The Death of Planned Parenthood?

Written by Bill Muehlenberg
Reproduced with permission.

Given that Planned Parenthood is one of the greatest promoters of death around the globe, it is fitting that we may be witnessing the death of this nefarious organisation. If not its death, we are certainly seeing its long-overdue meltdown because of widespread adverse reaction to it.

Just this week the US House of Representatives voted to scrap funding for PP.  House members approved the amendment by Congressman Mike Pence by a vote of 240-185. The debate now moves to the US Senate. It has been a horror month or two for the organisation, and this is just icing on the cake for pro-life forces.

PP in the US has been caught red-handed engaging in all sorts of horrific activities of late, including trying to cover up sex trafficking, offering abortion to minors, engaging in life-threatening botched abortions, breaking various laws, and seeking to discredit whistleblowers.

Things didn’t help PP very much when young pop sensation Justin Bieber said this week that he was pro-life. In an interview for Rolling Stone he said, “I really don’t believe in abortion. It’s like killing a baby?” And a new national survey found that 53 per cent of American voters consider abortion morally wrong most of the time, while just 32 per cent say it is morally acceptable most of the time. Another 15 per cent of Americans are undecided.

No wonder PP CEO Cecile Richards has called it “the worst attack – ever.” While she may call it an attack, many others would describe it as an attempt to get some truth and light into this deceptive and dark organisation, to expose the many shameful activities which regularly take place there.

Then there was the recent defection of a PP leader who spilled the beans on her former employer. I have written up Abby Johnson’s important story elsewhere: http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/02/04/a-review-of-unplanned-by-abby-johnson/

But the real question that needs to be asked is why wasn’t the heat turned up on PP years ago? It has been around since 1916, and has been pushing appalling philosophies, policies and practices ever since. We have known for decades what a horrific outfit this is, yet few have spoken out against it.

Several important books exposing PP had been written a few decades ago. Back in 1988 George Grant wrote a very important expose of the movement, Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood (Adroit Press). A revised edition came out in 1992.

This thoroughly researched and documented volume really lifted the lid on the ugly world of PP. This is how he begins his description of the group: “Planned Parenthood is the world’s oldest, largest, and best-organized provider of abortion and birth control services.” No wonder it is so often referred to as ‘Planned Barrenhood’.

He continues, “it has expanded dramatically into a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate with programs and activities in one hundred thirty nations on every continent. In the United States alone, it employs more than twenty thousand staff personnel and volunteers in over eight hundred clinics, nearly two hundred affiliates, and more than fifty chapters in every major metropolitan area, coast to coast.”

Another lengthy and important critique of PP came in 1991 with Blessed are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood by Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan (Ignatius). Their volume also thoroughly documented the insidious agenda of this radical social engineering organisation.

Anyone reading these two books (each one running to 400 pages) would not only become a mini-authority on PP, but would see why concerned citizens have long sought to expose the diabolical workings of this group. It has been one of the most destructive and dangerous groups to operate freely for the past century.

Margaret Sanger

One cannot really understand the horrific agenda of PP without knowing something about its founding. Unfortunately most people know nothing about this, and PP is careful not to let the public know too much about its actual beginning. But we all need to know about PP’s founder, Margaret Sanger.

This is not the place to provide a detailed look at Sanger. Suffice it to say that she was a radical eugenicist, pro-abortionist, racist, socialist, atheist, and coercive utopian. She proudly champed promiscuity and ‘free love’; sex education for the youngest of children; radical feminism; forced sterilisation for those she considered to be less than human; and segregation of inferior classes and races.

But letting her speak in her own words may be the best way to demonstrate her malevolent ideology. Her own writings and speeches are mind-boggling, and they show just what a monstrous worldview she held to. This explains why PP has been such a force for evil in the world. Consider just a few select quotes:

“The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”

“Birth control: to create a race of thoroughbreds.”

“Through sex, mankind may attain the great spiritual illumination which will transform the world, which will light up the only path to an earthly paradise.”

“We who advocate Birth Control … lay all our emphasis upon stopping not only the reproduction of the unfit but upon stopping all reproduction when there is not economic means of providing proper care for those who are born in health. The eugenist also believes that a woman should bear as many healthy children as possible as a duty to the state. We hold that the world is already over-populated. Eugenists imply or insist that a woman’s first duty is to the state; we contend that her duty to herself is her first duty to the state.”

“We prefer the policy of immediate sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely prohibited to the feeble-minded.”

“In the early history of the race, so-called ‘natural law’ reigned undisturbed. Under its pitiless and unsympathetic iron rule, only the strongest, most courageous could live and become progenitors of the race. The weak died early or were killed. Today, however, civilization has brought sympathy, pity, tenderness and other lofty and worthy sentiments, which interfere with the law of natural selection. We are now in a state where our charities, our compensation acts, our pensions, hospitals, and even our drainage and sanitary equipment all tend to keep alive the sickly and the weak, who are allowed to propagate and in turn produce a race of degenerates.”

“[Woman's] instincts are fundamentally creative, not destructive. But her sex-bondage has made the dumb instrument of the monster she detests. For centuries she has populated the earth in ignorance and without restraint, in vast numbers and with staggering rapidity. She has become not the mother of a nobler race, but a mere breeding machine grinding out a humanity which fills insane asylums, almshouses and sweat shops, and provides cannon fodder that tyrants may rise to power on the sacrifice of her offspring.”

Just as horrendous are these quotes from other writers she allowed to be published in her Birth Control Review:

“The propagation of the unfit must be suppressed, and the accumulation of the debris which encumbers society must be prevented. Science has relieved us of famines and epidemics; science could rid us of the multiplication of degenerate types doomed to lives of wretchedness and incapacity. By what means? Malthus no doubt could show us the way.” -Henry De Variguy

“Godspeed the day when the unwilling mother, with her weak, puny body, her sad, anaemic unlovely face, and her dependent whine, will be no more. In that day, we shall see a race of American thoroughbreds, if not the superman.” -Anna E. Blount, M.D.

“The good preacher ‘thanks God that Susannah Wesley [mother of John Wesley] was not the kind of woman’ who refuses to do her full duty in the line of babies. He wishes this country ‘had a million mothers like Susannah Wesley.’ It has. There are probably several million just as thoughtless and improvident as she was. The country is full of foolish women who continually bring into the world babies … I might point out to Dr. Cadman that most of Susannah’s babies were of no use. Only John and Charles amounted to a hill of beans. The rest were nonentities, like all the Washington brood except George.” -Charles Hiram Chapman

“The plain and simple truth is that they [children] are born needlessly. There are still far too many births for our civilization to look after adequately; we are still unfit to be trusted with a rising birth rate. Our civilization at present has neither the courage to kill them outright quickly, cleanly and painlessly, nor the heart and courage and ability to give them what they need.” -H.G. Wells

Given these quotes, it is not at all surprising that Sanger was closely associated with the Nazi doctors and the eugenicists which Hitler employed to enact his Final Solution. She fully endorsed their use of euthanasia, abortion, sterilisation and infanticide.

And it is her organisation that American taxpayers have been subsidizing for decades. The sooner this miserable organisation is put out of action the better. We should all have learned to reject eugenics from the disastrous attempt to establish the Third Reich – but we seem to be such slow learners.

 

Things have been quiet on the Life Network Australia website for the last month, but lots happening to catch you up on.
Sonja has been working with a Bendigo group, The Bendigo Social Justice Action Group and Linda has been up to her ears in work and family life.
I am sure everyone of you is also busy wrapping things up (excuse the pun) before Christmas and the New Year.
A little about the Victorian election...
Pro life groups have worked tirelessly during the Victorian election campaign period to highlight the actions of those Members of Parliament who supported the barbaric 2008 Victorian Abortion law reform.
Margaret Tighe, now Vice President of Right to Life Australia and RTLA have been credited by The Tasmanian Times with unseating six of the eight MP's that they targetted. One of these (now former) MP's was EMILY List's Maxine Morand who was responsible for tabling the abortion legislation. RTLA letter boxed and protested at her office in Mount Waverley.
In Bendigo, RTLA,  Lifevote and the Bendigo Social Justice Action Group (BSJAG) all campaigned to unseat the ALP member for Bendigo East, Jacinta Allan. Ms Allan's seat was a marginal seat, but the media predicted an easy win. Mr Brumby and Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, both attended the state ALP launch in Bendigo.
 The BSJAG ran a TV, radio and newpaper campaign, protested at The Green's launch (also held in Bendigo), the ALP launch and at Ms Allan's office. Sonja participated in a debate with the CEO of Loddon Mallee Women's Health Clinic on IPTV and Mike Bowen drove a truck through Bendigo advertising Ms Allan's support of abortion up until birth.
RTLA letterboxed Ms Allan's electorate twice, ran newspaper advertisements and had a mobile billboard (on a trailer) driving through Bendigo.
 Lifevote also letter boxed Ms Allan's electorate.
While Ms Allan retained her seat of Bendigo East, there was a 3% swing against her in the primary votes, 1% after preferences were distributed.
One thing that become obvious very early was the support Ms Allan had from a prominent and well supported Bendigo newspaper. It also became very apparent that much of the Bendigo public, including ALP supporters and staff (including her former legal adviser) did not believe that abortion is now legal up until birth, something that Ms Allan avoided making a single comment on.
The member for Shepparton, Janette Powell was the only National Party MP in the lowerhouse to vote for the bill. Ewan McDonald who stood as a candidate in the Northern Victoria Region (upperhouse) arranged to letter box drop her electorate with the RTLA brochure. Shepparton was not a marginal seat, but the campaign had WIN News and the people of Shepparton talking about abortion, the 2008 legislation and Ms. Powell's support of it.
Overall, the efforts of the pro life groups are to be commended. The public are more informed and a message has been sent loud and clear that advocates of the unborn will not be silenced.

We congratulate courageous and outspoken pro life MPs, Bernie Finn (Lib), Christine Campbell (ALP) and Peter Ryan (Nat) on their re-election to the Victorian Parliament. We look forward to great things in 2011!

Information reproduced with permission.

Life Network Australia reported that the Victorian Government voted against an investigation into the deaths of 54 babies born alive after failed abortions and left to die, in 2007.

Reverend Mark Durie tabled a motion to bring this information before the Anglican synod, who supported the decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria in 2008. 

The motion was that this Synod:
 Examine:

1. a reported six-fold increase in late-term abortions being performed at the Royal Women's Hospital since the introduction of the Abortion Law Reform Bill in October 2008;[1] and
2. a reported 52 cases in 2007 of late-term abortions (15% of the total in that year) which resulted in babies being born alive;

1. How many late-term abortions are being performed in Victoria every week, and at how many weeks gestation?
2. What are the reasons these abortions are being performed, and in what proportions?
3. For those babies born alive as a result of a late-term abortion, were the neonates given the medical care at birth which a new born infant would normally be entitled to, and what was their cause of death?
4. What has been the effect on staff morale of the reported six-fold increase in late-term abortions being performed at the Royal Women's Hospital?
5. What impact has the reported increase in late-term abortions had on policies for recruitment of staff at the Royal Women's Hospital?

 News Weekly  reported that "Unfortunately, Dr Durie's motion at the Anglican synod was not voted on as Rev. Dr Ray Cleary, a theology lecturer and former chief executive officer of Anglicare Victoria (Victoria's largest provider of support services for children and families), moved that the synod move on to the next item on the agenda". 

Disappointment is an understatement, given the extreme impact of this decision (and that of the Victorian Government's refusal to investigate) on late term babies being aborted and left to die if born alive. It is appalling and heartless that these babies do not warrant even a debate.
Reverend Durie prepared a speech to present but was denied the opportunity to - his speech can be found here. 

Anglican Minister, Dr Mark Durie, has expressed concern about babies being born alive during late term abortion procedures and left  to die and has challenged the Victorian Government to 'come clean' on what is happening in Melbourne clinics and hospitals.

According to The Age (Oct 7, 2010), Dr. Durie said that "staff were finding it hard to cope with a reported six-fold increase in late-term abortions at the Women's since abortion was decriminalised in Victoria two years ago" and that "because conscientious objection by medical staff was now illegal, the hospital could employ only people who endorsed late-term abortions".

Dr. Durie described a trainee (not at The Royal Women's) as being "deeply traumatised when she was told to drop a living foetus in a bucket of formaldehyde".

A spokeswoman for the Royal Women's Hospital commented, that "no staff were ever required to perform or assist in any procedure contrary to their own conscience or beliefs". However, Jennifer Keyte reported on Channel 7 in April this year  that the midwives and doctors at The Royal Women's were, in fact, also "traumatised  by having to perform so many and are unhappy that other hospitals were not equipped or refused to perform late term abortion." Ms Keyte was referring to the six hundred percent increase since the 2008 decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria.

According to The Age, Dr. Durie calls on the state government to answer five questions about late-term abortions:

"■ How many are happening, and how late?

■ What are the reasons for the abortions?

■ Are those born alive receiving medical care, or what is their cause of death?

■ What has been the effect on staff morale at the Royal Women's Hospital?

■ What has been the effect on staff recruitment?"

Around June this year, DLP MP Peter Kavanagh also called for an investigation into these babies being born alive. The motion was lost 27 votes to nine, after ALP MP's were instructed to vote against it.

Mr Kavanagh stated "My motion was simply a call to investigate the deaths of babies.  The fact that these babies have been born alive after 'failed' abortions seems to mean that abortion staff think that those babies do not have a right to live.  Even after they have been born alive."

Mr Kavanagh said that "the vote suggested that unfortunately it was also the attitude of a majority of Victoria's politicians" .

"Brian Tee and Gayle Tierney for the ALP, together with Colleen Hartland for the Greens launched a coordinated personal attack on me. All of them asserted facts which were contradicted by the very documents to which they referred. They did not even read the motion they were arguing against!" Mr Kavanagh said.

"I was told by several distressed ALP MP's that they had to vote against my motion.  They said that the ALP decided to vote against the proposed investigation because it did not want anything at all that even hinted at abortion to be mentioned at the time of the election" Mr Kavanagh said.

It is not surprising then that The Age article also reported that no figures had been officially released since abortion was decriminalised in 2008. Dr. Durie believes that this is ''because of the deep ethical conflict involved, there will be pressure to suppress the reality of what is going on." Peter Kavanagh has suggested otherwise.

Dr Durie rightly said the public have every right to know that "even in 2007, 52 babies survived late-term abortions, according to government figures. In some clinics they had simply been put on a shelf and left to die".

Minister Durie also expressed his concern in the article that "most people became midwives because they loved seeing children born" He said 'I find it hard to comprehend that staff can go from working to rescue a 27-week-old foetus in one hour, and the next hour delivering another one dead.''

The Age said that Archdeacon Alison Taylor told them at the time, that The Anglican diocese backed decriminalising abortion in the Victorian Law Reform Commission review in 2007,  because "in some circumstances, such as foetal abnormality, abortion was the ''the least problematic solution''. However, perinatal statistics from the Victorian Government in 2005 revealed that of the 309 post 20 week abortion performed, 180 were for "psycho social" reasons, in other words... on perfectly healthy babies.

 Health Department spokesman, Bram Alexander, said "it was the job of the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity to monitor trends and data, and its 2008 report would be released before the end of 2010".  Liberal MP, Bernie Finn, believes that this information is being withheld until after the Victorian state election. He said that "the last thing this Government wants is this information about abortion to be known before election day - this government is living in fear of what the public will do to them if the truth comes out about what is happening in this state."  

This Sunday marks the second anniversary of the passing of what are the most extreme abortion laws in the western world. Thousands will again gather and march through the Melbourne CBD on Saturday morning to send a message to the Victorian ALP Government and others who supported this legislation - that it is unacceptable. 

Life Vote are also encouraging Victorian voters to find out how their member voted on the abortion Bill of 2008, and to vote for candidates that do not support this barbaric legislation, but who value protection for babies, women and families.

It is vital that protection for all babies (and women) be reinstated by law.

If you are concerned about the number of abortions in Australia and the damage that abortion does to women and families, we suggest make yourself heard on August 21st.

The Australian Christian Lobby have asked all of the political parties about their policies on a number of issues, including two questions about abortion. The responses can be seen on their Australia Votes website. The responses to one question are reproduced below.

In order to make your vote count, it pays to be informed about the Australian voting system and the distribution of preferences. Christian group, OneVote and Family First have released short videos to help explain what happens to your vote.

Question: The 2007 annual report of the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity (Victoria) showed that 52 out of 181 late term babies who were aborted for “abnormalities” survived late term abortions but died neo-natally. Would your Party support a conscience vote on Medicare funding for abortions carried out on babies old enough to be viable outside the womb?

Answers:
Liberal National Coalition
The Coalition has no plans to change current arrangements in relation to abortion. In government, the Coalition established a nationwide Pregnancy Counselling Helpline to provide counselling and referral services to women and their partners who wished to explore their options in the face of unintended pregnancy.

Family First
Yes – Family First has raised numerous concerns in Parliaments around Australia regarding late term abortions. Family First would support a conscience vote to ban the Medicare funding of abortion carried out on babies old enough to be viable outside the womb.

Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party
One third of Australian conceptions are aborted. This affects all families in our country. All women have the right to access the best medical care if they choose abortion.

Christian Democratic Party
We allow a conscience vote on all issues so a resounding YES. Our policy position is to support the rights of the unborn child as we see the unborn child as a person. In fact the UN Charter on human rights gives the same legal rights to the unborn child as to the born child and we hold to this position. Our policies do not support abortions and we did call on the federal government to seek to overturn Victoria's position as we are a signatory to the UN Charter on rights of the child where the same rights are granted to both the born and the unborn child.

Climate Sceptics
Yes.

Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
Our party would support a conscience vote on Medicare funding for abortions carried out on babies old enough to be viable outside the womb.

Australian Sex Party
With regard to abortion our party supports ‘conscience’ votes on all issues and especially with abortion. We support a women’s right to control her own fertility and to terminate a pregnancy up until the developing foetus becomes an individual person in its own right, with an individual consciousness. We support Medicare funding for all terminations where a qualified doctor is involved. Pro abortion. Supports women’s rights to have an abortion if they so choose. Calls for uniform state abortion laws and amendments to the Therapeutic Goods Act to allow milepristone (RU486) to be imported and distributed widely in place of the highly restrictive and cumbersome Authorised Prescriber process which resulted from the “Harradine Amendments” to the Therapeutic Goods Amendment Bill 1996.

Democratic Labor Party of Australia
The question probably should be: would we support any attempt to remove medicare funding for abortions on babies considered to be of a viable gestational age. The answer is a firm yes. However, we also want it known that we oppose every single abortion for any reason at any and all gestational ages.

Australian Labor Party
Regulation of late-term abortion is a matter for States and Territories. The Australian Labor Party supports conscience votes on issues before the federal parliament which relate to abortion.

Australian Greens
THE GREENS DECLINED TO PROVIDE AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION.

Note: Life Network Australia is not affiliated with any political party. The responses above are in random order.

Reproduced with permission from The Catholic League of Australia

Information gathered both by the ABC TV’s ‘Four Corners’ (tune in at 32 minutes) program as well as a leaked list containing banned websites from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, shows that numerous anti-abortion sites are currently censored by the Australian Government.

The websites are banned for depicting graphic material which is understood to be images and videos of abortion procedures. One website that is censored is ‘abortSA.com’, the website is run by Trevor Grace who was an anti-abortion candidate for South Australian Parliament in 2008.The website only recently became available to Australian web users when the websites’ hosting server was moved offshore. AbortionNO.com known for its graphic resources on abortion was also on the censor list.

A spokesperson for ‘The Catholic League of Australia’ commented on the news: ‘We are told by governments, parliamentarians and pro-choice advocates, that abortion just involves the removal of ‘cells and ’tissues’ from the human body. It should then not be an issue to allow images and videos that depict the process of how these ‘cells’ and ’tissues are removed from the body.It is totally hypocritical for anyone to claim abortion is just the removal of “cells” and not  murder, but then claim it is OK to ban images of abortions because they are too graphic or too real.’

The Catholic League of Australia has asked Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communications, as well as the ACMA to explain their actions.

In a recent Seven News report, Leslie Cannold has poorly attempted to move the focus of a discussion about the plight of an increasing number of late term abortions to being about service delivery.

It is likely that medical staff at the Royal Women's Hospital are "traumatised" by the barbaric nature of late term abortion procedures rather than by the workload as intimated by Ms Cannold.

On one point Ms Cannold is correct, that "politicans need to show leadership".  LNA believes this would be by restoring the rights and the protection of the unborn.

Research indicates that abortion hurts women, many of whom feel that abortion is the last resort in difficult circumstances. Women deserve better!

The news item also stated that most late term abortions are done for severe physical abnormalities, but include requests for reasons as minor as cleft lip.

An article by the Herald Sun (2008) challenges that this is the case: "Dr Lachlan De Crespigny and Prof Julian Savulescu state that late abortion is done only "for major problems as a last resort", giving the example of a lethal heart abnormality in the fetus. The medical data tells a different story".

It goes on to say that "The majority of late abortions were for psychosocial reasons, not fetal abnormality. The term "psychosocial" means there is no medical problem with the mother or the baby, but the parents request abortion because of economic or emotional stress".

The cruelty of this legislation is made even more apparent through the rejection of amendments that included: pain relief (anaesthetic) for the baby being aborted; counselling; and a "cooling off" period for women considering late term abortion.
 
John Brumby, Maxine Morand and other politicians who voted and promoted legislation that made abortion available on demand to twenty four weeks and to full term (with the signatures of two doctors) are responsible for this increase in late term abortions.

The upcoming state election in Victoria is an opportunity to vote for candidates that value the lives of all Victorians (and remove politicians who do not).

Related links:
A late term partial birth abortion procedure shown here with drawings here. 
Other abortion procedures here.
Late term abortion and foetal pain here.

Paul Austin (The Age, April 29) reported that Bernie Finn sparked outrage over his comments about Maxine Morand in which he stated that she should not be "let loose on kindergarten children".
 
In making this bold statement, Mr. Austin has drawn attention to the perversity of Ms Morand being the  sponsor of the Victorian Abortion Bill in 2008, whilst now holding the portfolio of Early Childhood Development.

Mr. Finn has the support of thousands of Victorians who are mortified by the abortion legislation, sponsored by Ms Morand, which permits abortion right up until birth. The intent of the legislation was glaringly obvious when pro-abort ministers went beyond arguing 'choice' - when amendments (such as banning abortion up until birth, parental consent for under 18 years, anaesthetic for the unborn babies being aborted and the rights of Doctors to abstain from any involvement in abortion) were rejected.
 
Life Network Australia President, Sonja Couroupis, states that most people just don't know or understand what went down in Parliament that day....and when they do find out, they are horrified. The standard response we get is..."No, that is just not possible!" and "How come no-one knows about this?!"
 
Mr. Finn stated ''I find it appalling that here is an individual who is responsible for a piece of legislation which legalises the killing of children up until the moment of birth, and there she is parading around with young children in order to win votes".
 
In the article, Ms Morand had no strong arguments to oppose Mr. Finn's comments, and can only point her finger at others who tragically threw their support behind this barbaric legislation.