Operation Rescue calls for an independent auditor in light of connections between Gov. Culver, Attorney General Miller and Planned Parenthood

Des Moines, IA — Operation Rescue has filed a formal request with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller for a state audit of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, (PPH).

A Governmental Accounting Office report issued in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2010, revealed that $2.3 billion dollars in taxpayer money has been doled out to Planned Parenthood organizations nationwide from 2002-2008, yet Planned Parenthood’s own financial reports show that only $657.1 million has been spent. That leaves $1.8 billion dollars in tax funds with unaccounted for.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, based in Des Moines, Iowa, has been the recipient of Title X funds as well as money from other federal programs. Thousands of tax dollars have been disbursed directly to PPH through the Iowa Attorney General’s office. It is likely that some of the missing $1.8 billion has made its way to Iowa.

“We believe the public has a right to know where their tax money is going. It is time that Planned Parenthood gives an account for the money that it has siphoned from hard-working taxpayers,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“We are especially concerned about possible misappropriation of funds after discovering that PPH is overbilling insurance companies for their remote-controlled abortion pill distribution scheme, known as telemed abortions.”

Evidence of overbilling by a number of Planned Parenthood affiliates has surfaced in California, where a state audit discovered that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties had overbilled the state $5,213,645.92 for birth control pills alone. A Federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Chief Financial Officer of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles revealed that the state of California was overbilled for a total of $180 million by Planned Parenthood affiliates in that state.

“There is enough history of Planned Parenthood bilking taxpayers and other financial improprieties to justify this request for an audit of PPH,” said Newman.

Operation Rescue released an investigative report on PPH’s telemed abortion scheme in March, 2010, then filed a complaint concerning its dangers with the Iowa Board of Medicine the following month. That investigation is ongoing.

OR also filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s office requesting a criminal investigation telemed abortions. Miller indicated that his office was unlikely to investigate. Operation Rescue then discovered connections between Miller and PPH, including a PPH abortionist who sits on one of Miller’s advisory boards. In addition, Gov. Chet Culver, recently met with PPH officials and received their endorsement of his re-election campaign.

“In light of Miller’s and Culver’s connections with PPH, we are asking for an independent audit to be conducted by someone not associated, either personally or politically, with Miller or Culver,” said Newman. “That is the only way the public can be assured of an honest accounting.”

Read the Complaint

Albuquerque, NM — The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a group abortion promoters consisting of renegade members of Christian denominations or members of non-christian religious traditions, has viciously and falsely attacked Operation Rescue in a letter that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on Friday, July 9, 2010. While we are used to pro-abortion fanatics misrepresenting the work of Operation Rescue, the RCRC letter was not only misleading, but presented gross untruths about OR. The record had to be set straight. Below is Troy Newman’s response as it appeared in the Thursday, July 15, 2010, edition of the Albuquerque Journal.
_____________

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Peaceful Activism Is Operation Rescue Way

By Troy Newman
President, Operation Rescue

Last Friday, an opinion column by Joan Sanford of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice was published in the Albuquerque Journal alleging that Operation Rescue’s involvement in Albuquerque affairs — concerning the late-term abortions of Curtis Boyd—will bring violence to the region.

Let it be said that Operation Rescue has a lengthy record of peaceful pro-life activism.
Operation Rescue’s satellite office in Albuquerque will be bent on fighting against abortion using strictly peaceful methods.

Sanford perpetuates allegations — which are fickle at best — that Operation Rescue was somehow involved in the murder of George Tiller in 2009 based on the coincidence that senior policy adviser for Operation Rescue Cheryl Sullenger’s phone number was found in Scott Roeder’s car after his arrest.

The mere presence of the phone number in no way constitutes an affiliation with Roeder or an endorsement of his actions.

The phone number that was found was readily accessible on Operation Rescue’s website and was used as an informational line, oftentimes for people to find out where prayer vigils were being held.

In fact, Operation Rescue was the first group to issue a statement after the murder of Tiller. In the statement, Operation Rescue denounced the actions of Roeder as “cowardly,” and Operation Rescue condemns the use of violence to stand against abortion.

But while Operation Rescue reacted prudently with a statement concerning Tiller’s death, a search of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice website confirms it has yet to issue a statement concerning the murder of pro-life activist James Pouillon who was gunned down last September because of his pro-life beliefs, even though he was protesting in a completely peaceful, non-threatening manner.

The coalition’s failure to issue a statement leads us to believe it has no problem with his assassination.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is trying to diminish the basic human right to life by skirting the real issues and bringing up decades-past situations that have been resolved.

Sanford brings up the fact that Sullenger was convicted in 1988 of conspiring to damage an abortion mill. Sullenger immediately expressed remorse and regretted her actions. She served her time to society, and in the 22 years since her conviction, she has been an outspoken opponent of violence both inside and outside the womb.

A 22-year-old mistake does not characterize the pro-lifer that Sullenger is now, and her dedication toward fighting abortion through peaceful means proves that. Her advocacy gives her and Operation Rescue a better track record than the coalition of fighting against violence.

On the other hand, the coalition supports the most violent action that has been legalized: late-term abortions, which kill viable babies and cause drastic and often irreversible harm to the mothers who obtain them.

In fact, it could be argued that the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is much more radical than Operation Rescue due to the fact that the coalition supports the violent termination of late-term babies, which the vast majority of Americans oppose.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has further attempted to distract from the real issue by quoting Randall Terry and using his words to attempt to discredit Operation Rescue; however, as has been documented, Terry has not been affiliated with Operation Rescue for close to 20 years, and his words and viewpoints do not reflect the philosophy of Operation Rescue.

We believe that every human embryo deserves the right to life, and we believe that personhood cannot be stripped from somebody based on his or her period of development, just like it was wrong for Nazi Germany to strip away personhood from the Holocaust victims and for the Supreme Court — in the Dred Scott Decision — to strip away personhood from black Americans.

It is disconcerting that the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice supports the dehumanization of children and supports a mother’s “right” to end the life of her child.

Operation Rescue: Heath care bill was passed under false pretenses and should be repealed

UPDATE: Obama administration is now backtracking with statements that federal money will not fund abortions in the PA programs. However, it remains to be seen whether or not this is true. Actions speak louder than words and we will have to wait and see how this pans out. We remain unconvinced. -OR

Washington, DC – The Department of Health and Human Services under radical abortion promoter Kathleen Sebelius has approved the first disbursement of federal tax dollars to pay for abortions, despite an Executive Order that promised the American people such abortion funding would not be permitted.

As part of Obama’s health care plan, Pennsylvania will receive $160 million to fund a “high risk” insurance pool. Those in the pool will qualify to have any abortion legal in the State of Pennsylvania paid for by taxpayers.

“We knew when Obama signed the Executive Order that would have allegedly blocked tax funding of abortion that it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Now that has been proven to be true,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“It is shocking and disturbing to see the ease at which Obama and Sebelius can flat-out lie to the American people and apparently get away with it. This kind of dishonest treatment of the American people and disregard for agreements made and signed shows that the word of both Obama and Sebelius cannot be trusted, which makes them unfit to serve — something we have been saying all along.”

Over 70 percent of the American people oppose tax funded abortion in the national health care system. Several Senators and Congressmen voted for the health care bill only on the condition that tax money would not go to fund abortion. Now that Obama has reneged on the agreement and violated his own Executive Order, Operation Rescue urges Congress to repeal the heath care legislation that was enacted under false pretenses last March.

Previous OR statement on Executive Order supposedly banning tax funding of abortions