An untold story today following yesterday’s Pennsylvania primaries is what a bad, bad night it was for Planned Parenthood.

In Pennsylvania’s 134th House district, they spent an eye-popping $100,000 on a TV ad campaign trying to sink the candidacy of Republican Ryan Mackenzie by linking him to ultrasound legislation that was before the legislature.

As Politico noted, this was seen as a trial-balloon of sorts:

Read More →

Last week—very quietly—America’s abortion giant released its 2009-2010 Annual Report.

A few sickening statistics from the report:

• Planned Parenthood reported receiving $487 million in taxpayer funding. That means taxpayer funding makes up nearly half (46%) of Planned Parenthood’s revenue.
• For the first time ever, Planned Parenthood has topped one billion ($1,009,600,000) in total net assets.

What are taxpayers getting for their buck?

• 329,445 abortions, making up 91% of Planned Parenthood’s services to pregnant women. Of the three million people that walked through the doors of a Planned Parenthood clinic, one out of 12 received an abortion.
• 31,098 prenatal services for women, making up just 8.6% of overall services to pregnant woman.
• 841 adoption referrals, a mere 0.2% of services to pregnant women. (This number continues to drop. In 2008, PP reported 2,405 adoption referrals).

It is an outrage that with over a billion dollars in assets, Planned Parenthood continues to rely on the taxpayer’s dime to increase its bottom line (PP reported a $18.5 million profit). Fortunately, for the majority of Americans that want OUT of the abortion business, there is good news.

Following the February 2011 release of Live Action’s undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood employees caught in the act of aiding and abetting alleged child-traffickers, momentum has only grown in the fight to expose the abortion giant:

… An unprecedented effort by statewide and federal leaders to defund them.

… Uniform agreement amongst Republican presidential candidates that they should be defunded.

… A wave of former employees willing to testify against them. And a groundbreaking congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood initiated by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).

But we must keep up the pressure. Please start the year off right by taking action immediately.

Take Action: Tell your Representative to Defund Planned Parenthood and Support the Stearns Investigation

After word broke that the Supreme Court agreed to take up the challenge to Obama’s health care law, the political left and right went into full swing trying to dig up reasons opposing justices should recuse him or herself for this decision; and Judicial Watch hit the mother lode.

Judicial Watch, a non-partisan organization, which claims as its mission to “promote transparency, accountability and integrity in government,” has uncovered emails sent between Elena Kagan, at the time solicitor general, and then-Senior Counselor for Access to Justice, Larry Tribe, regarding passage of the health care law.

In the emails, Kagan writes,

“I hear they have the votes Larry!! Simply amazing.”

As a result of the clear bias and closeness Kagan has to the outcome of Obamacare becoming the law of the land, demands for her to recuse herself from the bench during this case has, rightly, begun.

However, I and many other leaders in the pro-life movement, see another case to be made regarding the effect these email exchanges should have on the debate about Obamacare.

In response, to Kagan’s celebratory email, Tribe writes,

“So healthcare is basically done! Remarkable. And with the Stupak group accepting the magic of what amounts to a signing statement on steroids!”

As a reminder, then-congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI), united several other self-described “pro-life” Democrats committed to voting against the health care legislation because it lacked necessary language prohibiting federal funding from paying for abortions. However, President Obama issued an Executive Order, claiming it would prohibit such funds from being allocated; Stupak and his coalition succumb to the story they were told, and signed onto the bill. This is the “magic” Tribe refers to.

Since passage of the health care take over, the debate has raged on. Pro-abortion groups and lawmakers still claim the Order closes loopholes that would allow public funds to pay for abortions – despite their insistence from the beginning that no such loophole exists. Pro-life groups and their supporters point to a number of statements by public officials that the Executive Order will not prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion, or as Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO), Co-Chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus put it, the Order, “doesn’t change anything.”

As if the ongoing debate on an issue that seems pretty cut and dry weren’t enough, the Susan B. Anthony List has actually been drawn into a defamation lawsuit by former congressman Steve Driehaus (D-OH) for “loss of livelihood.”

In 2010, we launched an education campaign in his district to inform voters of congressman Driehaus’ vote for taxpayer-funded abortion through Obamacare. Driehaus claimed we lied about his vote, and an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled the case should go to trial. Despite the mounting evidence supporting our claim and a recent vote by the House of Representative to codify into law the prohibition the Executive Order does not provide, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending ourselves against this attack when, it seems, all along we could have just asked Elena Kagan and Larry Tribe to testify on our behalf.

The Executive Order was just “magic” designed to give pro-life Democrats political cover to vote for a bill that allows for federal funding of abortion.

Enjoy.

See the facts and join the fight at www.TurnOffTheMusic.com.

One week ago today, the SBA List launched its Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

So far, five presidential candidates have taken the pledge: Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, and Tim Pawlenty.

Two candidates declined to sign the pledge: Mitt Romney and Herman Cain. While it’s been reported that Jon Huntsman doesn’t sign pledges, we’re giving him until next Wednesday until we count him as an official ‘no.’

While these facts have been widely reported, little has been written about the Citizen’s Pledge, which so far has attracted nearly 10,000 signatures.

I’m asking RedState readers to help us get to 15,000 signatures today.

Here’s why it’s so important.

By signing the Citizen’s Pledge, one pledges to “only support candidates for President who are committed to protecting Life.” What does that mean? Only supporting presidential candidates who have taken the pledge.

The Citizen’s Pledge is our leverage. It is how we’ll reach our goal of getting every single Republican candidate to sign.

Take the pledge for unborn children to help us reach 15,000 voices for the voiceless.

This is about saving unborn babies. Human lives are at stake. With 4,000 lives lost each day to abortion (and that many women wounded), lip service is not enough – we need concrete action, especially after all the damage inflicted upon unborn children by the most pro-abortion president in history, Barack Obama.

Join the Fight for Life today. Sign the Pledge.

From the diaries…

Later this afternoon, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3) will hit the floor of the House of Representatives.

This bipartisan bill — co-sponsored by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) — establishes a permanent, government-wide prohibition on federal funding for abortion, prohibits federal subsidies for health plans that include abortion, and strengthens conscience protections for health care professionals.

Please take just a minute to send your Representative a quick message urging them to vocally support this critical, common sense bill that gets taxpayers out of the abortion business.

Why is this bill so critical? Each and every year, many restrictions on taxpayer funding of abortion such as the Hyde Amendment expire, meaning our pro-life leaders in Congress have to fight hard to get them passed again and again. Furthermore, the Hyde Amendment does not cover new programs created by Obamacare. This bill creates a ban on federal subsides for health care plans that cover abortion.

To learn more about the Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, please check out this great letter circulated by our 17 wonderful pro-life women in the 112th Congress, led by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH).

Also, please take a moment to watch the video message below from my good friend, Rep. Chris Smith, a chief sponsor of the bill and co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus.

From the diaries by Leon…

The Washington Post is reporting that talks between Speaker Boehner, Senator Reid, and President Obama have stalled over taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and efforts to weaken the EPA:

Congressional negotiators working through the night on a budget deal largely agreed to an amount of spending cuts, but their talks were stymied by two Republican policy provisions on abortion and the environment, increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown beginning this weekend, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday morning.

Reid is digging in his heels, committed to shutting down the government rather then cut taxpayer funding of America’s abortion giant:

“It’s not realistic to shut down the government on a debate dealing with abortion,” Reid said. “It’s not fair to the American people. We haven’t solved the issue in 40 years. We’re not going to solve it in the next 38 hours. We should not be distracted by ideology. This is a bill that funds the government.”

This comes on the same day as Planned Parenthood is busing in activists from all across the nation for a giant rally and lobbying day on Capitol Hill, complete with speeches from politicians and celebrities.

Your Representative needs to hear from you right now. House Republicans must stand strong and demand that Planned Parenthood is defunded of our tax dollars. Data shows that the more taxpayer funding Planned Parenthood receives, the more abortions it performs.

Read More →

Planned Parenthood took out a full-page ad in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal featuring an op-ed written by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife entitled, “Why Conservatives Should Oppose Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood.”

His arguments fall on deaf ears in conservative circles.

Not only is defunding Planned Parenthood of the hundreds of millions of tax dollars it receives annually the number one priority of social conservatives, but 29 fiscal groups led by Americans for Tax Reform have come out in favor of the effort as well. So have ten of the prospective 2012 GOP presidential candidates.

But regardless, Scaife’s column contains so many half-truths it warrants a response.

Read More →

From the diaries by Leon…

There is no better testament to why Planned Parenthood must be defunded than the account of a former insider — Abby Johnson — whose life work is to serve women and saw first-hand how it exploits them.

She found out the hard way that Planned Parenthood hides its true mission and deceives the public about its health services.

If this Congress cannot find the moral courage to relieve taxpayers of the burden this scandal-plagued organization places upon them, it is not serious about budget reform.

The TV ad above will begin airing on DC-area cable tomorrow through Thursday, April 7th. It was produced by the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund and co-sponsored by American Values, CatholicVote.org Education Fund, and Catholic Advocate.

From the diaries by Neil. A strong, simple message that can’t really be said enough.

At a press conference today, President Obama said,

“You know, if Republicans are interested in social issues that they want to promote, they should put a bill on the floor of the House and promote it, have an up-or-down vote, send it over to the Senate. But don’t try to use the budget as a way to promote a political or ideological agenda.”

President Obama is wrong.

During a time of fiscal crisis, everything should be on the table for spending cuts, especially an embattled, scandal-ridden corporation like Planned Parenthood. There must be no sacred cows.

Read More →