In This Issue
- Planned Parenthood issues demands for first 90 days
- Planned Parenthood celebrating Biden-proposed cabinet
- End-of-Year Pro-life Activities outside Planned Parenthood
- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Planned Parenthood issues demands for first 90 days
By Jim Sedlak
Last September, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, along with about 90 like-minded groups, issued First Priorities: Executive and Agency Actions Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice. As Joe Biden moves forward with his plans in case he is officially named as the nation’s 46thpresident, Planned Parenthood is now reminding Biden and all political leaders that they are expected to meet the demands of that document.
Some of Planned Parenthood’s demands are:
On day one, the president must issue an executive order unequivocally stating his commitment to protect and expand access to comprehensive reproductive health care, uphold sexual and reproductive rights, including abortion care, in the U.S. and around the world, and rescind or revoke prior executive actions limiting access to care.
Upon assuming office, the president must make a public statement that the U.S. will reengage on a global scale to advance the health and rights of individuals worldwide and take action to re-engage fully with the United Nations, including re-joining and re-funding the World Health Organization, and re-funding the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency.
Upon assuming office, the president must immediately halt all non-final regulations that will limit access to reproductive health care, including abortion.
Within 90 days of assuming office, the president must institute the following changes in policy and practice including, where appropriate, issuing guidance (we’ve added short statements in parentheses after the items to summarize what they mean):
- The FDA must review the REMS for mifepristone to determine whether a REMS remains necessary, or whether the goals and elements should be modified or removed from the approved strategy to best reflect scientific evidence and real-world use. (Let PP just mail the abortion pill to women, with no medical oversight.)
- The Department of Health and Human Services must protect patients’ choice of reproductive health care provider, in part by reinstating 2016 guidance reaffirming Medicaid’s free choice of provider provisions, and ensuring that states may not exclude qualified providers of reproductive health care from Medicaid for reasons unrelated to their qualifications, including their provision of abortion care. (Make sure PP has access to hundreds of million dollars in Medicaid money.)
- The Department of Health and Human Services must issue guidance on 1332 waivers aimed at improving access to health benefits and services. The guidance should be designed to encourage states to expand coverage for new populations (such as DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants) and to add benefits, and should affirm that waiver applications that do not comply with the four statutory guardrails of comparable services, affordability, number of people covered, and deficit neutrality will be denied. (Make sure PP has access to as much taxpayer money as possible.)
- The administration must use every mechanism at its disposal to encourage states to extend Medicaid and CHIP coverage to at least 12 months postpartum, including by issuing guidance, while ensuring continued Maintenance of Effort (MOE). (More taxpayer money for PP)
- The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) must rescind a 2008 policy that requires heightened ORR involvement in abortions and issue new guidance to ensure that all care facilities provide minors with timely, confidential access to family planning services, including pregnancy tests and comprehensive, nondirective information about and access to reproductive health services, such as abortion and contraception, including emergency contraception. It must also protect minors’ confidentiality and ensure their timely access to courts to seek judicial authorization for abortion, if needed. (Let PP kill more babies and make more money.)
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must issue guidance to state Medicaid programs that federal law does not mandate the use of Explanation of Benefits and initiate a public and private stakeholder effort to develop additional recommendations and guidance to balance the need for consumer protections with the need for confidentiality, especially when it comes to sensitive health services. (Let PP have more access to your children, without your knowledge.)
- The Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator must make it clear that PEPFAR funds can be used to pay for contraceptive commodities to ensure individuals living with and at risk for HIV have access to a full range of voluntary contraception options and to make the promise of integrated HIV and family planning services a reality for countless more adolescent girls and young women. (At the same time, PP is telling those with AIDS they don’t have to tell their sexual partners that they have the disease.)
- The State Department must champion sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in UN meetings and multilateral forums, including by adopting and advancing comprehensive definitions of SRHR and comprehensive sex education, promoting the inclusion of diverse civil society experts in multilateral forums and on official U.S. delegations, ensuring participants from around the world are granted visas to engage in convenings at UN headquarters, the Organization of American States, World Bank and other multilateral institutions located in the U.S., and prioritizing participating and serving on the Executive Board of UN Specialized Agencies related to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including WHO, and encouraging the expansion of their programs and policies globally. (PP fights to make abortion as an element of “reproductive rights and force countries to legalize abortion.)
- The president must rescind, and undo actions taken pursuant to Executive Order 13798 Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty, which set the stage for expanding the use of religion to discriminate against people seeking reproductive health care, including the rules that allow employers to deny birth control coverage to their employees, and the creation of the HHS Conscience and Religious Freedom Division which emboldens discrimination and refusals of care. (There is no religious liberty; the state controls everything.)
- The Department of Justice must not investigate, arrest, or prosecute individuals under the federal criminal code for any act or omission with respect to their own pregnancy, and must end its policies and practices that place people at risk of criminal charges for any act or omission with respect to their own pregnancy. Such acts or omissions include but are not limited to self-managing or attempting to self-manage an abortion; failing to seek medical help when they miscarry, have a stillbirth, or experience any pregnancy loss, no matter its cause; using substances, whether prescribed, over-the-counter, or criminalized, during pregnancy. (Any way you want to kill your baby should be fine.)
Having spent over $45 million on the 2020 elections, Planned Parenthood believes it owns the Biden administration and is insisting that it get paid back. During the Obama administration, there were persistent rumors that Planned Parenthood would be elevated from a mere $1.6 billion “non-profit” organization to a cabinet-level government program. Now that Planned Parenthood has gained such great influence over the assumed president-elect, these rumors are beginning to be heard once again.
Whatever happens with that, it is absolutely clear that Planned Parenthood wants to change America from “one nation, under God” to a political entity that is driven by the secular Humanist beliefs of Planned Parenthood and the American Humanist Association.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a weekly talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.
Planned Parenthood celebrating Biden-proposed cabinet
As assumed-president-elect Joe Biden is picking individuals for the various cabinet posts, Planned Parenthood’s influence is beginning to be seen. We remind our readers that the woman who was Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, has been an ardent Planned Parenthood supporter for decades and even refused to do her job as attorney general of California in 2015 when Planned Parenthood was caught red handed selling baby body parts. As the evidence began piling up against Planned Parenthood, as the Center for Medical Progress released undercover video after undercover video, Harris met with Planned Parenthood and then began legally attacking CMP instead of Planned Parenthood. In our view, her reward was the vice-president spot on the Biden/Harris election campaign.
Now that the still-contested election is winding down, we see Planned Parenthood’s influence in some of the early cabinet choices by Biden.
Perhaps the biggest, and most transparent, of these choices was Biden’s nomination of Xavier Becerra, current attorney general of California, for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Of all the federal agencies, there is none more valuable to Planned Parenthood than HHS. It is through this agency that Planned Parenthood seeks to take control of the abortion business in the United States and to be able to operate in the manner that will yield the biggest profits for the organization and the biggest salaries for Planned Parenthood executives.
Becerra was Harris’ replacement as California attorney general and continued the vendetta against the Center for Medical Progress.
News outlets reporting on Biden’s nomination of Becerra for head of HHS were “surprised” and “shocked.” Of the six people supposedly in the running for that post, Becerra was the only one without any experience in the health field. As National Review noted: “What California’s top lawyer does have is plenty of experience marshalling the forces of the state to crush religious dissenters, pro-life pregnancy counselors, and independent journalists. … In 2017, Becerra filed felony charges against the pro-life activists and citizen journalists who had gone undercover to expose Planned Parenthood’s gruesome practice of selling the body parts of aborted babies … The L.A. Times editorial board called Becerra’s decision to file criminal charges a “disturbing overreach.” … One writer at Mother Jones called the Planned Parenthood videos “a legitimate investigation, and no level of government should be in the business of chilling it.
“Becerra has also zealously defended a California law requiring abortion coverage in insurance plans offered by churches . . . the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services ruled that California’s abortion mandate violated a federal law . . . which prohibits federal funding of states and localities that force health providers and insurers to participate in or cover abortion. Becerra announced California would not comply.” Now, if confirmed, Becerra will be head of HHS.
In addition to Becerra, Dr. Vivek Murthy, long-time Planned Parenthood supporter, has been nominated to be Surgeon General of the United States. Planned Parenthood Federation of America writes of Murthy: “Murthy has already spent years as America’s doctor, having served as surgeon general under President Obama. He has proudly declared that access to abortion and birth control are essential components of health care.” USSA News reported that Murthy and his wife, Dr. Alice T. Chen, are big supporters of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in the US.
In other nominations, Catholic Voice says: “Biden’s selection of Obama-era officials Antony Blinken and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations could signal a continuance of that administration’s diplomatic approach to prioritizing LGBT rights while deemphasizing or taking a softer approach to promoting religious freedom.” Both policies are in line with Planned Parenthood’s goals for the future.
As Biden selects his team, we, who fight Planned Parenthood, must pray earnestly for a miracle that will put Trump in the White House for the next four years, while getting ourselves prepared for the continuing and escalating fight against Planned Parenthood. Our children, born and preborn, are counting on us to never give up.
End-of-Year Pro-life Activities outside Planned Parenthood
As we approach the end of 2020, there are a number of traditional pro-life activities that take place outside Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities. We recap each here in case you want to participate this year.
Caroling for Christmas 12/21 – 12/26
Many pro-lifers across the country bring the message of LOVE to Planned Parenthood by gathering and singing Christmas carols in the days before and the day after Christmas. It is a time to bring the joy of Christmas to everyone, including customers of Planned Parenthood, workers inside Planned Parenthood, and those who live near a Planned Parenthood facility. We recommend that this not be just added to normal protests but be a special time that is in addition to or instead of your normal activities. Peoples’ hearts can be touched by God during these caroling events and we want to bring the peace of the season to everyone.
Bells for Babies 12/28
December 28 is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. This feast, also known as Childermas, is a remembrance of the massacre of young children in Bethlehem by King Herod in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18). It is a natural time to do something in your community to commemorate the millions of preborn babies murdered by abortion in the United States. We simply do not know how many preborn children have lost their lives to abortion. It is currently estimated that the number, since 1973, is at least 63 million—through surgical and medical abortions. This, of course, does not count the millions more who have lost their lives through so-called contraceptives and IVF procedures.
Since the 1980s, many people have commemorated the event by having churches in their town ring bells at a specified time. They ring the bell once for every million babies. Thus, depending on the bell system, it would take three to five minutes to ring the bells 63 times in 2020. You can imagine the impact of having almost every church in town ringing bells at the same time to remember the preborn. Other communities ring manual or electronic chimes outside Planned Parenthood. If you have seven people each holding a bell and have them ring in order, each would ring his or her bell a total of nine times.
A visual and audio impact that will surely call attention to the on-going magnitude of the massacre of the innocents today.
Mysteries for Mothers 12/30 – 1/01
Finally, in commemoration of the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God, many people gather outside Planned Parenthood on the evening of December 30 or on January 1 to say a Rosary for the closing of all Planned Parenthood and other facilities. You can pray any one of the mysteries (Joyous, Luminous, Sorrowful, or Glorious) using the Reflections for each mystery written specifically for the Marian Blue Wave by Judie Brown and approved by Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. These reflections can be found at: https://marianbluewave.com/praying-the-mbw-rosary/
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
This is the last Wednesday STOPP Report in 2020. It has been a year that nobody expected. Amid all the wearing of masks, business shutdowns and school closures, there has been some good news. Planned Parenthood has closed over two dozen killing centers this year (we’ll have the exact number for you in January 2021). Planned Parenthood has also been forced to curtail its sexuality indoctrination programs for children. Many parents have become more familiar with their children’s school programs and are now aware of the social engineering taking place,
Here at STOPP, we have been particularly encouraged by the number of groups and individuals that continued their efforts to save babies every week at the abortion facilities. In many of the more liberal states, pro-lifers have become the target of pro-abortion politicians. They have been arrested for chalking on a sidewalk in Washington, DC, while rioters were allowed to paint slogans on streets. They were arrested in New York City for not wearing a mask while witnessing on an almost deserted sidewalk, while thugs who destroyed property and killed people went unpunished. They were arrested for distributing information while social distancing in a public place at the University of California at San Francisco as they protested live dismemberment of aborted children taking place inside.
2020 showed us that pro-lifers are indefatigable. You know what is happening in this country, and you are determined to do what you can to stop it.
Many people called me to say they just could not get out of the house, but they were praying for the babies and for all who were able to come to those babies’ rescue. Prayers to Heaven surely increased this year and God answered many of those prayers.
Clearly, 2021 is stacking up as a time when we will face many challenges. But we have to remember that God is in charge. We don’t know God’s ways, but we do know that we must seek God’s will for each of us and then follow God’s will.
As American Life League’s president, Judie Brown, reminded us a few weeks ago, Jesus says in Matthew,Chapter 7, Verse 21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” We must always remember that Jesus taught us how to pray to God the Father, and He said we should pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Finally, there is a wonderful treatise on doing God’s will written centuries ago by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori. It is called, Uniformity with God’s Will. I encourage you to read it.
Let us march forward into 2021 knowing that God is our leader and that with God all things are possible.