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Hotline Archive: Law and Politics

Pro-Life Activist Testifies Before Congress: IRS Told Us We Can’t Protest Planned Parenthood!

Posted by Matt Yonke (June 4, 2013 at 12:30 pm)

The scandal of the IRS persecuting conservative and pro-life groups continues to unfold, and today Congress heard from activist Sue Martinek of the Coalition for Life of Iowa.

The League was privileged to work with Sue and Coalition for Life on an epic protest of Planned Parenthood and their CEO Cecile Richards at a gala fundraiser in Cedar Rapids Iowa back in 2010.

Check out the video above where Sue chronicles how the IRS unlawfully inquired into the content of the group’s prayers and said they wouldn’t approve their application for tax-exempt status unless they signed an affidavit swearing not to protest Planned Parenthood!

Our attorneys at the Thomas More Society were able to secure tax-exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa, but now that the IRS’s inappropriate actions have come to light before Congress, we may finally see the IRS called to account. Until then, continue to spread the word about this scandal far and wide!

Posted in Law and Politics, Our Civil Rights, Pro-Life Activism, Videos | 1 Comment »

League Protest Confronts Obama’s Motorcade with Pictures of Abortion Victims

Posted by John Jansen (May 30, 2013 at 4:46 pm)

Protest of Obama and PelosiPresident Barack Obama and Rep. Nancy Pelosi came to Chicago yesterday for a Democratic Party fundraising event, and the Pro-Life Action League was there to confront the presidential motorcade with pictures of aborted babies—victims of the “choice” that Obama and Pelosi, et al. so stridently support.

When we arrived at the Hilton & Towers shortly before 4:00 to set up for our protest, we found that Chicago Police had set up metal fencing all along Michigan Avenue directly in front of the hotel, effectively eliminating our intended protest area. So instead, we moved our protest across the street from the hotel, which ultimately proved to just as good of a a location.

All told, nearly 60 pro-lifers took part, which allowed us to have a full two blocks covered with large graphic abortion signs as well as handheld signs reading “Stop Abortion Now” and “Obama = Abortion”. We also distributed hundreds of flyers [PDF] with the message: “Obama + Pelosi = Abortion without Limits.” [Continue reading ...]

Posted in Law and Politics, Pro-Life Activism | 2 Comments »

League to Protest Obama and Pelosi in Chicago May 29

Posted by John Jansen (May 24, 2013 at 12:34 pm)

When President Obama and Nancy Pelosi come to town next week for a Democratic Party fundraiser, we’ll be there with graphic abortion signs to remind their wealthy donors that when they write their big, fat checks, they’re supporting the killing of unborn children.

Nancy Pelosi calls herself an “ardent, practicing Catholic,” but says “we don’t know” when life begins, so we can’t do anything to restrict “a woman’s right to choose.”

Not to be outdone, Obama himself recently took things further when he told an audience at a fundraiser for the nation’s largest abortion chain: “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you . . .”—words that are nothing short of blasphemy.

And, of course, Obama is on record supporting the “right” of the Kermit Gosnells of the world to murder babies who survive botched abortions.

Democrats are supposed to watch out for “the little guy” — but there’s no “little guy” more vulnerable than an unborn baby!

Join us as we expose Obama and Pelosi’s radical abortion agenda:

This is one protest you won’t want to miss. Be there!

Tags: , , . Posted in Law and Politics, Pro-Life Activism | 1 Comment »

Gosnell’s Lawyer: It’s Time to Rethink Late-Term Abortion

Posted by John Jansen (May 23, 2013 at 7:45 pm)

Kermit Gosnell’s defense lawyer, Jack McMahon, made some eye-opening comments in an interview yesterday with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

McMahon called Gosnell “a dream client” who was “a complete gentleman” during the two and a half years the two men have known each other. And while McMahon admitted that “things went a bit awry” at the notorious Women’s Medical Society, he said it was “simplistic” to lay the blame at Gosnell’s feet. Instead, McMahon said, the real problem was that the state of Pennsylvania had turned a blind eye on the likes of Gosnell for 18 years.

It’s not as if McMahon was going to go on national TV and throw Gosnell under the bus, so his comments should come as no surprise. He was, after all, the lawyer that Gosnell paid to represent him, so one would expect McMahon to say nice things about his client, deflect blame and point the finger elsewhere, etc.

But the most surprising part of the interview came at the 8:15 mark, when McMahon had this to say about late-term abortion: [Continue reading ...]

Tags: , , . Posted in Law and Politics, Our Opposition, Videos | 0 Comments »

NAF Member Abortion Clinic Slated to Close Following Discovery of Major Drug Problems, Falsified Records

Posted by League Staff (May 14, 2013 at 5:04 pm)

NOTE: This article is the second of a two-part series on two Ohio abortion facilities. This article will focus on the pending closure of the Center for Choice in Toledo. The first article, on the closing of the Capital Care facility in Cuyahoga Falls, is here.

Pro-lifers praying during 40 Days for Life outside Center for Choice abortion facility in Toledo, OH 

Pro-lifers praying during 40 Days for Life outside Center for Choice abortion facility in Toledo, Ohio [Photo courtesy of Pro-Life Connection]

On April 8th through 10th, officials with the Ohio Department of Health paid a visit to the Center for Choice abortion facility in Toledo.

Now, mind you, Center for Choice isn’t just any run-of-the-mill abortion clinic; rather, it’s a member of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which styles itself as the gold standard for “quality abortion care.”

But inspectors found a slew violations that tell a very different story.

The violations were serious enough that the Department of Health has already taken decisive action.  Two weeks after the inspection was concluded, on April 24, Director Theodore Wymyslo, M.D., notified The Center for Choice that the Department intends to close the facility and assess a fine of $25,000.

The Center for Choice can request a hearing within 30 days of receipt of the letter, meaning that it has until the end of next week to do so. As of now, facility has not requested a hearing. If it fails to do so, it will be closed by the Department of Health.

The most alarming findings from the inspection are detailed below. [Continue reading ...]

Posted in Abortion, Law and Politics | 3 Comments »

“Kermit Gosnell and the Logic of ‘Pro-Choice’”

Posted by League Staff (May 14, 2013 at 1:04 pm)

QuicktakeMatthew Franck, writing at The Public Discourse:

Gosnell, whose clinic was shut down by the Philadelphia authorities who charged him with murder, is the ne plus ultra of the abortion trade. Not because of the filth, the squalor, the jars of amputated keepsake baby feet, the employment of unlicensed incompetents, the promiscuous use of narcotics on unwitting patients, or the poisonous racism of a physician who preyed upon women and babies of his own race—although all of these are no surprise at all in America’s most unregulated branch of medicine.

No, Gosnell is the “slave-dealer” par excellence because, even if he had run the cleanest, brightest, most professional clinic in the country, he was simply following out the remorseless logic of the abortion regime installed forty years ago by the Supreme Court.

Women came to him for the very latest of late-term abortions, and he made sure their children were dead. Whether he accomplished their deaths in utero or ex utero—before or after their births—didn’t really matter to Gosnell. And, as we have heard from Planned Parenthood officials, from then-Illinois state senator Barack Obama, and from “pro-choice” politicians like Senator Barbara Boxer, it doesn’t matter to them, either. [Continue reading ...]

Tags: , , . Posted in Abortion, Law and Politics, Our Opposition, The Culture War | 0 Comments »

Abortionist Gosnell Found Guilty—Just Like Every Abortionist Should Be

Posted by Ann Scheidler (May 13, 2013 at 4:46 pm)

Kermit Gosnell: Guilty on three counts of murder.

The Pro-Life Action League commends the jury for taking their job seriously, analyzing the evidence presented to them, and finding Gosnell guilty. But this case raises all sorts of issues beyond the charges of murder and other felonies, or even the a guilty verdict.

The abortion industry has tried to distance itself from the Gosnell “House of Horrors” as if a clean, sanitized abortion clinic is a much better place for babies to die, and, for that matter, mothers to die. Don’t forget Tonya Reaves, who had her abortion in a nice, clean Michigan Avenue abortion clinic operated by Planned Parenthood in Chicago. No guilty verdict in her case. In fact, no charges.

The Gosnell case forces America to look at the underlying conundrum of a society that accepts abortion as a legitimate choice, thereby admitting that the unborn baby has no standing among us. [Continue reading ...]

Posted in Abortion, Law and Politics | 20 Comments »

DEA Bust Shuts Down Shoddy Ohio Abortion Clinic That Was Stealing Women’s Blood

Posted by League Staff (May 10, 2013 at 12:00 pm)

NOTE: This article is the first of a two-part series on two Ohio abortion facilities. This article will focus on the closing of the Capital Care facility in Cuyahoga Falls. A subsequent article will focus on the pending closure of the Center for Choice in Toledo.

Last month the State of Ohio ordered the closing of the Capital Care facility in Cuyahoga Falls.

A close look at state records sheds light on why, specifically, authorities had to step in and take decisive action—and reveals that most previous news reports haven’t told the whole story.

Inspectors from the Ohio Department of Health visited the Cuyahoga Falls Capital Care abortion facility on February 14 and found a host of violations detailed in a 36-page inspection report [PDF]. The most serious of these violations were drug-related, which is why the DEA got involved—just as it did in the case of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society.

The most striking findings from the inspection are explained below.

Stealing Women’s Blood

To provide accurate lab test results, a clinic’s reagents need to be tested each day with both Rh+ and Rh- blood.

Rh- blood is relatively rare, with less than 15% of the population in the U.S. being Rh-. Instead of buying known Rh- blood, Capital Care was drawing up blood from their repeat customers who were Rh- and keeping the blood for the next two weeks in the refrigerator to use each day.

A typical patient would have a finger stick to perform the test.  These “repeat” patients had an entire tube taken. [Continue reading ...]

Tags: , , , , , . Posted in Abortion, Law and Politics | 0 Comments »

Planned Parenthood of Delaware Abortionist Exhibits All Manner of Creepiness

Posted by John Jansen (May 6, 2013 at 4:44 pm)

The nation’s largest abortion chain styles itself “America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care.”

Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, who worked as an RN at Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s facilities in Dover and Wilmington, would beg to differ.

As previously reported, Jayne and another former co-worker, Joyce Vasikonis, have blown the whistle on a host of shady practices at Delaware’s Planned Parenthood facilities.

Jill Stanek recently drew attention to several of Jayne’s diligently documented complaints, which were ignored by PP’s higher-ups.

Without a doubt, the most eyebrow-raising of Jayne’s complaints concerned Dr. Timothy Liveright, PP-DE’s chief abortionist.

According to Jayne’s documented complaints, Liveright had a habit of maintaining “such a hectic pace he sometimes cleaned surgical suites himself between patients, although not very well, leaving dried blood behind.” He also refused to wear sterile gloves during abortions.

Among the complaints [PDF] Jayne raised regarding Liveright: [Continue reading ...]

Tags: , , , . Posted in Law and Politics, Planned Parenthood | 1 Comment »

The Word President Obama Didn’t Use When He Addressed Planned Parenthood

Posted by John Jansen (May 3, 2013 at 1:21 pm)

QuicktakeRich Lowry, writing at Politico:

President Barack Obama was proud to become the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood last Friday. But not proud enough to utter the word “abortion.” …

Listening to him, you could be forgiven for thinking that the country is riven by a fierce dispute over whether women should be allowed to choose their own ob-gyns or decide whether to take contraceptives or to get cancer screenings. One side is pro-women’s health, the other anti. In his speech, the president said the word “cancer” seven times. About that he is happy to be straightforward.
Imagine if he had been similarly frank about the rest of Planned Parenthood’s work: “In 2011, according to your annual report, your clinics or affiliates performed 330,000 abortions. That’s a lot of abortion. Over 10 years more than 3 million. Thank you, Planned Parenthood. Think of all those women who wanted to terminate their pregnancies and you were there for them. That’s what you do. That’s what you are about. And that’s what this country is about.” …

The unwritten rule is that when the left discusses abortion it is never called “abortion,” but always referred to as “health” or, more specifically “reproductive health” — although abortion is the opposite of reproduction and for one party involved, the opposite of health.

Read the whole thing.

Tags: , , , , . Posted in Law and Politics, Planned Parenthood | 0 Comments »