Free Republic

The Inspector General of the Treasury reported this week that the IRS began applying extra scrutiny and conducting harassment of Obama administration opponents as early as March 2010. However, for at least two pro-life groups, that scrutiny appears to have started a year earlier. Joel Gehrke reports that one group was told its tax-exempt application depended not on promising to stay out of electoral politics, but on pledging not to protest Planned Parenthood — a prominent supporter of Barack Obama: IRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according...

COLUMBUS, Ohio, —In the wake of the mushrooming IRS scandal, it was learned today that the widening circle of pro-life leadership hit with attempted harassment and intimidation by the IRS has included at least two members of the officers and board members of Pharmacists For Life International (PFLI). PFLI disclosed today that at least two of its officers and board members have been subjected to ongoing harassment and intimidation attempts by the IRS through continued and costly nuisance audits and threatening letters over a period of months and years. The two, who are not being identified at present, have generally...

The scandal involving IRS discrimination against conservative groups is growing. In one case LifeNews has profiled, a pro-life group was told it had to promote abortion. Now, the Thomas More Society is speaking out about blatant bias by the supposedly apolitical tax-collection agency. The pro-life legal group informed LifeNews today that cases it handled support mounting accusations that demonstrate the agency’s abuse of pro-life organizations, in addition to those identified as ‘tea party’, ‘patriot’, or ‘government spending’ groups. Outrage spurred by recent revelations of IRS discrimination against these groups has also led the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to...

CHICAGO, May 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life legal firm is speaking out against what it perceives as blatant bias by the Internal Revenue Service. ... In one case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa. In a phone call to Coalition for Life of Iowa leaders on June 6, 2009, the IRS agent “Ms. Richards” told the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board’s signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside...