Shannon McGinley - Abortion is at the center of Planned Parenthood’s business model

By Shannon McGinley, acting executive director of Cornerstone Action

It is impossible to ensure that taxpayer dollars directed to Planned Parenthood for so-called family-planning services don’t also pay for abortions, and it is for that reason alone that it was appropriate for the New Hampshire Executive Council to reject the abortion business’s state contract for family-planning services last year.

Under the N.H. Constitution’s protection of the Right of Conscience, it’s unconstitutional and illegal to force taxpayers to fund an organization specializing in these immoral practices, whether pharmaceutical or surgical, which end innocent human life. The Executive Council stood up for women’s health at the same time it rejected Planned Parenthood’s contract by approving 10 family-planning contracts with other organizations that do not perform abortions.

Because Planned Parenthood does not have a contract with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to perform family-planning services, it does not qualify for a state license to dispense prescription drugs, such as the medical abortion pill RU-486, which can be taken up to nine weeks after conception to end human life. Despite the clear letter of the law spelled out in RSA 318:42 that prohibits it, Planned Parenthood recently applied for a license claiming that the state and federal departments of health and human services are interchangeable. The board decides Wednesday, August 15, and should be held accountable if it doesn’t make the only choice it has, which is to apply the law to Planned Parenthood as it would apply it to any other organization seeking to dispense drugs without a pharmacist.

As a conservative woman of childbearing age, I would be remiss to ignore the leftist assault on women that has played out in the public debate surrounding the Executive Council’s decision. The nation’s top abortion business and its liberal supporters want you to believe that the decision limits women’s access to birth control or contraceptives, or worse, stands in the way of affordable women’s health. But the council’s decision to approve contracts for 10 family planning organizations discredits half of that argument. Secondly, while Planned Parenthood says the pill costs $15-$50 a month, Wal-Mart sells the pill for as little as $9 a month, discrediting the other half. Furthermore, fertility is not a disease that needs to be managed with medical treatment, and we know the exact behavioral cause of pregnancy. With the price of birth control so low, no rational person would involve government in this situation where men and women should bear the full responsibility.

The disingenuous nature of the liberal attacks on the Executive Council and our pro-life Legislature highlights the most troubling aspect of this whole situation. Is it so important for Planned Parenthood to perform abortions in New Hampshire that the organization is willing to risk its family planning grant and ability to dispense pharmaceuticals? Sadly, based on the recent statements of several women who previously worked at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country and the work of groups such as Live Action and Expose Planned Parenthood—which videotaped Planned Parenthood employees in several facilities showing a willingness to aid and abet apparent pimps by arranging abortions for their under-aged sex slaves—it is increasingly apparent that abortion, both surgical and pharmaceutical, is what sustains Planned Parenthood’s business.

Planned Parenthood preys on vulnerable women to drive profits. The numbers in Planned Parenthood’s own annual report reveals the organization’s focus on abortion and that taxpayers are funding it. During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the organization received $487 million in taxpayer funding, 46 percent of its annual revenue. In the same period, the organization performed 329,445 abortions, 91 percent of its pregnancy services.

Abby Johnson, former clinic director of a Planned Parenthood in Texas, said she was directed to double the number of abortions performed at her clinic to drive up revenue. She also noted Planned Parenthood’s recent directive mandating that all of its affiliates provide abortions by 2013, which led one affiliate, also in Texas, to leave the organization.

Often, this extreme focus to boost profit is at the expense of women’s health. Sue Thayer said she was fired from her Iowa Planned Parenthood position because she expressed a concern about the indignity of so-called “telemed” abortions, which involve a doctor pressing a button from a remote location to open a drawer containing RU-486. The drug is then given to a pregnant woman who is immediately sent home. Thayer said her superiors celebrated the reduction of “overhead costs,” such as the specialized equipment, staff and traveling physician required for a surgical abortion.

Women sent home with these drugs aren’t told about the innocent life inside of them that will starve to death as she goes into labor, has contractions and bleeds out her dead child. Some women even suffer from hemorrhaging and even death after taking this drug. This is the true War on Women.

Maggie Hassan - Maggie Hassan: R&D tax credit should not be held hostage to GOP social agenda

Recently, I launched my Innovate New Hampshire Tour to hear directly from business leaders and workers about how we can grow the economy and create jobs by aligning our education system with the needs of 21st century businesses. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with some incredible and innovative New Hampshire companies such as Adept MobileRobots in Amherst and Dyn in Manchester. Both companies chose New Hampshire to build and grow their businesses from the ground up. 

We need to ensure that New Hampshire continues to be a place that attracts and inspires that kind of innovation. We want New Hampshire to be a haven for entrepreneurs and inventors — the people who are creating the products and the good-paying jobs of the future. 

As a state senator, I was proud to support the creation of the original research and development tax credit, and I join in Gov. John Lynch’s call on the Legislature to pass a bill doubling the research and development tax credit. The credit sends a powerful message that New Hampshire is open for business and open for innovation. 

Unfortunately, the Republicans in the Legislature have chosen to send another message: Their extreme anti-choice agenda comes before anything else. 

Doubling the research and development tax credit was a bipartisan initiative. The bill is supported by Gov. Lynch, and Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate. This bill should already be on its way to the governor’s desk for his signature. Unfortunately, House Republican leadership decided to hijack the research and development tax credit and attach anti-choice legislation to it. 

I strongly believe that the Legislature should not be interfering in private medical decisions. Women are smart enough and strong enough to make their own health care decisions, and they should be able to make these decisions in private, consulting with their doctors and families as they choose. 

Unfortunately, the current New Hampshire House has taken a very different approach. It has moved forward obsessively on an agenda aimed at limiting women’s access to abortion services and to birth control. 

Much of what the current Republican leadership has done over the past two years has hurt New Hampshire’s economic future. When I was a member of the Economic Development Advisory Council, business leaders told me again and again that an educated workforce is key to business and job growth in New Hampshire. This Legislature cut funding for higher education in half. 

In the face of business concern about growing health care costs, this Legislature raised taxes on hospitals by $300 million, costs that are being passed on to local businesses. Businesses in the southern tier believe the expansion of Interstate 93 is critical for their futures; this legislature cut transportation funding. 

In Nashua and Manchester, businesses are begging for the state to at least study the possibility of rail. Republicans in Concord turned away federal funds for that study. 

Businesses want an educated workforce, a good tax environment, and a solid infrastructure. They also want stability and to know that state leaders are focused on the issues that matter to building the economy. 

The Republican leadership in the House is sending a damaging message to business leaders who are considering locating or growing their companies in New Hampshire: Their extreme ideological agenda comes before jobs and economic growth. 

Maggie Hassan is the former state Senate majority leader and a Democratic candidate for governor.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120510/OPINION02/705109997  

Girl Scouts Distribute Planned Parenthood Sex Guide at UN Meeting

By Nick Fortune

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hosted a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations this week where Planned Parenthood was allowed to distribute a brochure entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot.” Be wary of any program that wants to prohibit parents from observing what their children are being taught.

The event was part of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which concludes this week. 

The brochure, aimed at young people living with HIV, contains explicit and graphic details on sex, as well as the promotion of casual sex in many forms. It's hard to believe that the Girls Scouts are involved in promoting such pornographic literature, encouraging our children to have sex. This is a part of the liberal progressive's efforts to indoctrinate our children into becoming a contemporary Woodstock generation.

The brochure claims, “Many people think sex is just about vaginal or anal intercourse… But, there are lots of different ways to have sex and lots of different types of sex. There is no right or wrong way to have sex. Just have fun, explore and be yourself!” This is so irresponsible giving these kids a false sense of security. Children being taught and encouraged to have all types of sex, all types of perversity, anything goes. These are children, the book knowledge minus the maturity.

The brochure goes on to encourage young people to “Improve your sex life by getting to know your own body. Play with yourself! Masturbation is a great way to find out more about your body and what you find sexually stimulating. Mix things up by using different kinds of touch from very soft to hard. Talk about or act out your fantasies. Talk dirty to them.”  This is sick stuff.

The brochure also tells students that national laws requiring HIV-positive people to reveal their status to their partner(s) “violate the rights of people living with HIV” and calls for advocacy to “change laws that violate your rights.” There used to be a time when people with contagious diseases were quarantined and separated to protect society; but the gay community has become so politically powerful they would have AIDS infected people infecting others with this deadly disease; in the name of privacy and civil rights.

It explains, “There are many reasons that people do not share their HIV status. … They may worry that people will find out something else they have kept secret, like they are using (illicit) injecting drugs, having sex outside of a marriage (cheating on their spouses) or having sex with people of the same gender.” There ARE many reasons and most all of them immoral.

The Girl Scouts, along with the YWCA have been co-moderating a young women’s caucus that included an “Intergenerational Conversation” side event on “universal access” and “reproductive health.” This is apparently a program instigated by the YWCA, an organization that used to be the Young Woman's Christian Association.  Now it is a feminist Chauvinistic organization (in our community run by non-Christians).

One recent Girl Scout project “aims at securing the right of women, men and adolescents aged between ten and twenty-five, to better reproductive and sexual health.”

Also at CSW last week, the heads of various powerful UN agencies including the UN Population Fund, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UN Children's Fund and the World Health Organization released a “UN Joint Statement” under the name of the “UN Adolescent Girls Task Force,” which calls for their agencies to promote and support programs “that empower … adolescent girls, particularly those aged 10 to 14 years.” Empower 10 years olds? To do what? One of the chief priorities for empowerment is ensuring access to “life-skills based sexuality education, HIV prevention, and sexual and reproductive health.”

The New York Times recently reported that UN Population Fund had co-sponsored a very controversial curriculum with UNESCO, that included teaching children as young as five to be sexually active and training adolescents to advocate for abortion.

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women of America told the Friday Fax, “Governments and NGOs should be aware of Planned Parenthood’s insidious plan to work with UN agencies and girls’ organizations in order to profit from encouraging kids to be sexually active.”