By Jim Sedlak
Planned Parenthood has never been one to follow the laws of society.
In fact, a 1984 document, The Human Right to Family Planning, published by International Planned Parenthood Federation, contained this statement: “Family Planning Associates and other nongovernmental associations should not use the absence of law or the existence of an unfavorable law as an excuse for inaction; action outside the law, or even in violation of it, is part of the process of stimulating change.”
At the time this was written, it was not a revolutionary idea within Planned Parenthood. In fact, it is the way the organization has operated since its inception in 1916. The game plan has always been clear: If you don’t like that the law prohibits what you want to do, do it anyway. When you get arrested, appeal any conviction until you get a liberal judge who agrees with you and changes the law.
This is how Planned Parenthood struck down the Comstock Laws so it could send sex information through the mails. This is how Planned Parenthood got contraception legalized by a Supreme Court that invented a right to privacy in sexual matters. It is also how Planned Parenthood got abortion decriminalized and how it got laws against pornography on the Internet struck down.
More recently, Planned Parenthood has been making extensive use of the liberal courts to strike down all kinds of laws, passed by dozens of states, challenging its right to get taxpayer money.
But, Planned Parenthood is getting frustrated. The more it tries to force its will on the American people, the more the American people strike back. Last year, Americans passed a record number of laws aimed at stopping Planned Parenthood’s operations. This year, Americans are on a pace to pass more of these laws than they did last year.
Planned Parenthood has shown its natural inclination to thuggery. Last year, when the Komen Foundation decided to stop giving money to Planned Parenthood, the organization erupted into a frenzy that belied its public image. Even though Komen only gave Planned Parenthood $700,000 out of PP’s $1.2 billion budget, you’d have thought the sky was falling.
Planned Parenthood organized an all-out concentrated, orchestrated attack on Komen that has destroyed Komen’s fundraising capabilities and taken an otherwise good charity and literally put it on the ropes.
THAT BRINGS US AUSTIN, TEXAS.
In a special session of the Texas legislature, the people of Texas, through their elected representatives, were about to enact laws that Planned Parenthood didn’t like. The battle came down to the last day of the special session. On that day, Senator Wendy Davis, a supporter of Planned Parenthood, conducted a filibuster to try to prevent a vote on the bill. Let me say right here that we should have no problem with what Davis did. She was doing what is allowed by law and using a legitimate, and legal, legislative technique.
Unfortunately, Davis fell two hours short of her goal and, when her filibuster was broken, there was still time to pass the bill. That’s when Planned Parenthood resorted to illegal tactics to get its way.
To understand what happened, you have to look back to the week before this crucial vote. In investigating what happened, news reports showed that Planned Parenthood had advertised on Craig’s list to hire protestors to be in Austin. Planned Parenthood apparently trained these hired thugs and got them into the gallery of the Texas senate chambers.
As soon as Davis’ filibuster was ended, these thugs erupted in loud screams and chants, shouting all kinds of things. Their objective was to cause such a disturbance that the senate would not be able to finish its work in time. There are reliable news reports that, while this was going on, Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, was tweeting to the thugs to shout louder.
According to reliable sources, one of the senators had a smartphone with a decibel meter at his desk. He reported the sound was registering 100db. To put that in perspective, that is the level of noise produced by a motorcycle. The senators literally could not hear each other. They huddled together to try to take a roll call vote, but everything did not get done in time and the bill did not get passed.
Refusing to bow to mob action, the governor of Texas quickly called a second special session of the legislature. It was obvious from the beginning that the bill would pass in the second session. However, Planned Parenthood would not concede defeat.
On the day the bill would be approved, the two sides showed up in different colored T-shirts. The pro-abortion people were in orange and the pro-lifers were wearing blue. Law enforcement officers on site were very vigilant. Rumors circulated that the orange-shirted people would have used tampons and sanitary napkins that they were going to throw at the senators as they tried to vote. The police confiscated all of them, as well as containers of urine and feces that were also intended to be thrown.
All people present reported that the noise level outside the senate chamber was out of control. Screams that “sounded demonic” filled the air. Eventually, pro-lifers were escorted to senate offices and locked in for their own safety. The doors were guarded by law enforcement officers. In the end the bill passed.
So, did Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, apologize for any of this mob scene? NO. In fact, she seemed to revel in it. She said that the opposition to Planned Parenthood’s position “lit a fuse.” She stated, “In the long run, all they have done is built a committed group of people across this state who are outraged about the treatment of women and the lengths to which this legislature will go to take women’s health care away.”
To Planned Parenthood, actions “outside the law” is just normal business. While you read this, remember, you give Planned Parenthood $1.3 million of your tax dollars every day.
Jim Sedlak is vice president of American Life League and a recognized expert on Planned Parenthood. In addition to speaking on numerous radio and television programs, including his own show on Radio Maria, he is the author of Parent Power!!—a book that instructs readers about how to get Planned Parenthood out of schools.