Week in Review – Planned Parenthood’s annual report and Senate confirmation hearings
The pro-life world this week reacted to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America releasing its 2019-2020 annual report last weekend. American Life League will be posting detailed comments on our www.STOPP.org website next Wednesday, March 3. We have also posted the financial and service numbers from the report here. Planned Parenthood reported the highest single year abortion total of 354,871. This is 9,199 more than it reported in last year’s annual report. Financially, its total income remained the same at $1.64 billion, while its private donations dropped over $80 million. Its bottom-line profits went from $244 million two years ago to $110 million last year to $60 million as reported this year. The report mentioned abortions 23 times this year as Planned Parenthood is obviously looking to kill more and more preborn children.
Also, at the top of pro-life concerns this week was the nomination process of Xavier Becerra to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. We brought you details last week of why pro-lifers everywhere oppose his confirmation. We thank all of you who took the time to contact your senators and told them to vote NO on Becerra’s confirmation. It is not too late to do that— see last week’s Action Item. This week, Becerra went through confirmation hearings with two senate committees – one with the Senate Health Committee and the second with the Senate Finance Committee. While there were some pointed questions at the hearings, most news outlets reported that Becerra escaped “unscathed” from the process. Next, the Senate Finance committee will vote on Becerra’s nomination and send it to the full Senate favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation.
Becerra’s nomination will then go to the Senate floor for consideration. Once the nomination is considered by the Senate, unlimited debate is allowed until a majority of the Senate votes to invoke cloture and close debate. Following a vote of cloture, the Senate conducts a simple majority vote on whether to confirm, reject, or take no action on the nomination. This is the point when it is critical that your senators vote NO. As we write this, no date has been set for the full Senate action on Becerra.
Becerra’s nomination will then go to the Senate floor for consideration. Once the nomination is considered by the Senate, unlimited debate is allowed until a majority of the Senate votes to invoke cloture and close debate. Following a vote of cloture, the Senate conducts a simple majority vote on whether to confirm, reject, or take no action on the nomination. This is the point when it is critical that your senators vote NO. As we write this, no date has been set for the full senate action on Becerra.
On Monday of this week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a trio of cases—American Medical Association v. Cochran, Cochran v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and Oregon v. Cochran—challenging regulations issued by the Trump administration under Title X of the Public Health Services Act. One provision of Title X, Section 1008, prohibits Title X funds from being “used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” In 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new regulations under Title X that bar clinics that receive federal funding through the program from providing abortions or referrals for abortion. Planned Parenthood withdrew from Title X and lost about $60 million. Although much is being made in the press about SCOTUS agreeing to hear these cases, the fact is that they agreed to hear them in their next term, which begins in October. By then, the cases may be moot, as the Biden administration is expected to issue new rules which would overturn the Trump rules and get Planned Parenthood back into Title X.
ALL in the News – Jim Sedlak Comments on Shocking New Planned Parenthood Numbers; ALL and Other Groups Say NO to Pro-Abortion Becerra
This week, Jim Sedlak, American Life League executive director and founder of STOPP International, was interviewed by One News Now about Planned Parenthood’s latest numbers. The article concerned Planned Parenthood’s numbers for 2019, which shows their most recent data. That data shows their abortion numbers hit a 15-year high.
This week, Pregnancy Help News published an article about their plea to the US Senate to say NO to confirming the nomination of pro-abortion Xavier Becerra to be HHS Secretary. The article featured a quote from American Life League president Judie Brown, where she “concurred on Becerra’s allegiance to big abortion.”
Every Friday afternoon, the American Life League social media team, Dwain Currier and Katie Brown, host the Friday Live Show on Instagram Live. The show regularly discusses current events and provides young adults a platform where they can have their culture of life questions answered. Replays of the show can be found on Facebook.
Yesterday, American Life League vice president, Hugh Brown, was interviewed by political commentator and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes. The full interview will appear on the show “Let’s Talk America with Alan Keyes”. Clips of the show can be found on ALL’s Facebook page.
Twice a week, Judie Brown’s commentaries are distributed to an expansive media list. The list contains over 100 media outlets such as Fox News, The Federalist, Breitbart, and The Daily Caller, among others. Judie’s Tuesday commentary, Bishops and Babies, was featured on the front page of ALL.org. The commentary was also reprinted by CNS News. Each commentary is also featured as a part of Judie’s recurring column on Renew America.
Jim Sedlak’s Pro-Life Activism from Creation to Death is a weekly talk-radio program on the Radio Maria USA network. The show can be heard live every Friday at noon (Eastern Time) and is repeated on Saturdays (10 PM).
Video of the Week – Abortion Bully Wants to Be Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania
In 2019, Brian Sims went live on social media and recorded himself bullying pro-life teenagers. The pro-abortion Pennsylvania lawmaker couldn’t tolerate women and girls praying in front of Planned Parenthood, so he invited his social media followers to dox them. Now he wants to be the lieutenant governor. In case you forgot the kind of person Sims is, we discussed the lawmaker in our 2019 end-of-year review.
Action Item of the Week – RACISM at Planned Parenthood needs to be fought.
In 2020, American Life League released a 16-page report on the racism that exists in Planned Parenthood today—Planned Parenthood’s Racism . . . In Their Own Words. It documented how Planned Parenthood affiliates that operate in 33 states across the country specifically stated that they have systemic racism within their organizations. In doing so, many of the affiliates specifically used the term “white supremacy” in describing their problems.
At the time, the national office, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was relatively silent on the problem. But, PPFA has now released its latest annual report and it contains the following joint statement by its president, Alexis McGill Johnson, and its board chair, Aimee Cunningham. They state: “Planned Parenthood is 104 years old, and we’re committed to addressing structural racism, both historic and current, in the federation.”
Finally, there is an admission from the top. What are they going to do about it? They say they are “addressing” the problem. I guess that is good, but later in the report, Planned Parenthood admits to committing 354,871 abortions in 2019. Planned Parenthood is the abortion industry in the United States. It operates 53 percent of all the surgical and pill abortion facilities and commits over 41 percent of all abortions. Their report makes it clear they are proud of the abortions they commit and wants to do more!
When the CDC reports that 38 percent of all abortions are committed on black women, statistically that means that Planned Parenthood killed at least 135,851 black preborn children in one year. Remember that God created each of those babies for a specific purpose. How do you address the “racism” problem by killing more black babies?
This week we ask all our readers to focus on Planned Parenthood’s racism. Get our special report for the facts on its internal racism and talk about the 372 black children who die in Planned Parenthood centers every day! Get the word out everywhere in your community and among your friends and family. Let everyone know: Anyone who supports Planned Parenthood is racist!
Pro-life Social Media – There’s Still Time to Express Opposition to the Pro-Abortion HHS Nominee
In this week’s Week in Review section, we reminded you that there’s still time to oppose Xavier Becerra’s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The pro-life group, Susan B. Anthony List, issued several social media messages and graphics for users to copy and paste onto their social media posts, and we urge you to use them as well.
Downloadable Graphics:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x8nHO7WejfhZCLbE5ihJViYGUMmsC8xC – suitable for all social media platforms
Sample posts:
We understand that Biden needs to assemble his cabinet, but how can he call for unity in one breath, and in the next, appoint someone to lead HHS who represents the most extreme fringe of the Big Abortion lobby #StopBecerra https://www.sba-list.org/becerra
Xavier Becerra is an unacceptable choice to run HHS due to his decades-long record of abortion, including:
- Voting for abortions on pre-born babies who can survive outside the womb
- Voting YES to for (now-illegal) partial-birth abortions
- Voting to allow infanticide
#StopBecerra
When @daviddaleiden exposed Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of baby body parts, Xavier Becerra voted NO to a Congressional investigation. Then, as California attorney general, he revived 14 felony charges against Daleiden (TheLA Times called this a “disturbing overreach”) #StopBecerra
In 2019, #ProLife pregnancy centers provided almost 2 MILLION people with free/low-cost services, including 1.3 MILLION packs of diapers and more than TWO MILLION baby outfits,but Xavier Becerra took them to court because they refused to promote abortion
#StopBecerra
Xavier Becerra has proven himself to be an enemy of the health of mothers and the unborn. He cannot be entrusted with our national health programs and policies and is not qualified to serve as HHS secretary #StopBecerra https://www.sba-list.org/becerra
