Planned Parenthood

New at Live Action – Are Women Considering Abortion Informed? Not if Planned Parenthood Can Help It

Calvin Freiburger abortion, dishonesty, Live Action, Planned Parenthood, pregnancy, propaganda
My latest Live Action post:
How well informed are abortion seekers? We may not be able to know their minds or experiences, but we can certainly know whether those doing the informing are being honest, fair, and candid with them (spoiler alert: they’re not).
Live Action has caught at least three Planned Parenthood clinics giving their patients inaccurate medical information about their babies and pregnancies, misleading women on when heartbeats can be detected, abortion’s medical downside, whether eight-week-old fetuses had limbs and brains, and whether the name “baby” is applicable. “But wait,” you say, “you can’t judge an entire organization according to a few bad apples!”
Very well. Let’s see if Planned Parenthood’s official material fares any better.
The Q&A section on their website, written by obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Vanessa Cullins, is a treasure trove of pro-abortion talking points, but the biggest whopper is the way it absurdly and falsely pretends “baby” is an inaccurate term because “most medical authorities” don’t think it “becomes” a baby until “after birth when it takes its first breath.” Dr. Cullins apparently doesn’t think “most medical authorities” includes Mayo Clinic, WebMD, Johns Hopkins, or the federal Department of Health and Human Services, all of which refer to “babies” in the womb.
Read the rest at Live Action.
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New at Live Action – Is the WI Pro-Life Community to Blame for Planned Parenthood Arsonist?

Calvin Freiburger abortion, dishonesty, evil, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Live Action, Planned Parenthood, violence, Wisconsin

My latest Live Action post:

Francis Grady, the 50-year-old Wisconsin man who set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, is pleading guilty to his crime, bringing the mystery that began Sunday night to a relatively quick close:

The criminal complaint indicates police say Grady used a hammer to break a window, and poured gasoline from a plastic bottle to start the fire.
After being arrested, the complaint states Grady admitted to officers, “I lit up the clinic.”
His motive for what he did? He said “because they’re killing babies there.”

Talking Points Memo reports that authorities are now investigating whether Grady had any prior involvement with the Wisconsin pro-life movement:

Grand Chute Police Chief Greg Peterson said investigators in the case learned that Grady may have been involved in past protests at the office. The information was so far unconfirmed, Peterson said, but it is being looked at closely by the team of local and federal investigators handling the case.
“There was some indication that surfaced at some point that he has been involved in some of the demonstrations,” Peterson told TPM. But the chief described the information as coming from “someone who didn’t have direct knowledge,” so there was still more work to be done.

If Grady was passionate enough about abortion to attempt arson at an abortion clinic, then I’d be more surprised if he didn’t attend a pro-life demonstration or two. But the significance of that would be what, exactly? Whenever you attend any decent-sized rally or protest, odds are you’ll have in-depth interaction with only a few people.

Read the rest at Live Action.

New at Live Action – Michelle Obama Fails Women Victimized by Planned Parenthood

Calvin Freiburger abortion, feminism, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Live Action, Planned Parenthood
At Live Action, I have a new post on how the First Lady is helping pro-aborts pretend they have women’s best interests at heart:
Traditionally, the wives of Presidents use their role as First Lady of the United States to champion feel-good, relatively nonpartisan causes. Rosalynn Carter promoted the arts. Laura Bush spoke about reading. Current First Lady Michelle Obama’s cause has been encouraging healthy habits among children. But as Steven Ertelt reports, some of Mrs. Obama’s guests at a recent Women of Courage Award ceremony send a much darker message:
The award recipients were also invited to the White House event that commemorated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and recognizing March as Women’s History Month in the United States. However, the president of the national Planned Parenthood abortion business was there. Cecile Richards sent a message on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon that she was “Celebrating the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day at the White House with First Lady Michelle Obama.”
Read the rest here.

Some Inconvenient Truths About GOProud

Calvin Freiburger conservatism, demagogues, Don't Ask Don't Tell, federalism, gay marriage, GOProud, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Norquist, Planned Parenthood, social issues
With some high profile center-right bloggers outraged by the American Conservative Union’s decision not to continue gay Republican group GOProud’s sponsorship of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, it’s worth listing a few points about GOProud and CPAC the finger wavers should think about:
  1. GOProud’s position on marriage: “Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment.  Marriage should be a question for the states.  A federal constitutional amendment on marriage would be an unprecedented federal power grab from the states.” Deferring marriage policy to the states is a respectable (albeit mistaken, in my view) conservative position; referring to the marriage amendment as “anti-gay” is not.
  2. GOProud’s stated support for marriage federalism is highly misleading. The organization wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, falsely suggesting the law interferes with the right of the states to set marriage policy. DOMA is not a federal same-sex marriage ban, but merely a federal guarantee that individual states won’t be forced to recognize or adopt the marriage definitions of other states. What good is it for GOProud to say they support states’ rights on the issue if they want to leave the states defenseless against activist judges?
  3. GOProud doesn’t merely ignore social issues; they also actively demand that the rest of the conservative coalition abandons social issues too. In doing so they misrepresent how many Tea Partiers they speak for and denigrate the movement’s most conservative, loyal and long-standing members as “Washington insiders and special interest groups.”
  4. GOProud supported the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. But as those following the issue know, policymakers ignored the concerns of many servicemen and military officers in deciding what to do about DADT. Can any organization that doesn’t take seriously the military’s judgment in such matters truly call itself conservative?
  5. GOProud supports ending taxpayer funding for abortion, but punts on the main issue. It turns out GOProud president Chris Barron worked for Planned Parenthood as director of pro-choice outreach to Republicans. Barron says his time with PP was the “worst 2 months of my life,” yet it apparently wasn’t significant enough to change his position all that much: “he stopped supporting the Roe v Wade decision in early 2006, after this experience, ‘but beyond that don’t have strong feelings on abortion – not really involved in the process.’”
  6. Barron has also smeared longtime conservative activists Tony Perkins (Family Research Council president) and Cleta Mitchell (ACU board member) as “bigots,” and ridiculed those boycotting CPAC over GOProud’s involvement, including Sen. Jim DeMint and Concerned Women for America, as living on “the Island of Political Misfit Toys.” Barron did apologize to Mitchell, but not to the others. Not only has Barron shown his capacity for demonization, but he lacks the common sense and the humility to recognize that a newcomer to the Right, especially one with all the baggage listed above, doesn’t quite have the standing to pass judgment on the political relevance of the movement’s veterans.
  7. Barron isn’t the only GOProud bigwig with behavioral problems. In response to the National Organization for Marriage’s perfectly reasonable press release stating, “We welcome everyone’s right to participate in the democratic process, but we have a message for GOProud on marriage: If you try to elect pro-gay-marriage Republicans, we will Dede Scozzafava them,” LaSalvia threw a temper tantrum: “I just have a question for them: Who’s the pansy at CPAC? What wusses. Just come over. Don’t play nice if you’re not going to be nice.”
  8. Some critics have asked why the ACU is throwing out GOProud, but not Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, both of whom are disturbingly cozy with radical Islamists. That’s an excellent question, and the ACU should be confronted on it. Y’know what else is an excellent question? Why the people raising the question don’t notice that Norquist is also on GOProud’s advisory board. Are we to believe Norquist impairs the ACU’s reliability on national security and foreign policy, but not GOProud’s?
Everyone makes mistakes now and then, and prudent allies should be able to forgive one or two transgressions for the sake of their shared priorities. But with no less than eight serious marks against GOProud, it’s entirely reasonable to doubt the organization’s intentions and conservative credibility. CPAC made the right decision.

This article is cross-posted at RedState.com.

New on American Thinker – Pro-Abortion Columnist Says Philadelphia’s Dr. Death Thrived Because Abortions Aren’t Available Enough

Calvin Freiburger abortion, abortionists, American Thinker, crime, evil, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Obama, Planned Parenthood, pro-life
My latest commentary, posted at American Thinker:

Finding a pro-choice spin to the horrific charges against abortionist Kermit Gosnell — “eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors” — seems like an awfully tall order, but left-wing author Michelle Goldberg is going to give it a try anyway.


Her latest Daily Beast column opens by declaring that if Gosnell “is guilty of even a fraction of the carnage he’s been charged with, he should spend the rest of his life in prison,” but goes on to argue that not only is his office not representative of the average abortion clinic, but that his crimes actually demonstrate why abortion needs to be more widely available, more respected, and even subsidized:
“[T]he difference between this gruesome killing machine and a ‘safe’ clinic is aesthetics, really,” wrote Lori Ziganto in RedState.com. “There is no denying the horror of what was found in this ‘doctor’s’ office. But it happens in every abortion clinic across the land.”


She’s completely wrong. Gosnell’s clinic was in no way representative of most abortion facilities, which is why the country’s largest organization of abortion providers, the National Abortion Federation, refused him membership and testified against him to the grand jury.
That’s nice. But it misses the point, which would have been clear if Goldberg had quoted Ziganto’s next few sentences:
Sticking a scalpel in a baby’s neck in utero has the same result as sticking it in the neck with scissors outside the womb: Death.


In this case, people can visualize the actual babies, as they were horrifically kept in jars and bottles. In “safe” clinics, they are hidden away in haz-mat disposals or chopped up into tiny pieces before being sucked out of their mother’s womb and disposed of like trash. Hidden away, allowing people to blind themselves to what is actually happening. It is easier to remain blissfully ignorant and ignore the fact that a baby is a baby, in utero or out.
The “blood on the floor,” the “stench of urine fill[ing] the air,” the “cat feces on the stairs,” and the “[s]emi-conscious women” waiting “on dirty recliners covered with blood-stained blankets” may be unique horrors, but the other things that make Gosnell’s death den seem worse than a “nice, clean” abortion clinic are morally insignificant. If you’re stabbing a baby’s spinal cord, it doesn’t matter where the baby’s body is located. It doesn’t matter how you store or dispose of the remains. You still killed a child.


(Indeed, back in Illinois, President Barack Obama didn’t see the difference-he thought full-term babies should be equally killable before and after delivery…and if it was after, then their death-starvation-was guaranteed to be even slower.)
 

Around the Web

Calvin Freiburger abortion, capitalism, Chris Christie, college, conservatism, education, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Islamofascism, Maher, NewsReal, O'Reilly, philanthropy, Planned Parenthood, Tea Party

Chris Christie’s won the hearts of many conservatives for standing up to charlatans in the public education establishment, but does even he have a dark side? Maybe – Jonathan Tobin has the scoop on Christie’s recent judicial appointment of Sohail Mohammed, who has represented radical Islamists in the past. Consider this a shining example of why I say we shouldn’t be too quick to anoint standard-bearers.

“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn’t learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.” Surprised? Me neither.

My NRB colleague Walter Hudson explains how Twilight star Kristin Stewart’s plan to set up a halfway house network to help women escape prostitution is only possible because we let people get rich in this country. Love Twilight or hate it (I’ve neither read the books nor seen the movies), you’ve gotta give Stewart credit for this.

Also on NewsReal, Joseph Klein takes issue with Bill O’Reilly going easy on Bill Maher for bashing the Tea Party. It never ceases to amaze me that O’Reilly has a reputation as some right-wing fire breather, considering that he gives passes to abominable liberals all the time, and his definition of “stand-up guy” is basically “anyone willing to come on my show.”

Rep. Steve King wants to get to the bottom of whether or not your federal tax dollars are paying for Planned Parenthood’s telehealth services.

Around the Web

Calvin Freiburger 9/11, abortion, blog, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Mike Huckabee, misc, Planned Parenthood, racism, Robert Stacy McCain, Sarah Palin, Tom Coburn

My NRB colleague Walter Hudson takes on some fringe pseudo-conservative wackos freaking out over the casting of a black actor as a Marvel Comics version of a Norse god and secondary character in the upcoming Thor movie.

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a local Planned Parenthood calling it quits because they refuse to offer abortion services, which the national Planned Parenthood finds intolerable. “Pro-choice” indeed…

Mike Huckabee vs. Sarah Palin on healthy diets in schools? Sorry Lisa, but I’m with Palin.

Tom Coburn explains why that healthcare bill for 9/11 first responders isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It passed anyway, though, and Coburn’s okay with the final version.

Be careful how you phrase things, Exhibit #804,792: Robert Stacy McCain explains yet again that he’s not a rape apologist. It’s a shame that an important point about safety and responsibility got lost amidst the hysteria.

Abolish the FCC? Go for it. Decisions with the force of law that affect Americans’ lives have no business being made by unelected, unaccountable agencies.

Abortion and Silencing Dissent: Two "Great" Tastes That Taste "Great" Together

Calvin Freiburger abortion, activism, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Planned Parenthood, prayer vigils, pro-life

From EWTN:

A Northwestern University graduate student in chemistry became the first to be arrested under a new Chicago “bubble zone” law after he prayed the Rosary on a public sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. His attorney contends the arrest seemed to be part of a “pattern of intimidating conduct” against pro-lifers.

Joseph Holland, 25, was charged with disorderly conduct under a 2009 law that says a person cannot approach within eight feet of another without their consent within 50 feet of any health care facility “for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education or counseling.”

The law also bars intentional interference with any person entering or leaving any health care facility.
Holland said he did not approach or interfere with anyone on July 3, when he was arrested at the Near North Planned Parenthood facility. He reported that he was standing by the building praying the Rosary when a Planned Parenthood volunteer approached him and started yelling that he needed to move eight feet away.

Chicago police spokesman Roderick Drew told Fox News that according to the police report Holland “stood within an inch of the victim, prayed out loud at a high volume for over 10 minutes.” He allegedly refused two requests to move and “continued to block customer access” after being asked to clear the entrance by the person in charge of the facility.

Free speech? Naahh…There’s nothing the Left hates more than the possibility that somebody might inform women about the choice they make – as a debate I’ve been having with a truly despicable NewsReal commenter named Aspacia here and here makes clear, abortionism thrives on ignorance. That’s the truth, no matter how many of its apologists dishonestly claim the mantle of reason for themselves.

I Know Why the Caged Fetus Cries

Calvin Freiburger abortion, evil, liberalism, Maya Angelou, murder, Planned Parenthood

It’s debatable whether or not author & poet Maya Angelou was ever much of a role model – her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, holds powerful lessons about overcoming childhood racism and being raped by her mother’s boyfriend, but it also concludes with her having a child out of wedlock in her teens, after having sex with a near-total stranger for the express purpose of figuring out whether or not she’s a lesbian, with (as I recall) no commentary on the morality, maturity, wisdom, or responsibility of her actions.  Heckuva message!

Whatever the answer to that question may be, she’s certainly not someone to look up to any more.  Via ALL, Angelou recently spoke at a big Planned Parenthood luncheon.  Lending your support to the cause of murdering innocents in the name of personal gratification is nothing to emulate.