The Thomas More Society is speaking out about blatant bias by the supposedly apolitical tax-collection agency. Cases handled by the Chicago-based public interest law firm support mounting accusations that demonstrate the agency’s abuse of pro-life organizations, in addition to those identified as ‘tea party’, ‘patriot’, or ‘government spending’ groups. Outrage spurred by recent revelations of IRS discrimination against these groups has also led the Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to announce a full investigation into the matter.

In one case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa. In a phone call to Coalition for Life of Iowa leaders on June 6, 2009, the IRS agent “Ms. Richards” told the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board’s signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside of Planned Parenthood. Once the IRS received this letter, their application would be approved. After a series of letters following a request for more invasive information, Thomas More Society special counsel Sally Wagenmaker sent a letter to the IRS demanding the tax exempt status be issued immediately.

Wagenmaker summarized her concerns about what she called “the IRS’s disturbing ability” to stall and suppress legitimate applicants. She explained how through lengthy questionnaires and wrong citations of applicable law (as in the case of Coalition for Life of Iowa), applicants with less fortitude or without access to legal advocates like the Thomas More Society will be effectively silenced from exercising their constitutional freedoms. Wagenmaker added, “The IRS’s role should only be to determine whether organizations fit the section 501(c)(3) test for ‘charitable, religious, or educational’ qualification, not to inquire about the content of prayers, protests, and petitions. It’s high time that the IRS be called to account for its workers’ potential to trample on our constitutional rights, through such ostensibly innocuous means…what the Ways and Means committee will discuss may only be the tip of the iceberg of IRS abuses.”

In another similar case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for charitable tax-exempt recognition of Christian Voices for Life, questioning the group’s involvement with “40 Days for Life” and “Life Chain” events. The Fort Bend County, Texas, organization was subjected to repeated and lengthy unconstitutional requests for information about the viewpoint and content of its educational communications, volunteer prayer vigils, and other protected activities.

“The application of Christian Voices for Life clearly indicated that the organization qualified as a charitable organization under section 501(c)(3),” stated Sally Wagenmaker. She added, “The IRS seemed to be intent on denying or delaying tax-exempt status based upon the organization’s pro-life message, rather than any legitimate exemption concern, through its exhaustive, cumbersome questioning. The implication that Christian Voices for Life somehow intended to engage in illegal activity was insulting.”

Sally Wagenmaker is available for interviews. Contact Tom Ciesielka at 312-422-1333 or tc@tcpr.net.

Details on the IRS abuse of “Christian Voices for Life” are available here.

Details on the IRS abuse of “Coalition for Life of Iowa” are available here.

Christian Newswire

What’s the big deal?

I mean, why are we surprised that an abortionist and his staff would, behind the walls of an always-lethal abortion clinic, commit one of the most horrific serial killings in American history? What did you think abortionists do, heal people?

Why are we taken aback that there was no oversight, no regulation, or that Planned Parenthood, though privy to the clinic’s filthy, medieval conditions, refused to report it to the Department of Health? After all, Planned Parenthood, Barack Obama and the DNC have vehemently opposed all laws – such as those in Virginia, Mississippi and elsewhere – designed to prevent exactly the same kind of squalid conditions found in Gosnell’s clinic (and others), laws that simply direct abortion mills to meet the same minimal safety standards required of all other medical facilities.

You didn’t really buy that whole “women’s health” nonsense, did you?

Sucker.

Seriously, there are so few sociopathic doctors left willing to hack alive those inconvenient little buggers; so you anti-choice nuts need to just chill. Who cares about “blood smeared walls,” or babies left to drown in toilets, or snipped spinal cords, or dismembered body parts kept in jars, or screaming, crying newborns silenced by decapitation? What did you think women were “choosing” with abortion, some kind of medical treatment? We’re not removing a tumor here. You’ve got to kill a few babies to make a “reproductive freedom” omelette. Besides, there’s billions to be made in the death racket.

Let’s keep it real. The only difference between what happened in Gosnell’s Philadelphia clinic and what happens every day in Planned Parenthoods across the country can be measured by a matter of inches – by the child’s proximity to her mother in the room. Whether the baby is in the womb or 12 inches removed, a dead baby is a dead baby, right? So why all the drama? Relax. You know, Roe v. Wade and all.

Besides, what’s an abortionist to do (wink, wink) if that resilient little pest does survive, if she’s born alive? I appreciate President Obama’s candor on the matter. Like he said, laws preventing abortionists like Gosnell from finishing her off are “really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion.” Snippety-snip, eh, Barack? You know, choice and all.

Or, as Gosnell attorney Jack McMahon noted during the trial, it’s “ludicrous … to say a baby is born alive because it moves one time.” You anti-choice zealots don’t get to define the terms here. One man’s “alive” is another woman’s “unwanted pregnancy.” Potato, potahto.

And why are we stunned that the mainstream media have spiked a story with all the bloody and salacious newsworthy trappings that – had abortion not been involved – would have filled the news cycle 24/7?

You think some now-barren, 40-something copy editor who’s had five abortions wants to draw attention to its grisly reality? You think she wants to be reminded of her own string of dismembered little choices? No, better to sip appletinis with the boys down at the National Press Club and pretend it never happened.

Now that’s reproductive freedom! That’s freedom of the press!

In reality, to the media, this stuff is old news. Gosnell is on trial for doing something nearly indistinguishable from partial-birth abortion – a “never necessary” procedure (according to the AMA) Obama vocally endorsed. He said that banning it was part of a concerted effort “to steadily roll back the hard-won rights of American women.”

Furthermore, why are we surprised that this rush-to-judgment-when-it-suits-his-political-agenda president suddenly “can’t comment” on Gosnell “because it’s an active trial”? Remember? This is the same race-baiting “community organizer” who said that Cambridge police “acted stupidly” when arresting a combative black Harvard professor who, as it turned out, was himself acting stupidly. Don’t forget; this is the same president who had no problem laying guilt on a “presumed innocent” George Zimmerman, saying, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

Funny, I actually do have a son and, when he was born, he looked a lot like those little boys Gosnell and Planned Parenthood kill every day. Come to think of it, most of them looked almost identical to Trayvon, skin color and all.

Curious.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., called Obama out on his refusal to address Gosnell: “Mr. President, your silence on this issue is deafening,” he said.

I agree. The left’s silence – to include the mainstream media – speaks volumes. It’s a tacit endorsement of Gosnell’s gruesome practices. And why shouldn’t it be?

To “pro-choicers” it’s not that old Kermit did anything wrong; it’s just that he got caught doing it. He was careless. He pulled back the curtain of “reproductive freedom” to reveal abortion’s house of horrors. Kermit Gosnell is liberalism personified, and liberalism relies on deceit. The “progressive” culture is a culture of death. Moral relativism is as moral relativism does.

Speaking of moral relativism, on Friday the first sitting president in United States history gave the keynote address at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser. Nice timing. Even as the Gosnell mass-murder trial wraps up, Obama was lending the full weight of his presidency to a mass-murder celebration.

His message? All you Planned Parenthood-hating, anti-Gosnell right-wingers better listen up: “No matter how great the challenge, no matter how fierce the opposition, there’s one thing that the past few years have shown,” he promised. “That Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere. It’s not going anywhere today. It’s not going anywhere tomorrow.”

Yeah, we’ll see about that, slick.

Written by Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

Apparently, Planned Parenthood is no longer content exploiting just women and children–so they’ve moved on to the federal government. Over the past several years, it seems the country’s biggest abortion provider has also been running one of the country’s biggest scams: a Medicaid racket that’s ripped off millions of taxpayer dollars. Today, it appears that at least six states have been targeted by Cecile Richards‘ scheme, which reportedly conned the government with hundreds of thousands of bogus reimbursement claims.

One of those states–Texas–will be hearing its first arguments on the issue this week in U.S. District Court, thanks to former Planned Parenthood director-turned-whistleblower Abby Johnson. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), she plans to expose at least 87,000 instances of fraud during her time as a clinic manager in Southeast Texas. Based on her testimony and supporting documents, Planned Parenthood routinely submitted ineligible claims on everything from pap smears to STD and pregnancy tests. In fact, Johnson says her bosses at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast were under so much financial pressure that they would repeatedly tell staff, “We must turn every call and visit into a revenue-generating client.” A ring of at least 10 clinics were falsifying patient charts, which they would “fix” and “cover up” before the auditors and inspectors came.

“People may hold different views about abortion,” Johnson says, “but everyone can agree that Planned Parenthood should play by the same rules as everyone else. It certainly isn’t entitled to any public funds, especially if it is defrauding Medicaid and the American taxpayer.” In states like Iowa, the plot was so sophisticated that clinics were getting $26.32 reimbursement checks for a $2.98 package of birth control. State and local governments have poured more than a billion dollars into Richards’s group–and this is how she repays them? Twenty-eight million in stolen funds in Iowa, $6 million in Texas, $180 million in California, and similar allegations in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

And while we can’t say exactly where the dollars went, evidence suggests President Barack Obama’s campaign was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Planned Parenthood’s largesse. Thanks to this extra revenue from overbilling, Richards’s group had the flexibility to spend a whopping $15 million to put Barack Obama back in the White House, where he can keep the money flowing to his favorite chain. When an organization like Planned Parenthood is suspected of not just fraud, but criminal cover-ups, falsifying medical information, violating safety standards, encouraging prostitution and sex trafficking, medical malpractice, sex-selection abortion, accepting racially-motivated donations, and huge profits, this is no longer about abortion. It’s about accountability.

The Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that America is on track for its fifth straight trillion dollar deficit, yet our government continues to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to this group, which also happens to be under congressional investigation! If both parties are serious about cutting spending (and nothing they’ve done recently suggests they are) then it’s time to put an end to this relentless cycle of exploitation. The war on women was a hoax. The war on taxpayers is not.

The death of 24 year-old Tonya Reaves on Friday, July 20, following an abortion at Planned Parenthood has prompted a renewed call for accountability in the state’s currently unregulated abortion industry.

Pastor Ceasar LeFlore, Midwest Director of Life Education and Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.), appealed via letter to Illinois’ President of the Senate John Cullerton (D-Chicago), Speaker of the House Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), and House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Plainfield) to increase abortion clinic regulation.

Reaves’ death following her abortion in a facility that is not regulated by the State of Illinois is a tragedy, but the letter to Illinois’ legislative leaders points out that “this state’s lack of even the most basic health regulation of abortion providers and clinics is setting the stage for it to happen again.”

Illinois law does not require Planned Parenthood’s clinics to be inspected by the state’s Department of Public Health. This lack of oversight is particularly negligent in light of the fact that Reaves’ second trimester abortion was performed in Planned Parenthood’s Loop Health Center in Chicago, a facility that, according to its own website, refers all surgical procedures to two other abortion clinics, only offering “medication abortion,” commonly known as the “abortion pill,” at the downtown site. 

LeFlore’s missive implores the lawmakers to join the twenty other states that mandate counseling for women who are scheduled to undergo an abortion. Often referred to as “Informed Consent” laws or “Women’s Right to Know” laws, these measures require the physician to inform the pregnant woman of the many risks involved in an abortion. More than half of the states require at least a 24-hour waiting period between receiving counseling for the abortion and completing the procedure.

“Planned Parenthood’s Loop Health Center is clearly not equipped to provide a second trimester abortion or to respond to an emergency situation such as the one that resulted in the tragic death of an otherwise healthy young woman,” explains LeFlore. “A woman who goes to an abortion provider naturally assumes that she is going to a medically approved facility and not to a company that is operating an unlicensed, uninspected, and unregulated surgery.”

L.E.A.R.N. is the nation’s largest black pro-life organization and its Midwest Director is not alone in sounding this clarion call for increased abortion clinic regulation. The letter is cosigned by leaders from the Illinois’ broader pro-life community, including Aid for Women of Northern Lake County, Belleville Area Right to Life, Catholic Citizens of Illinois, Concerned Women for America of Illinois, Illinois Citizens for Ethics PAC, Illinois Family Institute, Illinois Federation for Right to Life, Illinois Review, Illinois Right to Life Committee, Knox County Right to Life, Lake County Right to Life. Life Advocacy Resource Project, Lutherans for Life, McHenry County Right to Life, Professional Women’s Network, Pro-Life Action League, Pro-Life/Pro-Family Coalition, Students for Life of Illinois, Tradition Family and Property, and Word of Hope.

The coalition insists that, “The Illinois General Assembly must take seriously the health and safety of the women of Illinois… [and] immediately enact laws and policies that insure the protection of women.” 

It is noteworthy that in the last legislative session, the Illinois legislature failed to call for a vote on H.B. 4117 which would have required all abortion clinics to meet the same health and safety standards as all other ambulatory surgical treatment centers, including those run by Planned Parenthood.

The letter from L.E.A.R.N., et al to the Illinois General Assembly leaders is available HERE.  

 About L.E.A.R.N.: 

The Life Education and Resource Network exists to proclaim the pro-life message within the African-American community through various educational projects. L.E.A.R.N.’s Midwest Director, Pastor Ceasar LeFlore, is available for interviews at 708-849-1630 (office) or 708-378-4712 (cell).

Alliance Defending Freedom, previously the Alliance Defense Fund, has filed suit in federal court against Planned Parenthood of Iowa. The lawsuit claims repeated false, fraudulent or ineligible claims for reimbursements to Medicaid and suggests Planned Parenthood Iowa failed to meet acceptable standards of medical practice.

Michael Norton, senior Alliance counsel and a former U.S. attorney, tells OneNewsNow his group is representing former Planned Parenthood clinic director Sue Thayer.

“Americans deserve to know if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” Norton asserts. “People may hold different views about abortion, but everyone can agree that Planned Parenthood should play by the same rules as everyone else. It certainly isn’t entitled to any public funds, especially if it is defrauding Medicaid and the American taxpayer.”

Thayer, former manager of clinics in Storm Lake and LeMars, sued under whistleblower laws, alleging that Planned Parenthood knowingly committed Medicaid fraud by improperly seeking reimbursements for products and services not legally reimbursable. The lawsuit contends nearly a half-million false claims were filed with Medicaid, resulting in Planned Parenthood of Iowa retaining nearly $28 million.

One of the focuses of the Planned Parenthood Illinois investigation is more than $3 million in reimbursements in 2009 to one abortionist, Caroline Hoke.  Judie Brown of the American Life League is appalled by Hoke’s response so far. (Listen to audio report)

“I think it’s very interesting that Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Hoke has the unadulterated gall to say she has no comment after being reimbursed by the state for more than $3 million in so-called ‘medical fees,'” Brown comments. “She must be working 24 hours a day, seven days a week in order to earn that kind of money — and you and I both know that is not the case.”

She commends several state legislatures for denying funding to the nation’s biggest abortion-provider, despite the fact that the federal government since 1970 “has been wedded to Planned Parenthood at the hip, and they are not going to deny money.”

“You know, it’s like a siphon,” the pro-lifer compares. “The money continues to go to Planned Parenthood no matter what the public is being told, and the only way that’s going to change is for American taxpayers to get smart about this and demand that their money no longer go to an organization that specializes in killing babies.”

Watching Rick Santorum during the Arizona debate reminded me of my trips to the grocery store with my eight children in tow. Having a large, Catholic family in today’s liberal, sexually revolutionized world makes you a target for evangelization by the Left. While shopping, I am stopped several times by people who want to know if they are all mine, are part of a daycare, or if they are all from the same father. That last question is my favorite. The inquisition usually ends with cute, didactic comments like “You know there are ways of preventing that.” or, “Maybe you should tell your husband to get a hobby.” It’s always great to have your sex life examined by smug, pseudo intellectual strangers in front of your children. I’ve thought about carrying around a resume with my B.A. degree colored over in yellow highlighter to prove that I’m not a total idiot — but I wouldn’t want to seem rude.

 Santorum has been drug into a similar situation. He is being portrayed as a Neanderthal, Taliban wannabe, hell bent on ripping birth control away from poor, oppressed women across the globe. The insinuation is that without the birth control pill, women everywhere would be forced to bear countless children while chained to their ovens.  Birth control believers, now whipped into a stiff peak frenzy, are rendered incapable of hearing any other position put forth by Santorum.  He is a heretic.  He has denied the Left’s belief in the Sacrament of Birth Control.  He has sinned against Women’s Health and the Commandments of their collective Rights.

 The conclusion is that the sexual revolution was the greatest victory ever won by women and right minded men. Let’s examine the facts. The birth control pill was the brain child and fondest wish of Planned Parenthood’s racist founder, Margaret Sanger. She wanted to find a “magic pill” that had the power to make parasitic babies go away. Due to her belief in eugenics, what she wanted most was to prevent the proliferation of  black babies but realized how controversial this would be to the American public. Proof of this secret “plan” is revealed in a letter that she wrote Dr. Clarence Gamble, heir to the Proctor and Gamble fortune, in December of 1939.

“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. And the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.)

Margaret’s dream of a magic pill eluded her until she met Dr. Gregory Pincus. He was referred to as “Dr. Frankenstein” because of his successful in-vitro fertilization experiments on rabbits. He was vilified for making some of the nightmare science fiction scenarios imagined in “Brave New World”  a scientific reality. Sanger procured funding for Pincus to begin development of the pill.  In 1956, the birth control pill, under the name Enovid, was submitted for trials.

 By 1964, a quarter of all American couples were using the pill. Today, according to the CDC, 98 percent of women of childbearing age use birth control with 64 percent choosing the pill. While these statistics come as no shock to most, there is some lesser known information about the pill that might. Did you know that the pill prevents pregnancy in three ways? According to  The Physician’s Desk Reference, hormonal contraceptives:

• Prevent ovulation.
  
  
• Thicken the cervical mucus to prevent sperm from entering the uterus and fallopian tube.
  
  
• Alter the lining of the uterus so implantation cannot take place. The third action, if and when it occurs, is abortifacient (meaning a human life has begun but cannot continue to develop without the nourishment provided through the mother’s uterine wall). 

Yes Virginia, the birth control pill IS an abortifacient. How many unsuspecting women realize that by using the birth control pill they have not only been preventing pregnancy but aborting unknown numbers of their developing babies?

If this bit of information is not enough to rouse your concern, how about the fact that the birth control pill is listed by the World Health Organization as a class one carcinogen.  Moreover, an article titled, Birth Control Leading Carcinogen by J. Benkovic, exposes the fact that the pill is linked to a 660 percent increase in breast cancer. Wow, do you think that the Susan G. Komen Foundation knows about this? Let’s all take a moment to engage in some facetious wondering.

Why is there a blackout of information regarding the truth about the pill? Could it be that the proponents of birth control care less about “women’s health” and more about population control or dare I say it…control in general? The collective “We” seem to be slipping back into a central controlled master/servant class. Albeit today it is less about the haves and have-nots and more about the know-it-alls and the know-nothings. The pill, which promised freedom and equality to women, has proven to be the gateway drug leading to progressive Liberalism.

The Catholic Church had it right when it spoke out against artificial birth control in the 1968 Papal Encyclical titled “Humanae Vitae”.  An article from Business Insider titled Time To Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control summarizes the issue best.  Authors Micheal Dougherty and Pascal Gobry wrote the following on the Pope Paul VI ‘s warnings.  He warned of four results if the widespread use of contraceptives was accepted:

1. General lowering of moral standards
2. A rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy
3. The reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men. 
4. Government coercion in reproductive matters. 

Does that sound familiar? 

Because it sure sounds like what’s been happening for the past 40 years. 

Planned Parenthood has expanded from a birth control provider into the nation’s largest abortion provider. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform reports that approximately 3,700 abortions are performed in America each day. This is an unbelievable holocaust and for what?  Are women really better off than they were before the pill? Is having a job outside of the home really superior to raising a family?

 The objective reality of the situation is that women are forced to spend a large portion of their salaries paying for twenty year old college girls to raise their kids at daycare. And guess what, most of these women, after working an eight hour shift at their dream job, still go home and clean and cook dinner anyway. Maybe they can go paint Tom Sawyers fence when they get some free time.

Rick Santorum is just one in a long list of politicians who have been crucified for daring to speak out on moral truths. Any candidate who adheres to basic moral norms is deemed things like “crazy”, “right wing” or “unelectable.” Remember Sarah Palin? How about Pat Buchanan? It is time to stop killing the messengers.

America, much like the Titanic, was once thought to be indestructible. Our ship is on a collision course with an  iceburg of fiscal and social problems charted by Liberal elites like Barak Obama and George Bush. As we head nearer to our destruction, the Progressive left has proven that the only means of salvation that they have to offer us is a sacramental birth control pill. There is still a chance to avoid catastrophe. We must acknowledge Liberalism as the real opiate of the people and throw it’s dealers overboard before we go down with them.

We want to draw your attention to another important pro-life bill that our state lawmakers will be considering this session. HB 4117, sponsored by State Representative Tom Morrison (R-Palatine),  would require abortion clinics that perform more than 50 abortions a year to meet basic safety regulations of other similar outpatient treatment centers. (They have never been regulated.)

HB 4117 passed of a House Committee on Tuesday afternoon (February 21st) and will now be considered in the Illinois House. Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups are working overtime trying to stop this bill.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to your state representative to urge him/her to support HB 4117 or even sign on as a co-sponsor.

Background

Patients undergoing abortion procedures have just as much right to expect the State of Illinois to apply health and safety standards to their health as to the health and well-being of patients undergoing other types of outpatient treatment.

The bill applies to ambulatory surgical treatment centers where abortions are performed and any other facility where 50 or more abortions are performed in any calendar year.

The measure is intended to provide health and safety protections for patients undergoing abortions in non-hospital settings. It reaffirms the intent of 1979 amendments to the Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act (ASTCA) — that it apply to abortion facilities — notwithstanding a federal court settlement imposed on the state in the Ragsdale case in 1989, by which a Rockford abortionist settled a lawsuit challenging application of the ASTCA’s provisions and regulations to his abortion clinic, which could not meet the state’s safety standards for his patients.

The 1979 amendments which applied the ASTCA specifically to abortion clinics were sponsored by lawmakers whose records reflected a consistent “pro-choice” perspective. They were filed in response to a November, 1978, expose of unethical, unsafe practices in Chicago abortion clinics, published by the Better Government Assn. and the Chicago Sun-Times in a noteworthy series of articles titled “The Abortion Profiteers.” The shocking reports disclosed the deaths of at least a dozen women following abortions in the Chicago clinics, revealed unsterile conditions in the clinics, documented abortions performed on women who were not pregnant and others performed without anesthesia, showed premature dismissals from recovery rooms and falsifications of medical records and uncovered kickbacks paid for abortion referrals.

Because of the Ragsdale settlement, Illinois is notorious for its inability to regulate health and safety in abortion clinics. Given the number of scandals breaking across America related to shocking practices in under-inspected abortion clinics, it is only a matter of time before scandals break out in the uninspected abortion clinics here.

Illinois women deserve better. Illinois women deserve protection of their health and safety when they undergo abortions in non-hospital settings. Illinois women need enactment of HB 4117.

Please take a moment to contact your state representative to urge him/her to vote “yes” for HB 4117.

Working with the Catholic Conference of Illinois, IFI wants to alert you to an extremely important pro-life bill sponsored by State Representative Joe Lyons (D-Chicago).  If passed, this bill would require abortion providers to simply offer an ultrasound picture to women considering abortion. The choice of whether or not to view the ultrasound picture is still their. Research has proven that between 70 and 90 percent of “abortion minded” women who see images of their unborn children choose life.

The Ultrasound Opportunity Act (HB 4085), passed out of committee earlier today and will now be considered on the House floor.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to your state representative to ask him/her to support HB 4085. Informed consent for women in a crisis pregnancy is vital. HB 4085 is a reasonable reform that offers Illinois women true choice.

Background

The backers of commercialized abortion like to say their guiding principle is “choice,” but women considering abortion  cannot make a truly informed choice without having sufficient, objective information. Such complete and accurate information on the reality and status of her pregnancy and her unborn child is essential to her psychological and physical well-being and to her free exercise of autonomy.

We are living in the 21st century with medical technology available that offers pregnant mothers the opportunity for such information via ultrasonography. Yet few if any abortion doctors offer ultrasound views to their patients. That is the reason HB 4085 is a necessary and compassionate approach to informed consent in abortion.

Of course, the bill also offers a measure of protection for the unborn child who is the object of the abortion.

An exception is provided when a medical emergency would necessitate skipping this stage in the informed consent process.

Reports to the Department of Public Health, required by the bill, would be in statistical form only and would give future General Assemblies insight as to how the law is functioning as well as assuring compliance by individual abortion providers.

We commend Rep. Lyons for his sponsorship of this common sense piece of legislation.

Please contact your state representative today to encourage him/her to support HB 4085.

P.S. Spring is an extremely busy time at our State Capitol.  More than 8,000 bills have been filed so far this session. I want to thank you for your patience with IFI and the frequency of emails we are sending out. We are doing everything we can to keep you informed in a timely manner. As we pray, partner together, and build our team of subscribers, I can tell you with confidence, we are making a difference.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and Protect Families Protect Choices filed an appeal on Monday, challenging a ruling from the Colorado Secretary of State Title Board in favor of Personhood Colorado (case: 12SA10). The 2-1 decision from the board allows a proposed state constitutional amendment, applying the right to life equally to human beings of every age, to proceed to petition.

Colorado voters overwhelming defeated two similar personhood amendments in the 2008 and 2010 elections, rejecting the measures by 3-to-1 margins both times.

“This appeal is a frivolous attempt to put the brakes on our right to petition on behalf of the preborn,” said Personhood Colorado Director Gualberto Garcia Jones, J.D. “The Court has previously ruled that guaranteeing the rights of a class of human being is a single issue, and we expect a similar ruling this year.”

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Title Board voted in December 2011 allowing Personhood Colorado’s proposed personhood amendment to proceed. In a 3-0 decision, the board dismissed a challenge filed by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. This is the third such challenge filed by the pro-abortion coalition in an attempt to block a Colorado personhood measure based on the requirement that ballot initiatives be limited in scope to a single subject. The decision is the third straight victory for the Colorado right to life advocates.

In 2008, Planned Parenthood filed suit in an attempt to stop a personhood measure from reaching the ballot (case: 07SA245). The Court dismissed its assertion that the amendment violated the single subject rule which limits citizen-led initiatives to a single issue.

“The charges of single subject violation and vagueness are absurd,” continued Garcia Jones. “Colorado personhood amendments have previously defined constitutional rights as applying to every human being from the moment our lives begin. This proposal does the same thing, and also clears up any ambiguity of what that would entail as applied.”

Personhood Colorado submitted new language for 2012 reading. The new proposal lists the effects of its enactment including that only methods of birth control and assisted reproduction that kill a person will be affected.

“In order to affirm basic human dignity, be it resolved that the right to life in this constitution applies equally to all innocent persons.” The amendment defines “person” as applying “to every human being regardless of the method of creation” and “human being” as “a member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development.”

The amendment also details that “spontaneous miscarriages shall not be affected by this section” and “medical treatment for life threatening physical conditions intended to preserve life shall not be affected by this section.” Medical treatment is defined as including, but not limited to “treatment for cancer, ectopic and molar pregnancy, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, and placenta previa.”

Colorado Right to Life will host a march Saturday, January 21 to launch “Round Three” of the 2012 Colorado Right to Life amendment, Colorado’s third attempt to protect the unborn.

According to its most recent annual report (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010), the Planned Parenthood Federation of America received more than $487 million taxpayer dollars and performed nearly 330,000 abortions.

Several members of Congress attempted to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding during 2011 budget negotiations, but were not successful. Some states, such as Indiana, also attempted to reject federal money for Planned Parenthood, but were ultimately forced by the Department of Health and Human Services to accept it or risk loss of other federal revenue.

Planned Parenthood’s recent annual report is a wake-up call for pro-life Americans.  They continue to claim that no federal money is spent on providing abortions and that their government funding is essential to their services. They also claim that only 3-percent of their services relate to abortion, but the numbers don’t add up.

While Planned Parenthood says it offers all types of “family planning” services, the same annual report revealed that the organization made only 841 adoption referrals out of 3 million clients served, while performing nearly 1,000 abortions per day in its clinics.

Click here to read more.

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New figures directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010.

The donations will certainly prompt the continued boycott of the Komen breast cancer group by millions of pro-life Americans who find it disingenuous that the women’s organization would partner with an abortion business when abortions are linked to an increase in breast cancer and when Planned Parenthood has been proven to mislead the public by falsely claiming it performs mammograms.

The new figures come from an American Life League study of Susan G. Komen affiliates’ federal forms 990 and they show 18 Komen affiliates gave $569,159 to Planned Parenthood in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available. That’s down from the $731,303 Komen officials publicly confirmed in October 2010, when they acknowledged that 20 of the 122 Komen affiliates gave to Planned Parenthood during the 2009 fiscal year.

Komen affiliates in Austin, Texas; Central New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Greater Amarillo, Texas; Los Angeles County, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Salt Lake City, Utah stopped giving to the abortion business while affiliates in Dallas County, Texas; Denver, Colorado; North Carolina Triad; North Carolina Triangle; and Puget Sound, Washington all began new relationships with Planned Parenthood.

“Komen’s support of Planned Parenthood is defeating its own mission of fighting breast cancer,” Rita Diller, the director of ALL’s STOP Planned Parenthood International program, told LifeNews.com in exclusive comments. Diller added that Planned Parenthood – beyond the issue of abortion – is not the best place for Komen to send hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations if it truly wants to help women prevent or combat breast cancer.

“In the first place, Planned Parenthood is not licensed to do anything beyond Level 1 breast examinations – the same exam that can be done by a woman in her shower, or in any clinic or physician’s office. They do not perform mammograms,” Diller explained. “Add to that the fact that Planned Parenthood’s two big money-makers, abortion and contraceptives, are directly linked to breast cancer by numerous studies conducted from the 1960′s through the present.”

“It makes no sense whatsoever for Komen to give money to Planned Parenthood,” Diller said. “Komen’s claim that women in some areas would not be able to receive breast cancer care without giving grants to Planned Parenthood is horribly misleading, at best, since Planned Parenthood does not provide breast cancer care – only manual exams and referrals. ”

Diller said she is also disappointed that the list of Komen affiliates giving money to Planned Parenthood includes several highly-populated urban areas where numerous alternatives to Planned Parenthood are readily available.

“To say that there is no other alternative in such areas for women to receive breast cancer screening and care is preposterous,” she said.

Another problem for pro-life advocates is the fact that Planned Parenthood is reducing the number of breast cancer screenings while increasing its abortions. According to the 2008 Annual Report from Planned Parenthood, breast cancer services decreased by 4% and abortion procedures increased by 6%.

The Komen spokesman confirmed last year that Komen affiliates contributed about $3.3 million to the abortion business from 2004-2009. That and the longtime ties between Komen and Planned Parenthood have resulted in some backlash from the pro-life community. The Komen annual report reveals Komen brought in almost $22 million less, or 6% less, in 2009 than it made in 2008. That could be a result of the difficult economic times or may also come as a result of pro-life advocates increasingly boycotting Komen.

Meanwhile, the newest research on the link between abortion and breast cancer reveals abortion certainly plays a role in increasing the breast cancer risk.

A January 2010 study called abortion a “known risk factor” for breast cancer and cited a study conducted by the prestigious Janet Daling group of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Daling and her colleagues showed between a 20 and 50 percent increased breast cancer risk for women having abortions compare to those who carried their pregnancies to term.

And microbiologist Dr. Gerard Nadal, who has a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from St John’s University in New York, has spent 16 years teaching science, most recently at Manhattan College, has been profiling more than 100 studies on his blog showing abortion’s link to breast cancer.

TAKE ACTION: Contact Komen for the Cure to complain about its Planned Parenthood grants at http://ww5.komen.org/Contact.aspx.

8/6/2011 1:34:00 AM – Christian Newswire

This week, the Thomas More Society filed a “friend of the court” brief available here in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on behalf of more than 60 members of the Indiana General Assembly, in opposition to Planned Parenthood’s assertion that defunding abortion providers imposes an “unconstitutional condition” on physicians’ alleged right to perform abortions.

The brief states that “abortion providers have no constitutionally recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to perform abortions” and that funding restrictions would not “interfere with the ability of pregnant women to obtain abortions. Accordingly, because the constitutional rights of women seeking abortions have not been violated, neither has the asserted right of their providers.”

In the trial court, the Thomas More Society scored a partial victory when U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied Planned Parenthood’s request to block a provision of an Indiana law that requires doctors to tell women who are seeking abortions that “human physical life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm” (previous media release here).

Society attorneys had also filed a “friend of the court” brief available here in the trial court on behalf of the Indiana legislators, defending both this provision and the provision of the law defunding Planned Parenthood.

“We’re proud to represent the members of the Indiana General Assembly in doing the will of the people, both in preventing tax dollars from being used to support abortion providers and in ensuring that women considering abortion are fully informed about the nature of the procedure,” said Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel of Chicago’s Thomas More Society.

For more information or comments, please contact Tom Ciesielka at 312-422-1333 or tc@tcpr.net.

About the Thomas More Society
Founded in 1997, the Thomas More Society is a national public interest law firm that exists to restore respect for life in law. Based in Chicago, the Thomas More Society defends the sanctity of human life, traditional family values and religious liberty in courtrooms across the country. The Society is a nonprofit organization wholly supported by private donations. For more information or to support the work of Thomas More Society, please visit www.thomasmoresociety.com.

The Chicago Tribune newspaper has released the details of a new investigative report revealing the number of abortions in the state has been massively underreported. Those numbers include six women who have died from botched abortions and 4,000 who were injured.

Although state law on abortion that Illinois adopted in 1975 requires abortion centers to report numbers and complications to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Tribune found the state system for tracking abortions is so broken that officials are likely missing as many as 7,000 abortions annually.

The newspaper found state officials documenting between 7,000 and 17,000 fewer abortions per year than the Guttmacher Institute, the former Planned Parenthood research arm that obtains numbers directly from abortion businesses. Although failure to report abortion figures or to do so properly is technically a criminal act, the Department of Public Health has never come down against an abortion business for violating the state law.

Kelly Jakubek, an agency spokeswoman, told the newspaper that it is the responsibility of abortion practitioners, not the state, to ensure they are complying with the law. She said the health department never responds to the reports because they are meant for statistics purposes only.

The Tribune also indicated that Illinois has no process other than the abortion statistics reporting to monitor whether abortion facilities or abortion practitioners have high rates of complications and may be killing or injuring women in abortions. Although Illinois currently tabulates abortions from 26 locations that do abortions in the state, Guttmacher lists 37 places as doing abortions in Illinois.

The newspaper also found that 4,000 women injured by botched abortions failed to have those injuries noted in official reports.

“For example, in 2002, after an area woman’s uterus was torn in an abortion, she began hemorrhaging, went into cardiac shock and was hospitalized for three weeks. Several years later, a mother of three experienced seizure symptoms and slipped into a coma following her abortion at a city clinic. And in 2009, a teenage girl suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest and died immediately following her abortion in a northern suburb, according to court records,” the Tribune reported.

“In certain medical malpractice cases reviewed by the Tribune, women said they were never informed by their provider that the abortion was unsuccessful and later underwent challenging pregnancies, painful deliveries and other complications.”

“Others suffered anesthesia-related problems, hemorrhaging and infections, according to the suits,” it indicated.

Maurice Stevenson, who lost his wife to a lethal infection that her 2002 abortion at a Planned Parenthood center in Chicago brought on, told theTribune he is upset to learn of the newspaper’s discoveries, saying, “It’s outrageous. These procedures, complications and deaths should be public record.”

The Tribune said the abortion business refused to discuss the abortion deaths.

“Planned Parenthood could not confirm for the Tribune whether it had reported the 2002 death of Stevenson’s wife, only that it had reported the 2008 death of another patient. The organization said it had no reason to believe the 2002 death was not reported but that the records were in storage,” theTribune reported. “And Family Planning Associates said it could not confirm whether it had reported three deaths, in 1998, 1999 and 2000. A woman who identified herself as a manager of the Women’s Aid Clinic of Lincolnwood would not comment on a 2009 death.”

Much to the chagrin of Bible-believing Americans, President Barack Obama officially proclaimed June “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month” month.

In Chicago, as in many other big cities in America, pandering politicians and so-called “news” organizations quickly line up to show their approval and support for those who identify themselves by their sexual behavior. Specifically, they march in Chicago’s “Gay Pride” Parade. This year, the parade is scheduled for Sunday, June 27 at noon in the Lakeview neighborhood.

Please note the public officials and the government agencies that are participating in this event: each entry costs taxpayers $175 plus the costs of the float and displays.

Aside from the celebration of perverse sexual behavior and the blatant disregard for obscenity and decency laws, the most disturbing aspect of this yearly event is the presence of children, both as participants and spectators. This year, the Chicago Pride Parade lineup includes not one, but two Chicago Elementary Schools.

In the past, adults have attempted to shield children from accidental exposure to immoral behavior: things their minds are too young to comprehend. Protecting their innocence was a priority. But now adults are purposely exposing children to degenerate conduct and celebrations of sexual perversity.

Don’t expect Chicago’s media to blow the whistle. No, they will be too busy dancing on their official floats in the parade. The dominate media in Chicago (and elsewhere) have given up on the idea of neutrality when it comes to issues as important and contentious as homosexuality, the meaning of family and marriage, and traditional religion. They have taken the side of homosexual activists and will not dare to challenge parade organizers in fear of being called intolerant, or worse, a bigot.

The media has intentionally discarded any notion of journalistic integrity when it comes to the divisive issue of homosexuality and counterfeit marriage and have, in turn, become fierce advocates.

Here is the list of those participating in the 2010 Gay “Pride” Parade:

Politicians and Political Groups

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky

Gov. Patrick Quinn/staff
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (Candidate for U.S. Senate)

State Sen. President John Cullerton
State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg
State Sen. Heather Steans
State Sen. Harry Osterman

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz
State Rep. Greg Harris
State Rep. Deborah Mell
State Rep. David Miller (Candidate for Illinois Treasurer)

Mayor Richard Daley’s Advisory Council on LGBT Issues
Mayors Bicycle Ambassadors
Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney
Chicago Alderman Scott Waguespack
Chicago Alderman Helen Shiller
Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle (Candidate for Cook County Pres.)
Chicago Alderman Joe Moore
Chicago Alderman Roberto Maldonado
Chicago City Treasurer Stephanie Neely

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart
Cook County Clerk Dorothy Brown
Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore
Cook County Democrats
43rd Ward Democratic Committeeman Michele Smith

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

Alliance of Illinois Judges

Candidate Joel Pollak (9th Congressional Dist.)
Candidate Scott Lee Cohen (Independent for Governor)
Candidate Ann Williams (11th Dist. State Rep.)
Candidate Robyn Gabel (18th Dist. State Rep.)
Candidate Don Nowotny (Alderman of Chicago’s 46th Ward)
Candidate James Cappleman (Alderman of Chicago’s 46th Ward)

Illinois State Bar Association
Illinois Green Party
ACLU of Illinois
Log Cabin Republicans
Planned Parenthood

Government Agencies

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody P. Weis
Chicago Commission/Human Relations
Nettelhorst School (Chicago Public Elementary School)
Chicago Waldorf School (Chicago Private Elementary School)
Chicago Public Library
Oak Park Pub. Library
Gerber Hart Library (Chicago Public Library)
CTA
Chicago Dept. Public Health
Amtrak
Illinois Lottery
Anti Cruelty Society

Sports Organizations

Chicago Cubs
Chicago Force Football

Media

Chicago Public Radio
ABC7 Chicago
WLEY-FM
WGN-TV
KISS-FM
WGN-AM
WXRT
JACK-FM
WCPT
WLIT-93.9
WCIU-TV
WBBM-FM/B96
Chicago Tribune’s RedEye Newspaper
Chicago Grab Magazine

Local Businesses

ComEd
BMW Sherreville
Grossinger Auto Group
Cricket Communications
Old Town School of Folk Music
Royal Service Realty
Threadless.com
Fields Infinity
Paninos Cafe
Bill Jacobs Volkswagen
Fletcher Jones Volkswagen
Windy City Movers
New Town Alano
Saugatuck
Chicago OUtfit
Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital
Alcala’s Western Wear
Mi Tierra Mexicana
Greenhouse Theater
Yoga Now
Nuns for Fun/Late Nite Catechism
Northside Toyota
Club Escape
Horizon Hospice
Campit Outdoor Resort
Chicago Apartment Finders
Brown Elephant
Chi-Town Squares
Standard Bank
John Baethke Plumbing
Maneuvers
Molitor Financial Group
Pretty Boy Enterprises
Animal Ark Vet Clinic
Fusion Radio Chicago
Evanston Subaru
Core Center
Le Passage
Pivot Point Academy
Broadway in Chicago
Sidetrack Nightclub
Barely Standing Rock Band
Hydrate Nightclub
Baton Show Lounge
Williams Inn
Jeffrey Pub
Miss Foozie
Resnick Auto
Robert Jeffrey Hair Salon
Folia Brasil
Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
Chicago Smelts
Hunters Nightclub
Club Krave
Pop Goes the Gio
Chicago History Museum
Looking Glass Theatre
Bailiwick Theatre
Velvet Rope
Berlin Bar
PDQ Construction
After Dark
Marbles Brain Store

Corporations

United Way
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Holiday Inn Express
Orbits
Northrop Grumman
Google
MB Financial
Restoration Salon
Office Max
Astellas Pharma
Domicile Furniture
Chase Bank
Sears Holding
Bank of America
I-Go Car Share
Exelon Corp.
Frito-Lay
PepsiCo
LA Tan
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Caribou Coffee
Miller Lite
Sara Lee
KPMG
Wrigley Co.

Pro-gay Organizations

Anti-Defamation League
Civil Rights Agenda
Ride for AIDS
Tree House Humane Society
Fillipino Pride
Just Married
GayMatchChicago.com
Active Transportation Alliance
Ram/Leather/Cupid/Banana
Chicago Gender Society
New Town Alano Club
Spin Nightclub
Gay Liberation Network
Lambda Legal
Windy City Black LGBT Pride
Dignity Chicago
Human Rights Campaign
PFLAG
Dykes on Bikes
Equality Illinois
Chicago NOW

Schools & Professional Organizations

University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Chicago
Illinois Bar Association
Indiana University GLBT Alumni
Unite Here
Chicago Boyz (University of Chicago)
Harrington College
Hoosier Honeys
Indiana University GLBT Alumni
Columbia College
ROTC Chicago
Roosevelt University
SEIU Council
Beta Gamma
Dartmouth Club
Harrington College

Religious Organizations

Chicago Theological Seminary
St. James Cathedral
Holy Convenant United Methodist Church
Countryside Unitarian Universalists
Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches
Congregation Or Chadash
Bodhi Spiritual Center
Night Ministry

Misc. 

Technosexual
TransAction
Mercy for Animals
Gay McHenry
Chicago Spirit Brigade
Howard Brown Health Center
Yelp.com
Asians & Friends Chicago
Windy City Cowboys
Chicago Prime Timers
Puerto Rican Cultural Center/VIDA SIDA
Howard Area Community Center
Join the Impact
Center on Halsted
Chicago Gay Hockey
Jane Addams Hull House