Pro-life activists protest outside Planned Parenthood facility in Kissimmee, Florida, April 2014
In late March, the Pro-Life Action League was contacted by a group of pro-life activists in Kissimmee, Florida, who had recently discovered that Planned Parenthood was planning to open an abortion clinic in their city, located just minutes from Disney World.
We were able to advise them on numerous matters, including filing requests with the city for documents relating to the facility and encouraging them to mobilize a strong presence to speak out against Planned Parenthood at city commission meetings.
Since then, the pro-life community of Kissimmee has been indefatigable. They’ve been holding protests and prayer vigils, standing up for their First Amendment rights, taking out full-page newspaper ads — and, yes, packing city commission meetings.
They also assisted with filing a lawsuit, citing a deed restriction that prohibits surgical procedures from being performed without permission of the other owners within the medical complex where Planned Parenthood is located.
Yesterday, Circuit Court Judge John Jordan granted an injunction [PDF] that — for the time being, at least — prevents Planned Parenthood from performing surgical abortions.
Local Planned Parenthood CEO: Surgical Abortions ≠ “Surgical”
Reading Judge Jordan’s injunction, it’s clear that he has no patience for Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando (PPGO) CEO Jenna Tosh’s eyebrow-raising claim that surgical abortions are not actually “surgical” procedures.
Her affidavit states:
Despite widespread use of the term “surgical,” surgical abortion does not also involve what is typically thought of as surgery. Instead, surgical abortion uses instruments to evacuate the contents of the uterus. No incision is made into the woman’s skin or other bodily membrane.
In response, Judge Jordan delivered this devastating rebuke:
The Court notes that Ms. Tosh’s education does not include any formal medical training and cannot escape the fact that Ms. Tosh’s own words repeatedly employ the phrase “surgical abortions.”
Also of interest is the section that deals with the bond to be posted if Planned Parenthood ultimately gets the injunction lifted, in order to recover lost revenue.
Our longtime friend Jill Stanek also points to Tosh’s claim that surgical abortions are estimated to be “less than 1%” of PPGO’s services, despite, as Judge Jordan notes, “their centrality to [Planned Parenthood’s] mission.”
Jill writes:
To that end, while Planned Parenthood requested a bond of $720,000 in lost revenue should Planned Parenthood ultimately prevail in this case, the judge set the bond at $24,000, since, he said, Planned Parenthood shouldn’t expect much lost revenue if indeed abortion accounts for less than 1% of its services.
It’s not every day that you see the nation’s largest abortion chain get bitten by its own deceptive talking point!
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HT: Jill Stanek
