Posted on 12/10/2018 7:35:37 AM PST by GIdget2004
The Supreme Court Monday rebuffed efforts by states to block funding to Planned Parenthood.
It left in place two lower court opinions that said that states violate federal law when they terminate Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood affiliates who offer preventive care for low income women.
It would have taken four justices to agree to hear the issue, and only three conservative justices -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch -- voted to hear the case.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared to side with the court's liberals in not taking up the case -- showing an effort to avoid high-profile abortion-related issues for now.
Roberts and Kavanaugh "likely have serious objections," said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law. "But such votes seem to be a signal that they would rather avoid contentious, high-profile disputes for now, at least where possible."
The case concerned whether states can block Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood affiliates that provide such women with annual health screens, contraceptive coverage and cancer screening.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Planned Parenthood’s 2016-2017 annual report: says its affiliates performed 321,384 abortions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2016.
It also says Planned Parenthood received $543.7 million in government money in the year that ended on June 30, 2017 —
Planned Parenthood takes money from federal taxpayers primarily through Medicaid and the Title X Family Planning Program.
In 2012, according to a Government Accountability Office analysis cited by the Congressional Research Service in a May 2017 report, Planned Parenthood affiliates received “$400.56 million in Medicaid reimbursements (including both federal and state dollars)” and “$64.35 million in Title X funding.”
SCJ Thomas rebuttal:
“But these cases are not about abortion rights,” he continued. “They are about private rights of action under the Medicaid Act. Resolving the question presented here would not even affect Planned Parenthood’s ability to challenge the States’ decisions.”
“Some tenuous connection to a politically fraught issue does not justify abdicating our judicial duty,” Thomas concluded.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-1492_g3bi.pdf
Credit where credit is due, GWB knocked it out of the park with Justice Thomas.
This isn’t really a ruling at all. It is just the Court declining to resolve a circuit split on whether you can bring a 1983 suit over Medicaid funding. To the extent it is a “ruling,” it means that if you live in some parts of the country, you can sue state officials if you don’t like how they spend Medicaid dollars, and in other parts of the country you cannot.
Reprinted with permission from NewsBusters.
July 31, 2015 (NewsBusters) -- In response to a series of incriminating under-cover videos from The Center for Medical Progress about the major abortion provider, organizations have been cutting ties -- or denying ties -- to Planned Parenthood. But where nonprofits are concerned, tax records keep the story straight. Between 2010 and 2013, no fewer than 966 individual organizations donated to Planned Parenthood. Of those, 31 gave more than $1 million each during those four years, totaling $374,199,059. The seven highest donors made up $324.8 million of that.
These largest Planned Parenthood donors include Warren Buffett, George Soros, Bill Gates, and others. A summary of the top seven funders follows.
<><><>>The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation -- $230,915,706---Warren Buffett’s Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation is by far the largest donor to Planned Parenthood in America. The President and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway gave a total of $231 million to Planned Parenthood between 2010 and 2013. That’s over ten times as much as the next largest donor. What’s more, Buffett’s contributions comprised over one fourth of Planned Parenthood’s private donations in 2013.
Buffett has always been tight-lipped about his abortion support and channels most of the money through the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after Buffett’s late wife, who was a strong supporter of abortion. The Foundation’s staff has ties to Planned Parenthood as well. Tracy Weitz, the Director of Domestic Programs at the Foundation, served as the manager of a San Francisco based Planned Parenthood for six years.
<><><>The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation -- $22,827,000 ---The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has a long history of funding Planned Parenthood. Grant records starting in 2001 show millions of dollars in donations to Planned Parenthood’s “Population” program. In the four years from 2010 to 2013, the Hewlett Foundation gave $22.8 million to Planned Parenthood. The Planned Parenthood support is part of Hewlett’s larger Global Development and Population Program, which claims to “expand women’s choices about whether to have children.”
Hewlett is one of the core organizing groups for the 2015 International Conference on Family Planning. In 2013, Hewlett was listed as a Core Donor and in 2011 as a Sponsor. The conference promotes population control through abortion and contraception. Planned Parenthood, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation have also been part of each conference’s International Steering Committee since 2009.
In mid 2014, Hewlett Packard hired Christine Clark, a previous Planned Parenthood employee, as a Program Officer in the Global Development and Population Program.
<><><>Open Society Institute -- $18,350,000 ----Liberal billionaire George Soros is the third largest donor to Planned Parenthood. His Open Society Institute gave $18.4 million to the abortion giant. In 2011 alone, Open Society pledged to give Planned Parenthood $20 million over a four-year period. The grant was specifically to build centers in the “south and southeast regions” of the U.S. There are staff connections between Open Society Foundations and Planned Parenthood as well. David Berry, the Senior Communications Officer at Open Society, and Magda Ali, an Advisory Board Member were both previously employed by Planned Parenthood. Eric Ferrero, the current Vice President of Communications at Planned Parenthood, was previously employed as the Deputy Director of U.S. Programs at Open Society Foundations.
<><><> The David and Lucile Packard Foundation -- $14,691,659 --- Planned Parenthood’s “Population and Reproductive Health” program is near and dear to The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Of the $14.7 million they gave between 2010 and 2013, nearly all went to that single program. Since 2013, The Packard Foundation has added another $1.5 million in donations to Planned Parenthood - bringing their total financial support to $16.2 million since 2010. The Packard Foundation’s own Population and Reproductive Health program seeks to “stabilize population growth,” among other things. Subprograms within that program include promoting abortions in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the United States.
Packard has also partnered with Planned Parenthood in the International Conference on Family Planning. Previous Planned Parenthood employees now working at the Packard Foundation include Lisa Dacey, Program Operations Manager for the Population and Reproductive Health program; and Felicia Madsen, Communications Director.
<><> Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- $14,521,748 --- In December 2014, Melinda Gates attempted to argue that her foundation only supported the contraception element of Planned Parenthood - not the abortion side. Unfortunately for her argument, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was the fifth largest Planned Parenthood donor between 2010 and 2013 -- giving over $14.5 million. Abortion’s biggest funder -- Warren Buffett -- is also a Gates Foundation trustee, and helps “shape and develop strategies” for the Foundation. Buffett is also a large contributor to the Gates Foundation.The Foundation has also been heavily involved in supporting and sponsoring each International Conference on Family Planning.
Like the other major Planned Parenthood donors, The Gates Foundation has also hired previous Planned Parenthood employees. A non-exhaustive list includes Clarissa Brundage, Associate Program Officer for Family Planning; Emily Lockwood, Program Officer; Mariah Richardson, Associate Program Officer for Global Policy & Advocacy; and Meg DeRonghe, Senior Program Officer for Global Policy & Advocacy. Laura Tolosa-Leiva, Program Assistant, is so on the Board of Advocates for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands.
<><><>Ford Foundation -- $13,486,250--- The liberal Ford Foundation (not associated with Ford Motors) has one of the most direct and strong connections to Planned Parenthood. Not only did the Ford Foundation given $13.5 million to Planned Parenthood between 2010 and 2013, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s own president, Cecile Richards, is on the Ford Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Similar to the other organizations who fund Planned Parenthood, The Ford Foundation has its own Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive Justice program which promotes the idea that “sexuality and the right to reproductive health are fundamental to the human experience.” Since 2013, the Ford Foundation has donated another $1.4 million dollars -- bringing their total Planned Parenthood support to $14.9 million.
<><><>Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program -- $10,031,210--- The last group which gave over $10 million is the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program. Unlike the six other largest donors, Vanguard is a donor-driven fund, meaning that individual donors -- not Vanguard -- chose Planned Parenthood as the recipient of their money. Donors who give to Planned Parenthood through Vanguard have the option of giving anonymously, therefore the actual sources of the $10 million Planned Parenthood donations are impossible to find.
Together, these top seven funders gave Planned Parenthood a total of $324.8 million between 2010 and 2013.
================================
Organizations that gave Planned Parenthood more than $1 million in 2010-2013 include:
The Huber Foundation $6,200,000
The Educational Foundation of America $3,478,800
The JPB Foundation $3,323,993
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $2,900,000
Dyson Foundation $2,463,000
George D. Smith Fund, Inc. $2,200,000
Houston Endowment Inc. $2,200,000
The Grove Foundation $2,164,500
The Holland Foundation $2,055,000
James and Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation $1,985,000
Tulsa Community Foundation $1,951,296
Peierls Foundation $1,848,600
The Perot Foundation $1,780,000
Boston Foundation, Inc. $1,779,300
The California Wellness Foundation $1,550,000
The Minneapolis Foundation $1,509,142
The New York Community Trust $1,456,450
The Offield Family Foundation $1,350,000
F. M. Kirby Foundation, Inc. $1,325,000
Erik E. and Edith H. Bergstrom Foundation $1,316,676
The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation $1,200,000
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Inc. $1,140,000
Weingart Foundation $1,132,600
Greater Kansas City Community Foundation $1,066,129
Reprinted with permission from NewsBusters.
2004 BACKSTORY
In February 2004, then-US Senate candidate Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, sent a fund-raising letter with the “alarming news” that “right-wing politicians” had passed a law stopping doctors from performing p/b abortions (stabbing half-born babies in the neck with scissors, suctioning out their brains and crushing their skulls).
Michelle Obama considers partial-birth abortion “a legitimate medical procedure,” and asked supporters for $150 to attend a luncheon for her candidate husband, b/c he would fight against “cynical ploys” to stop p/b sbortions.
(NOTE: nurses at an Illinois hospital in 1999 discovered babies were being aborted alive and placed on shelves in soiled utility rooms to die unattended.)
BACKGROUND Legislation was presented on the federal level and in various states called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. It stated all live-born babies were guaranteed the same constitutional right to equal protection, whether or not they were wanted.
BAIPA sailed through the U.S. Senate by unanimous vote. Even Sens. Clinton, Kennedy and Kerry agreed a mother’s right to “choose” stopped at her baby’s delivery. The bill also passed overwhelmingly in the US House.
NARAL went neutral on it. Abortion enthusiasts publicly agreed that fighting BAIPA would appear extreme. President Bush signed BAIPA into law in 2002.
But in Obama’s Illinois, the state version of BAIPA repeatedly failed, thanks in large part to then-state Sen. Barack Obama. It only passed in 2005, after Obama left. Obama articulately asserted that legislation protecting live aborted babies might infringe on women’s rights or abortionists’ rights (The very same judicial reasoning used to approve dismemberment of aborted babies).
In 2003, as chairman of the next state Senate committee to which BAIPA was sent, Obama stopped it from even getting a hearing, shelving it to die much like babies were still being shelved to die in Illinois hospitals and abortion chambers.
(NOTE As chair of that same committee, state Sen Obama once abruptly ended a hearing early, right before the parents of six children killed as a result of Illinois’ drivers licenses-for-bribes scandal, were to testify in favor of Choose Life.)
This is basic violation of human rights for the unborn and just-born. It is also a blatant usurpation of power FROM the States and the People by an out-of-control judiciary.
Do we have another Souter here? Recall that the reason he ruled in favor of the unions was for “Labor Peace”. Where is that in the Constitution?
Kavanaugh is probably scared to death the crazy commies will harm him and his family if he votes to stop the baby murders and body-parts industry. And that is probably true.
If he doesn’t have the courage to uphold the Constitution, he should have never accepted the nomination. He should resign. He took the OATH. A man who can not stand by his oath is not a man.
#SabotagedAgain
#GodHelpUs
that’s why they did it. looks like it worked.
There’s not a federal obligation that the feds send such money at all.
If it’s in the courts, then it has to be.
...
False. Courts routinely handle cases that aren’t constitutional, including the Supreme court. The Supreme court is the highest appeals court for federal law.
I must disagree. Judicial philosophy is the most important factor. I am sure even you would say that Justice Clarence Thomas, a Catholic, is about a hundred times better than Harriet Miers, whose main qualification was being a born-again Christian, would ever be. And, as this very case shows, a Mainline Protestant - Justice Gorsuch - may understand the Constitution too.
“states violate federal law when they terminate Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood affiliates “
and therein lies the win? just don’t have contracts with Murder Inc. to begin with
It says the States are violating Federal Law. The only way to fix it is to change Federal Law.
It isn’t about Planned Parenthood. The Federal Government is to blame for this crap.
As it is, the USSC only takes 1% - 2% of the cases appealed to it each year (this particular case was one of the others), and they are still bogged down. I’m not sure if 9 Justices is enough, even with all of their staff, to handle the cases that come from 325 million people and the businesses associated with them.
I wouldn’t mind it if Trump would be given the authority to name, say, 10 more Justices so that there’d be 19. :>) Short of that, we’re kind of stuck with the present system.
Instead of being a part time court, they should go year round, get their “opinions” written and publish closer to the respective hearing and take twice as many cases.
Besides, Traitor Roberts is alleged to be in charge of the FISA Court(s) which need a thorough investigation, reforms and likely some Judges fired for allowing fraud.
“Judicial philosophy is the most important factor.”
Correct. And what determines Judicial philosophy?
Background, education and religious values. The understanding that a Civil Right cannot be a Moral Wrong.
Possibly, yeah. Some Republicans have an innate desire to get good press clippings, so they throw their own side under the bus. Although, I’ll say Kavanaugh’s position on abortion was my biggest concern when Trump picked him. I ended up supporting him because they tried to destroy his character. This doesn’t surprise me.
So to John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh abortion “rights” trump States Rights.
Spit.
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