Planned Parenthood's own bailout... and what you can do to stop it.

What you can do
The old adage attributed to Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing" was never more applicable than it is right now. The only thing you can do wrong is to be quiet.

Here are specific ways in which you can make your voice heard:

1. Sign American Life League's petition to stop Planned Parenthood's agenda at www.stopp.org/agenda.

2. Call your elected officials in Washington, D.C. and tell them what you think of PP's agenda. If you do not know your representative or senator's name or need their phone number, call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121.

3. Visit the local offices of your members of Congress and tell them personally that you do not want them to support any part of PP's agenda.

4. Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers and call in to local, regional and national talk shows to discuss this outrage.

5. Schedule a speaker at your church, civic group or school to inform your community of the threat that PP poses to your community. You can schedule a speaker from American Life League by calling 540-659-4171 and asking for Mike Sedlak.

6. Pray that God will bless the effort to defeat PP.


Obama transition team makes PP's wish list public
In a move that reportedly caught Planned Parenthood by surprise, the Obama transition team is making public all of the input it receives from third-party sources – including a 55-page document put together by PP and two dozen other "reproductive health" organizations.

The document, Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration, spells out PP's wish list for the Obama administration.
The main part of the document will be no surprise to our readers, as we covered most of it in earlier WSRs. PP wants Obama to sign the Freedom of Choice Act and the Prevention First Act. But, just in case these acts don't pass, PP has built many of the items covered by them into this new document and has added a great deal more.

In addition, the document has several sections, which need to be cited so that you can have a fuller understanding of PP's political agenda. We will present those sections in the next few items.


PP wants Obama to "improve access to abortion care"
Planned Parenthood always maintains that it is not "pro-abortion"; it is just "pro-choice." Yet, this document clearly spells out that PP wants the unfettered ability to commit whatever abortions it wants and at taxpayer expense, as far as possible.

Over the last three decades, Congress has passed a number of bills that include restrictions on using taxpayer money to fund abortions. PP, of course, is not happy with this and wants to use as much taxpayer money as possible to kill babies in the womb. In this document, PP specifically wants Obama to strike down all restrictions on abortion funding for the following groups:

• Medicaid-eligible women
• Medicare beneficiaries
• Federal employees and their dependents
• Residents of the District of Columbia
• Peace Corps volunteers
• Native-American women
• Women in federal prisons

In addition, it calls for the elimination of the Weldon Amendment. Eliminating Weldon would allow both federal and state government agencies to refuse to give funds to a doctor or organization if that organization refused to commit or refer for abortions – thus ensuring more money for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.


PP wants Obama to include abortion in normal health care
In addition to removing all restrictions on taxpayer funding of abortions, the document submitted by Planned Parenthood and its friends calls on Obama to seek passage of a comprehensive healthcare reform act.

PP specifically states, "Comprehensive benefits must include access to the full range of reproductive health services, including contraception, maternity care, and abortion care."

This document makes it very clear that PP views abortion as just another medical procedure of no particular significance. It believes providing abortion is providing "care" for the woman and child.

We must remember that PP already runs the nation's largest abortion chain and commits 24 percent of all abortions in the country. Thus, any increase of abortion coverage in health plans would benefit PP more than any other entity in the abortion business.

It is clear that PP's demand that healthcare plans provide "abortion care" would result in the deaths of many more babies and would provide additional millions of dollars of income to Planned Parenthood.


Taxpayers' cost for Planned Parenthood's plan
When reading Planned Parenthood's plan for the Obama administration, we were struck by the massive amounts of money it would take to implement it. Especially in this time of economic hardship, it is particularly galling that PP would seek to further fatten its coffers at the expense of the American public. Using the requested dollar amounts in the document, plus a couple of reasonable estimates by American Life League, it is clear that funding the entire package put together by PP would cost the American taxpayer $4.6 billion – most of it in annual expenditures!

These costs break down as follows:

PP's wish list for the Obama administration:

• Increase funding for the Title X Family Planning Program from $300 million to $700 million.
• Expand coverage of Medicaid-funded family planning services (PP estimates three million more people would be covered). ALL cost estimate – $540 million.
• Increase funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's STD Prevention Program from $157 million to $267 million.
• Increase funding for the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health from $40.2 million to $66.6 million.
• Invest in comprehensive sex education – $50 million.
o Authorize annual funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs. Cost – $20 million.
• Strike budgetary restrictions that block women's access to abortion care. ALL estimates that government would pay for as much as 25 percent of all abortions, at a cost of $120 million.
• Increase funding for the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant from $666 million to $850 million.
• Restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund – $65 million.
o Give back payments to UNFPA of approximately $50 million.
• Increase spending for international family planning programs from $461 million to $935 million.
• Increase funding for international maternal and child health (MCH) programs from $450 million to $900 million.
• Review policies that restrict access to emergency contraception and eliminate restrictions that, according to PP, lack scientific support.
o Authorize important public education programs to inform women and doctors about EC. Cost - $10 million.
• Increase Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Drug Treatment Programs for Pregnant and Parenting Mothers from $12 million to $70 million.

TOTAL OF ABOVE-NAMED PROGRAMS: $4,644,000,000, THAT IS, $4.6 BILLION


Additional elements in PP's plan
There are many additional elements in this plan, most notably, the following:

• Defund all abstinence-only education programs
• Rescind the global gag rule.
• Restore incentives to provide affordable birth control at college health centers and certain safety net providers.
• Select judicial nominees with a demonstrated commitment to fundamental legal protections and civil liberties, including reproductive rights.
• Give money to groups that do not oppose prostitution

Here is the actual wording from the document on the last item in the above list:

The global AIDS law, as a condition of eligibility for funding, requires recipient organizations to have a policy opposing prostitution. This policy has impeded PEPFAR's ability to work with some of the organizations most trusted by the women who are among the most vulnerable to HIV. Moreover, in August 2008, a federal court found the requirement unconstitutional as applied to U.S.-based organizations. The U.S. Agency for International Development and HHS should revise their guidelines as applied to domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations to comply with the court ruling as well as to allow for the most effective foreign groups to partner with the United States in the fight against AIDS.