• Abortion,  Planned Parenthood

    Video: Do Medicaid Women Need Planned Parenthood in Indiana?

    Apparently not.

    Undercover phone calls released today show Planned Parenthood of Indiana clinics admitting that they are not the only source of women’s health care for women on Medicaid. Planned Parenthood and its supporters have recently argued in support of restoring their Medicaid funding in Indiana that poor women will lose access to vital health care services if they cannot go to Planned Parenthood. Live Action, the group that recorded the calls, says its footage shows the reality is quite the opposite.

    “Indiana has become Ground Zero in the national battle to defund Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion business in America,” states Live Action President Lila Rose. “As more and more states, most recently Wisconsin and Texas, continue to defund the abortion giant of millions of dollars, Planned Parenthood wants us to believe they are the only game in town when it comes to providing care for Medicaid patients. In reality, their own staff admit that they aren’t the only option for women in need.”

    In an official press release, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards claimed that Indiana’s defunding of Planned Parenthood would “take away health care from thousands of women in Indiana.” Last week, Live Action’s undercover investigators called 16 of the 28 Indiana Planned Parenthood clinics posing as women on Medicaid concerned about where they could receive services if Planned Parenthood’s funding was not restored.

    Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider has been skating by for decades under the disguise that they are frontline providers of healthcare for poor women. Actually, they make their bread and butter on poor women abortions. And, the government has been subsidizing them in an end around the Hyde Amendment which outlaws public funding for abortion services.

    What will be the impact in Indiana, if Planned Parenthood goes away from providing non-abortion related services? Not much…..

    Even Indiana doctors agree that defunding Planned Parenthood in Indiana would have little to no effect on the care and services provided to Medicaid patients.

    “If Planned Parenthood only sees 1% of Medicaid patients in the state, and that’s their statistic, it doesn’t seem like they are making a big imprint in the first place,” said Dr. Geoff Cly, at the Northeast Ob/GYN Women’s Health Group in Fort Wayne, IN. “I know in our group, we currently have capacity to see more patients and I’m sure many other groups could easily take care of the 1% that’s left if Planned Parenthood no longer took care of those patients.”

    Yet, the Obama Administration is threatening to cut $ billions in low-income healthcare funds unless Indiana contracts with Planned Parenthood.

    Exit question: Why?

  • Mitch Daniels,  Planned Parenthood,  President 2012

    President 2012: Mitch Daniels Will Sign Indiana Legislation Cutting Planned Parenthood Funding

    Not really a surprise.

    Gov. Mitch Daniels says he will sign into law a tough anti-abortion measure that would block government dollars from going to Planned Parenthood.

    The move means Medicaid recipients who use the agency’s clinics – including the 400 per year who use the one in Evansville – will be separated from their doctors.

    But Daniels said in a statement that reproductive health care will still be readily available in the areas those clinics serve.

    “I have ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to see that Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options. We will take any actions necessary to ensure that vital medical care is, if anything, more widely available than before,” he said.

    The governor’s office said the bill will block government dollars from going to all 28 of Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Indiana, as well as six clinics operated by other agencies.

    Those dollars – about $3 million per year for Planned Parenthood of Indiana – do not directly cover abortions. But proponents of the measure said no taxpayer dollars should go to agencies that offer the procedure.

    “Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions,” Daniels said.

    The governor’s decision comes on the last day of this year’s legislative session. He has said that after the session, he will decide whether to enter the Republican presidential primary.

    Next, Planned Parenthood will go to federal court and fight the defunding and Mitch Daniels may or may not announce he will be a candidate for the Presidency.

    Stay tuned…..

  • Abortion,  Planned Parenthood

    Pro-Life Group Hits Obama and Reid over Planned Parenthood Funding and Government Shut Down

    The ante goes up as a Planned Parenthood Funding rider appears to be a stumbling block on a continuing resolution to avoid a government shut down tonight at midnight.

    Democrats and Republicans can’t quite agree on what has been preventing them from cutting a budget deal — ideology (riders on abortion and Planned Parenthood) or, as House Speaker John Boehner contends, the amount of spending cuts proposed.

    On a conference call this afternoon, the conservative anti-abortion-rights group, Susan B. Anthony List, criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for what they see as threatening a shutdown over funding Planned Parenthood.   

    “It is the height of unreasonableness for this president to single out Planned Parenthood,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the group. “Why is it reasonable to shut down the government in order to protect this one organization?”

    Dannenfelser, a former staff director of the Congressional Pro-Life caucus, accused Planned Parenthood of running on “an abortion-center corporate model” that would funnel the $363 million in of Title X funding in question to increasing abortion services. Federal money is already not allowed to go toward funding abortions. Planned Parenthood notes that 95% of its services are non-abortion related health services, like cancer screenings and providing birth control.

    The policy rider Republicans attached to the proposed budget deal would block Planned Parenthood from receiving those funds. Dismissing Democratic claims her group and like-minded Republican lawmakers are waging a war on women, Dannenfelser and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said the rider redirects the $363 million to one of the country’s other 1,700 federally qualified women’s healthcare providers. 

    Dannenfelser claimed Planned Parenthood only acts as a primary care provider for 19,000 of the 3 million female patients the organization sees each year and cutting their funding will not cause a reduction in women’s health services. Planned Parenthood says that’s not true. Saying “come on” in response to a reporter’s assertion that Planned Parenthood cannot use federal money to pay for abortion services, Jordan insisted the money they receive is “fungible” and said he believes most of those funds do help pay for abortions.

    “For them to make that claim,” Jordan said, “it’s just common sense that money is fungible.”

    I don’t mean to be cynical, but I think Speaker Boehner is using this rider to extract more cuts – as many as he can – and will sacrifice the issue (for now) in the end in order to avoid a government shut down.

    Anyone want to bet though that they only partially fund Planned Parenthood?

  • Mike Pence,  Planned Parenthood

    House Votes to Defund Abortionist Planned Parenthood

    Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-Indiana) amendment to defund Planned Parenthood passed 240-185 in the House

    The House just approved Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, checking off a hot-button social issue even as it set up a bigger showdown over defunding the health care law.

    The vote was 240-185 with 11 Democrats voting for the amendment, and seven Republicans voting against. One member voted present. A group of Republicans on the floor applauded when the vote hit 218.

    Pence, of Indiana, touched off a vicious back-and-forth Thursday night in which Republicans insisted the organization is too aggressive about performing abortions and several Democrats charged that the GOP was waging a “war on women.”

    Pence said the amendment captures a rough public consensus that they accept legal abortions, but don’t want to pay for them.

    He did get House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to weigh in on his side, declaring, “The time has come to respect the wishes of the majority of Americans who adamantly oppose using taxpayer dollars for abortions.”

    Although Planned Parenthood did not use these funds for performing abortions, the funds did support the organization in a generic infrastructure sense to perform abortions – and at taxpayer expense.

    Planned Parenthood estimates it received a quarter of the $317 million in Title X funds appropriated last year. They use the money for pelvic exams, breast exams, safer-sex counseling and basic infertility counseling, among other things.

    Pence took his fight against Planned Parenthood to the next level after the release of a series of videos by the group Live Action –videos that they say show Planned Parenthood employees advising actors posing as pimps on information on how to get abortions, STD testing and birth control for their underage prostitutes.

    Cantor said last night that Planned Parenthood had been caught “red-handed.”

    Planned Parenthood has been getting by with a wink and a nod for decades (largely supported by the Democratic Party) while being the largest abortion provider in the country. Time to stop the government and the use of my tax dollars to support abortion.

    Let Planned Parenthood do it privately – if they can.