In This Issue
- More unrest within Planned Parenthood
- New Texas Law and Planned Parenthood
- Texas Law — Lyft — Planned Parenthood — $1,000,000
- Are you willing to pay the price?
More unrest within Planned Parenthood
By Jim Sedlak
Over the last 15 months, there has been much upheaval within Planned Parenthood. It began to publicly come to light when the president of Planned Parenthood Federation issued a statement admitting that Planned Parenthood’s founder was a racist and that racism still permeates the organization.
This was followed in the next few months by 19 Planned Parenthood affiliates, which operate in a total of 33 states, openly admitting to the current racism in their own organizations. Their statements were documented in an American Life League special report, Planned Parenthood’s Racism … In Their Own Words.
The admissions by Planned Parenthood were the result of internal fights led by minority-race employees at the organization who were greatly upset by what they described as unfair treatment. They complained of poor salaries, lack of advancement opportunities and, generally, being treated poorly by their White leaders and White fellow workers. Buzzfeed ran an article at the time that stated, in part, “An internal investigation at Planned Parenthood Federation of America national headquarters revealed the ‘childification’ of Black and brown employees. Childification means the ‘persistent treatment of Black people as children or adolescents who are unable to accomplish work independently, and viewed uniformly, such that they cannot be differentiated from one another.’ Illustrations in the report cited white employees confusing their Black colleagues’ names or having their appearance commented on and their hair touched without consent, ‘as though they are an object to be viewed and commented on, as though they are not there.’”
Aside from the obvious public relations problems these revelations caused, it also spurred a movement to unionize Planned Parenthood workers. For the most part, Planned Parenthood had avoided unionization throughout its empire for decades. But, today, there is a growing number of Planned Parenthood affiliates that have been, or are in the process of becoming, unionized—but not without controversy. Over the last few weeks, one such unionization effort has even led to public protests.
The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism ran an article on August 29 concerning the unions at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England negotiating their first collective bargaining agreement. The article was spurred by a rally near PPNNE’s Manchester center.
PPNNE operates in three states—Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In the current negotiations, the Vermont and New Hampshire employees are represented by the American Federation of Teachers Vermont branch, and the Maine employees are affiliated with the Maine State Employees and the Service Employees International Union.
The union negotiators are upset, and the issue is salaries. Although the unions have reached agreements with Planned Parenthood on several issues, salaries are the main point of contention. The unions say that salaries are “too low at the low end of the agency’s pay scale and rising too slowly for long-term employees.”
To illustrate the focus, the article stated: “When … a Holderness resident, arrived, she quickly grabbed a blank placard and marker to make a sign that said, ‘I cannot afford the care I provide.’ Others made signs reading, ‘Better Pay, Help Us Stay,’ and ‘A Livable Wage is All the Rage.’ Familiar pink ‘I Stand with Planned Parenthood’ signs were altered to, ‘I Stand with Planned Parenthood Workers.’”
STOPP has long pointed out the differences between Planned Parenthood executive salaries and the salaries paid to workers at its centers. While employees in New England are fighting for starting salaries to be raised from $15 an hour to $20 an hour, STOPP’s last CEO salaries report documented the average CEO annual salary at Planned Parenthood affiliates in 2017 was $255,523, with 40 percent of the CEOs making over $300,000 a year.
The unrest inside Planned Parenthood continues to grow. Leana Wen was fired for not pushing abortion enough. Her replacement as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America first joined the organization because she was outraged by a pro-life billboard in SoHo that she thought would discourage Black mothers from killing their preborn infants. Minority employees are demanding to be treated equal to White employees, while center workers are simply demanding a living wage. As all of this is going on, remember that United States’ taxpayers are giving Planned Parenthood over $600 million dollars a year—with over $14.3 million being paid to the top affiliate CEOs.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.
New Texas Law and Planned Parenthood
Most of the pro-life world is aware that a new abortion law went into effect in Texas last Wednesday, September 1. The law, which is commonly referred to as Senate Bill 8 (the number of the bill that was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, and is now the law), is more properly called the Heartbeat Law.
The law specifically says: “A physician may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman unless the physician has determined, in accordance with this section, whether the woman’s unborn child has a detectable fetal heartbeat.” If a heartbeat is detected, the abortion should not be performed.
The law does not prevent the murder of a preborn child whose heartbeat isn’t heard by the abortionist. The law lets the abortionist, himself, document whether or not he heard a heartbeat. In addition, the law states that prohibitions of abortion after a detected heartbeat “do not apply if a physician [i.e., the abortionist] believes a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance with this subchapter.” It, again, leaves it up to the abortionist to make written notations in the pregnant woman’s medical record to justify murdering a baby after a heartbeat was detected.
Thus, the abortionist has a way to commit the abortion even if a heartbeat is detected.
The Heartbeat Law specifically states that enforcement of the law cannot be carried out by anyone acting for the state. So, who can enforce the law?
The law can be enforced only by civil lawsuits brought by ordinary citizens against the abortionists and any other person who, in any way, helped make the abortion happen.
The actual wording of the bill is: “Any person, other than an officer or employee of a state or local governmental entity in this state, may bring a civil action against any person who: (1) performs or induces an abortion in violation of this subchapter; (2) knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise, if the abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subchapter, regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion would be performed or induced in violation of this subchapter.”
As the implementation date was drawing near, abortionists went to several courts, including the Supreme Court, to have the law put on hold. The lower courts refused to do that, and the law went into effect on September 1.
An emergency appeal was filed with the United States Supreme Court, and, on this past Wednesday night, SCOTUS voted 5-4 to leave the law in force. The five Supreme Court justices supporting the law were Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett; the four justices opposing the law were Sotomayor, Breyer, Kagan, and Roberts.
Clearly, it is the threat of the lawsuits that has the abortionists and their corporations shutting down their abortion facilities in Texas.
Once the law went into effect, the Texas Alliance for Life set up a website to get tips from ordinary people on any abortions taking place after six weeks gestation (the point at which a heartbeat can usually be detected).
Planned Parenthood reacted immediately, racing to court the night of September 2, to file a lawsuit preventing Texas Alliance for Life from filing lawsuits against its abortionists or others involved with a prohibited abortion. CNN.com reported: Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Travis County ruled that the medical providers faced “probable, irreparable, and imminent injury” if they were sued by the private group in connection with abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy, as provided for under the law. She issued a restraining order.
Gamble said the temporary restraining order applies not only to Texas Right to Life, but also to “any and all parties and persons in active concert and participation with them.” A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for next Monday, September 13.
While all of this plays out, many media sources are reporting on the Texas law as a “ban” on abortions. It is not. As mentioned above, the law does not prevent abortions before a heartbeat is detectable, and even allows the abortionist to determine whether he heard a heartbeat. In addition, it provides an exception for what the bill calls “medical emergencies”—a term that is not defined in the law.
Texas Law — Lyft — Planned Parenthood — $1,000,000
As the Texas Heartbeat Law went into effect last week, the wording of the law appears to say that a person driving a woman to the abortion facility could be sued for helping the woman get the abortion.
This was of immediate concern to rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber.
Lyft was first with a public announcement of public support for its drivers, but it did more than that. Lyft also made it clear that it supports the killing of preborn children through abortion, and it financially supports the nation’s largest abortion chain.
In its official announcement (see below), Lyft said it would be donating a million dollars to Planned Parenthood. Not only that, but it provided a link so all who receive or read the Lyft statement are encouraged to also donate to Planned Parenthood!
In addition, both Lyft and Uber said they would be setting up a fund to pay drivers’ legal expenses if they are sued.
While protecting their drivers from lawsuits can certainly be considered part of the normal operation of ridesharing services, specific donations to Planned Parenthood are not.
Lyft official statement:
Following the passage of Texas SB8 we’re sending the following message to drivers and riders in the Lyft community.
Dear Lyft Riders and Drivers,
A new Texas law, SB8, threatens to punish drivers for getting people where they need to go — specifically, women exercising their right to choose and to access the healthcare they need.
We want to be clear: Drivers are never responsible for monitoring where their riders go or why. Imagine being a driver and not knowing if you are breaking the law by giving someone a ride. Similarly, riders never have to justify, or even share, where they are going and why. Imagine being a pregnant woman trying to get to a healthcare appointment and not knowing if your driver will cancel on you for fear of breaking a law. Both are completely unacceptable.
This law is incompatible with people’s basic rights to privacy, our community guidelines, the spirit of rideshare, and our values as a company. We are taking action on two fronts:
- Lyft has created a Driver Legal Defense Fund to cover 100% of legal fees for drivers sued under SB8 while driving on our platform. Riders and Drivers: Nothing about how you drive, ride or interact with each other should change.
- TX SB8 is an attack on women’s right to choose. Lyft is donating $1 million to Planned Parenthood to help ensure that transportation is never a barrier to healthcare access.
If you feel compelled to join us as an individual, you can make a donation here. (Link deactivated)
Logan and John, Lyft Co-founders
Kristin Sverchek, Lyft General Counsel
Are you willing to pay the price?
There is no question that those who oppose the agenda of Planned Parenthood and fight every day to protect preborn babies from murder are counterculture.
We live in a society that devalues human being’s lives and believes that God makes mistakes. This issue of the Wednesday STOPP Report documents just how sad things have become in America. Our top story was about the largest killing organization in our nation and how its internal and external operations are simply against the laws of God. Planned Parenthood is clearly a Satanic, bloodthirsty organization that seeks to destroy God’s creation and eliminate all those human beings who God has sent to pull our country out of the muck.
The second story is about Planned Parenthood’s ability to search and find a friendly judge who, if she can’t override the Supreme Court, will at least protect Planned Parenthood from a Texas group that is dedicated to bringing an end to Planned Parenthood’s killing of infants in the Lone Star State.
The third story is all about the founders of a ridesharing company that publicly proclaim their support of infant killing in the United States and give money, earned from the pocketbooks of millions of Americans to the very organization that is killing millions of their future riders. Planned Parenthood did its first abortion on July 2, 1970, in Syracuse, New York, and, by the end of 2021, will have admitted to killing over nine million human beings through surgical and pill abortions. The founders of Lyft reward Planned Parenthood for murder.
We had planned to make this last story a positive one about a CEO who dared to be countercultural and express his support of the infants in the womb. After the Supreme Court voted last week to let the new Texas abortion law stand, the CEO of a video game company tweeted: “Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don’t get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer.”
A secular CEO willing to stand up for God’s children is refreshing.
But, the Daily Caller reported on Monday, September 6 (Labor Day), that the CEO, John Gibson, was no longer the CEO of Tripwire Interactive.
The company released a statement which read, in part, ““The comments given by John Gibson are of his own opinion, and do not reflect those of Tripwire Interactive as a company. His comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners and much of our broader community. Our leadership team at Tripwire are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment … Effective immediately, John Gibson has stepped down as CEO of Tripwire Interactive.”
There you have it. Advocate for killing preborn children and you become the darling of our nation—even president. Many bishops will not even criticize you or point out that you can’t be Catholic and pro-abortion. But send just one tweet defending the babies and you’re gone.
I have been deeply involved in the pro-life movement for over 40 years and I know from experience that the readers of the Wednesday STOPP Reportare among those who are willing to pay the price—as John Gibson did.
I call on you, today, to renew your commitment to God. We do what we do not for worldly accolades, but because we MUST do it. We know that our time here on earth is a journey. At the end of this journey, we will wind up in one of two places—the eternal joy of Heaven or the eternal suffering of Hell. To get to Heaven, we need do just one thing—the will of God.
As we view the corrupt world around us and a once great country that is not-so-slowly sinking into the depths of Hell, let us keep our eyes and our hearts towards Heaven. Let us seek to find God and then to do His holy will. Pray the Rosary and be strengthened for what lies ahead. Call on Mary to lead you to Jesus.