This week we read that Planned Parenthood is teaming up with the AFL-CIO to spend a million dollars or more to influence elections in North Carolina. It is not surprising that PP would spend money to try to elect people who would be in a position to award it lucrative government contracts. The ties between PP and unions are generally not well known, however. PPFA president Cecile Richards is married to Kirk Adams, who was, until last year, the longtime healthcare chief for the Service Employees International Union. According to published reports, between 2012 and 2013, Planned Parenthood reported SEIU as an independent contractor and paid the union $1.8 million for “telemarketing” services. Although most PP affiliates are non-union, in 2011 PP employees in Oregon unionized and are represented by SEIU Local 49. It may be that more affiliates will unionize in the coming years.
Life Legal Defense revealed this week that a review of e-mails it obtained via a public records request shows that California attorney general Kamala Harris was working closely with Planned Parenthood at the time she ordered law enforcement to raid David Daleiden’s apartment and confiscate his computer and video files. In a press release Wednesday evening, Life Legal said the e-mails expose a “disturbing level of cooperation” between Harris’ office and Planned Parenthood’s lobbyists. PLTW readers will recall that similar collusion took place in Harris County, Texas, where a grand jury that was supposed to be looking into Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts sales instead brought charges against the undercover journalists who documented PP’s lawbreaking. Those charges were later dismissed, but PP has never been charged.
The 40 Days for Life’s UNITED cross-country bus tour kicked off this week in Washington, DC with a stop at the new Planned Parenthood headquarters and abortion facility on 4th Street NE. The 40 Days campaign will continue until November 6 in cities all across the nation (and in foreign countries). The 40 Days bus will travel throughout the continental United States and is expected to travel nearly 19,000 miles (almost 500 miles a day). For more information on the locations of the 40 Days prayer vigils and the bus schedule, go to 40daysforlife.com/.
This week, long-time pro-life activist Mark Pickup made known his need for a new wheelchair-accessible van. Mark is an expert speaker on euthanasia, assisted suicide, and life with dignity for people with severe disabilities and incurable illnesses. He has lived with aggressive multiple sclerosis for over 33 years. It has left him completely electric-wheelchair dependent and living on a modest disability pension. Mark has opened a GO-FUND-ME page to help with the van expenses. We ask our readers to help Mark if you can. You can read more about him on his website at humanlifematters.org.