their customers.

Opening Lines provides fetal tissue researchers with a “fee for service schedule,” which gives prices for each body part. For example, Opening Lines charged:

<><> $150 for a spinal column;

<><> $400 for an intact embryonic cadaver;

<><>$75 for 8-week-old baby's eyeballs (40% discount for a single eye);

<><>$150 for two arms or legs; and,

<><> $100 for the skin of a 12-week-old baby.

[Liz]

The "public-spirited" Hillary--not content w/ having
eight years in the WH---is now running for president.

Hillary's latest campaign salvo is true to the
credo of the Democrat Party: keeping the snarling
abortion worshippers at bay by upping the political
ante at every election cycle.

"A vote for me is a vote for a Fully-Fornicating Society.
I pledge non-stop aggression over the unborn.
I will end the punishment of an unwanted birth.
Science will benefit from aborted baby body parts."

===========================================

The genital-sniffing Planned Parenthood abortion worshippers who populate the Dem party are crazy over the Clintons......Bill and Hillary are the living breathing embodiment of The Fully-Fornicating Society w/ none of the evidence of sexual activity.....the "nuisance" of an actual child being born.

Bill gives sex-obsessed lefties a vicarious thrill....visions of the married, gray-haired Clinton getting a young WH intern to crawl under his desk to give him a BJ is better than Viagra.

=================================================

(Groan) God only knows what blood, gore and baby body parts Hillary will throw the genital-sniffing rubbermaids to assure them "her aggression over the unborn" will continue...and is her prime interest.

Maybe Hillary will distribute videos of politically-correct abortions that produce more profit-making baby body parts----as the true measure of her abortion worship?

[Liz]

(PIC lifenews.com)

The daughter of Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards (her mother is former Texas gov Ann Richards), has worked on a number of pro-abortion campaigns and is currently helping out her mother’s friend, Hillary Clinton.

Politico reports that Lily Adams joined the Clinton campaign last spring as Iowa’s press secretary. Adams is Richards’ oldest daughter and she previously worked as the Deputy Communications Director for the DNC. (more at lifenews.com)

[Liz]

LIFENEWS.COM REPORTED: On August 14th, StemExpress cut all ties to Planned Parenthood after a sixth video was released featuring their former employee, Holly O’Donnell. O’Donnell is a licensed phlebotomist who unsuspectingly took a job as a “procurement technician” at StemExpress in late 2012.

In the video, she explains how Planned Parenthood worked with Stem Express to procure fetal body parts and pressured patients into “donating” their aborted babies to research. However, she also said that sometimes Planned Parenthood employee’s harvested aborted babies’ organs without their patients consent.

Additionally, O’Donnell said that her supervisors instructed her on how to approach women at Planned Parenthood. They said that procuring organs was not “an option,” it was “a demand.” O’Donnell elaborated, “If there was a higher gestation, and the technicians needed it, there were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”

In fact, one time O’Donnell’s colleague told her she had to procure organs even if she couldn’t get the woman’s consent. She said, “You have to make sure you get her.” O’Donnell said, “I’m not going to tell a girl to kill her baby just to get money,” and that’s what this company does. Straight up. That’s what [Planned Parenthood] does.”

=============================================

DEMAND THAT L/E INVESTIGATE STEM EXPRESS AT ONCE

Crimes might include--colluding w/ the tax-funded Planned Parenthood in govt fraud, conspiracy, collusion, falsifying official documents (a felony), filing falsified documents, money laundering, tax evasion, extortion, theft, misuse of public facilities, etc etc etc.

EMAIL---FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov

EMAIL--enforcement@SEC.gov

Contact the IRS Fraud Unit

EMAIL Banking oversight agencies

============================================

The Bank Secrecy Act should be mobilized----to follow the paper trail and determine how Planned Parenthood's tax revenue was dispersed. How tax revenue changed hands into Stem Express....determine the scope and dimension of collusion in sub rosa deals and govt agencies dispersing tax revenue to P/P body parts factory might be personally profiting.

<><> L/E needs to examine Stem Express and Planned Parenthood bank accounts.

<><> Joint bank accounts might be used to facilitate the transfer of funds from one account to another, and/or wire-transferred offshore;

<><> To cover-up the body parts wrongdoing, fake invoices might be created to show that money deposited into official accounts was being used for legitimate purposes.

<><> Financial schemes scheme might be advanced by issuing phony statements of payments from financial sources that covered-up the transfer of tax funds from govt agencies to Stem Express, for insiders' personal use, and/or for body parts redistribution schemes.

===============================================

NOTE WELL Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering and other financial crimes. “The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted to protect the public from harm by identifying and detecting money laundering from criminal enterprises, terrorism, tax evasion or other unlawful activities,” the special agent in charge for Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, explained.

Shady banking transactions could be prosecuted under the (1) Bank Secrecy ACT, (2) RICO, and, (3) the Hobbs Act.

=============================================

<><> L/E should get ahold of: (1) copies of Stem Express checks, (2) wire transfers, (3) account statements, (4) invoices, (5) bills, (6) delivery tickets, (7) correspondence including snail mail, e-mail, mobile devices, cell phones, (8) contracts, (9) loan agreements, (10) other account books or official records.

L/E should also explore (a) monies Stem Express paid to brokers, sub-brokers, (b) family members, (c) mortgage brokers, (d) financial managers, and, (e) real estate agents, brokers, and developers.

<><> L/E should scrutinize bank accounts for suspicious activites: (A) large deposits, (B) funds transferred from one account into another, (C) frequent requests for withdrawals.

==========================================

MOST IMPORTANTLY--- taxpayers demand to know the full extent of the financial connection among Stem Express, Planned Parenthood's harvesting operations, and the Clinton Foundation.

[Liz]

The tax-funded Planned Parenthood organization sees young women as little more than commodities. PP uses young women to score federal funds for their nefarious activities and to gain access to profit-making aborted baby body parts.

KEEP IN MIND---under the guise of "Family Life education--- PP is in our schools K-12 brainwashing youngsters into the PP evil.

WE DEMAND Congress determine the percentage of women who received PP birth control measures who then return for PP abortions. We demand to know if PP is giving out faulty birth control to sexually active women as the MO to force them back, abort them, in order to gain access to baby body parts for profit.

[stevem]

This is exactly where any House leader out of diapers can and has to win, even with a closed (ahem!) Federal Government.

The House simply needs to pass the same bill, again and again, until hell freezes over and send it back.

Any congressional leader who can't sell to the citizens what they already know, that the government is waging war on them, should do us all a favor and follow Boehner. He or she can also state the obvious, "We didn't shut the doors. Obama did. Go ask him why."

[Travis McGee]