Public Comments Open on Protect Life Rule that Will End Planned Parenthood’s Title X Funding

June 12, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Cheryl Sullenger

Washington, DC – A rules change in the way Federal Title X family planning money is distributed is now open for comments from the public until July 31, 2018.

The new provision, called the Protect Life Rule, will prohibit Title X funding to facilities that conduct abortions or refer for them.

President Donald J. Trump announced the Protect Life Rule in March 2018, after being urged to implement the changes in an April 30 letter from 153 U.S. Representatives led by Kansas Republican Ron Estes. Follow up letters in support of the rules change were signed by 41 members of the U.S. Senate, and over 80 leaders of pro-life groups, including Operation Rescue.

Pro-life supporters are urged to post comments in support of the Protect Life Rule, which would put an end to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers and referrers from receiving millions of tax dollars.

“This is one of the last steps before the Protect Life Rule is fully implemented and enforced. We need to show overwhelming public support for the defunding of Planned Parenthood from the Title X program,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “I urge you to comment today in support of the Protect Life Rule that will redirect public funding away from Planned Parenthood and to legitimate health care providers that do not destroy innocent human lives through abortions.”

Since all comments, along with the posters’ names will become part of the public record and may be published, anonymous comments are allowed.

Comments can be posted online at this link: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=HHS-OS-2018-0008-0001. The comment button is located at the upper right on the page.

Filed Under: Featured, Planned Parenthood, Pro-Life Tagged With: ,

Planned Parenthood Halts Abortions at Kansas City Expansion Facility

June 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Cheryl Sullenger

Kansas City, MO – It appears that Planned Parenthood’s planned expansion of abortion services to include five Missouri communities has not only failed to materialize, but one of their expansion facilities has now halted abortions after offering them for only about eight months.

“Planned Parenthood’s expansion plans have now become a reduction plan,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

Operation Rescue has confirmed a report that the Midtown Heath Center Planned Parenthood in Kansas City, Missouri, which began offering abortion drugs last September, has now halted abortions due to an inability to locate an abortionist for that facility. There is no anticipated date when abortions might resume.

The Kansas City facility only offered abortions twice per week, but abortion numbers always remained lower than expected. Many women failed to return for appointments after the 72-hour reflection period.

For example, during their first week of abortion services last September, eight out of eleven women who received informed consent for abortions failed to return, thanks to pro-life activists who offered assistance and information to Planned Parenthood’s potential abortion customers.

This leaves only two communities in Missouri that still conduct abortions. While the Reproductive Health Services Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis facility remains busy, the Columbia facility only conducts abortions two days per month, according to local pro-life leader Kath Forck, who heads up the 40 Days for Life campaigns there.

Planned Parenthood’s plans to expand abortions into Joplin and Springfield also have failed to materialize. In April, the Planned Parenthood in Springfield was denied an abortion facility license due to failure to meet licensing requirements, although efforts to license facilities in both cities are apparently ongoing.

Thwarting expansion plans are new Missouri abortion facility regulations that require an agreement with local physicians or medical groups to provide 24-hour emergency hospital care. In addition, Missouri as blocked those who provide abortions and their affiliates from receiving state family planning funds.

Adding to Planned Parenthood’s woes is a proposed rule change announced by the Trump Administration that will soon prevent Title X funds from flowing to facilities that conduct abortion or refer for them.

Michelle Trupiano, executive director of the Missouri Family Health told the Missourian that out of 40,000 Missourians who benefit from Title X funding, only about one third are seen by Planned Parenthood.

Dilara Yilmaz, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates the Kansas City and Columbia facilities, remained defiant.

“Our doors will stay open,” she told the Missourian. “We don’t see this impacting the provision of our health services.”

But Planned Parenthood is already feeling the impact of the new state regulations and proposed federal rules, as evidenced by the halting of abortions at the Kansas City facility.

“Every time we hear an abortion business say their doors will stay open, they are almost always the next to close or halt abortions,” said Newman. “The Missouri pro-life community has been extremely smart and effective in enacting pro-life regulations and laws that protect women and their babies. Their activists have been helping women turn away from abortions by offering them information and practical assistance. Missouri should be looked to as a model for other states to follow.”

Filed Under: Planned Parenthood, Press Releases, Pro-Life Tagged With:

St. Louis Pro-Life Activist “Not Guilty” After Planned Parenthood Falsely Accused Him of Terrorism

May 25, 2018 By Leave a Comment

By Cheryl Sullenger

St. Louis, MO – A pro-life activist who was wrongly accused and charged with making a terrorist threat at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in St. Louis, Missouri, has been found not guilty by a jury yesterday and is now completely cleared of any wrong-doing.

John P. Ryan was falsely accused by Planned Parenthood worker Casey Spiegel of having told her there were seven bombs inside the abortion business on December 31, 2016. He was arrested by police on the scene and held for 35 hours until he was finally released on bond.

Despite the fact that a 2017 grand jury had declined to indict Ryan, city prosecutors insisted on trying him.

After a three-day trial, the jury deliberated just an hour on May 23, 2018, before returning their “not guilty” verdict.

The dubious prosecution appeared to be politically motivated. Ryan’s case was used repeatedly by Planned Parenthood and others to support a so-called “buffer zone” aimed at keeping pro-life activists from reaching out to abortion-bound women.

“Alderwomen Megan Green and Christine Ingrassia used this so-called terrorist threat as one of the main reasons a buffer zone bill was needed. The campaign to pass the buffer zone ordinance was based on a lie,” said Ryan in a statement.

Brad Blake, Special Counsel for the Thomas More Society represented Ryan. He noted, “This criminal charge, with its attendant bond restrictions that keep John away from the Planned Parenthood facilities, succeeded in muzzling him and depriving him of his First Amendment rights to use the public sidewalk, as he had for years previously, to voice his pro-life message. This deprivation of his free speech rights was based on bogus allegations by Planned Parenthood that were then advanced by Prosecutor Kim Gardner’s office. . .Prosecutor Kim Gardner’s goal was not justice, but rather persecution. That is evident because her office persisted with this case after the grand jury refused to indict Mr. Ryan based on insufficient evidence and after he passed a polygraph test.”

“It is obvious that Planned Parenthood needed a scapegoat in order to provide an excuse to enact a buffer zone, so they set up John Ryan to take the fall,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Planned Parenthood was obviously in cahoots with a corrupt prosecutor, or this case would have been dismissed long ago. We hope Mr. Ryan considers suing the City of St. Louis, Planned Parenthood, and its employee who lied about him in the first place and denied him his rights and freedom, and nearly destroyed his good reputation. This corruption and injustice must not be allowed to stand.”

Read background report on this story here and here.

Filed Under: Planned Parenthood, Pro-Life Tagged With: ,

Operation Rescue Applauds President Donald Trump for Enacting the “Protect Life Rule”

May 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment


PRESS RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Trump Administration implemented the Protect Life Rule, which will prevent Title X programs from conducting, counseling for, or referring for abortions.

“I am very grateful to President Trump for making the Protect Life Rule a reality. As someone that researches abortion abuses daily, I know this rule will protect vulnerable women from exploitation and possible harm at Planned Parenthood abortion clinics that masquerade as women’s health facilities,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue. “President Trump promised to defund Planned Parenthood and today he has kept that promise as far as the Title X program is concerned. Thank you, Mr. President!”

There are 266 Planned Parenthood abortion facilities that are currently receiving Title X funding.

Serious abortion complications that have required emergency transport for women from Planned Parenthood abortion facilities have been documented by Operation Rescue at over 30 Planned Parenthood facilities in 22 states since 2016. That is just a small fraction of abortion injuries that take place at these facilities, since many women receive emergency care for complications once they are discharged by Planned Parenthood.

Operation Rescue has also documented the abortion-related deaths of Planned Parenthood patients, including Cree Erwin, who died in 2016 after receiving a botched first trimester abortion at Planned Parenthood in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Tonya Reaves, who bleed to death in 2012 after a second trimester abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago, Illinois.

It is expected that the Protect Life Rule will deny about $170 million in taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood.

Operation Rescue, which is headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, also commends Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) for his leadership that contributed to making this life-saving rule change a reality.

Filed Under: Planned Parenthood, Press Releases, Pro-Life Tagged With: , ,

Possible Developments in Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Investigation “Coming Soon”

April 24, 2018 By Leave a Comment

A reminder of why Planned Parenthood is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice.

By Cheryl Sullenger

Washington, D.C. – When the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) began posting videos in the Summer of 2015 showing Planned Parenthood executives engaged in negotiations with biotech companies for the best price they might get for aborted baby organs and tissues, America was shocked.

That undercover investigation and the footage that was secretly taken over several months revealed a dark secret that Planned Parenthood successfully hidden from the American people: The bodies of aborted babies were being marketed like slabs of meat at the meat counter for “valuable consideration” and ended up with buyers all over the world, in violation of U.S. state and federal laws.

Planned Parenthood and its associate in the baby body parts trade, the National Abortion Federation, sued CMP board members, including Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, to halt the release of the remaining incriminating footage, but it was too late for Planned Parenthood.

Public outrage over the shadowy scheme launched two Congressional investigations that that found probable cause to believe Planned Parenthood and its middle-man biotech partners had indeed broken the law.

Senator Charles Grassley and Rep. Marsha Blackburn both referred Planned Parenthood and others to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal investigation and prosecution in late 2016. A year later news broke that the Department of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions was indeed investigating Planned Parenthood for the illegal sale of aborted baby body parts.

“The wait for the results of that investigation has been long and difficult for those of us that want to see Planned Parenthood brought to justice,” said Troy Newman. “We understand that if Planned Parenthood is indicted, the full truth about their illegal conduct will become a matter of record. It should also bring an end to the half billion dollars in U.S. tax money Planned Parenthood receives each year. This action would save tens of thousands of innocent lives each year and could be the beginning of the end of the corrupt and barbaric practice of abortion in America.”

Now, the wait may soon be over.

A message from a Trump Administration anonymous source known as “Q” or “Qanon” was posted on the mysterious 8Chan message board late last night with links to Senator Grassley’s 2016 press announcement concerning the Judicial Committee’s criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood, and a link to the 2017 Fox News article confirming that the Department of Justice was investigating Planned Parenthood.

Those links were followed by the words, “Coming soon. Q”

“This post was an encouraging message to us to stand by for significant developments in the Planned Parenthood baby parts investigation,” said Newman. “We’ve been asked to trust President Trump and Attorney General Sessions. Given the amount of times we have been let down by public officials, that trust has been difficult. But because President Trump has delivered on many of his pro-life promises, we believe this time is different. We anxiously await news on the Planned Parenthood investigation and pray that this time, justice will be done.”

Filed Under: Planned Parenthood, Press Releases, Pro-Life Tagged With: , ,
Next Page »