Daleiden Trial: Planned Parenthood Claims Security Upgrades After Undercover Report are "Damages"

CMP undercover journalist David Daleiden

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America had Gregory Regan, a public accountant, taken the stand to explain the "damages" that Planned Parenthood suffered as a result of videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. The videos were recorded by undercover journalists and exposed the sale of aborted babies' body parts.

Between "infiltration" and "security" categories, PPFA claims to have suffered $630,213 worth of damages. This includes costs for increased vetting for conference attendees, badges, ID scanners, and guards.

When he was cross-examined, Regan agreed with defense attorney Vladimir Kozina that he was not giving an opinion on the cause of those damages. Furthermore, the prosecution offered no analysis regarding the necessity of security upgrades.

Defense Attorney Peter Breen issued into evidence an email from Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains CEO Vicki Cowart, who was frustrated at a lack of very basic security measures. Cowart states in the email that a Google search for the "BioMax" address (the fake company that the CMP used to conduct its undercover investigation) showed that it was not a real tissue procurement company. “If you have not been doing this level of security and vetting [a Google search], will you start immediately?” she wrote.

If a Google search could have accomplished the same goal that Planned Parenthood spent over half a million dollars doing, then those costs weren't really necessary.

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PA. Representative Tweets Apology for Calling Early Miscarriages "some mess on a napkin."

PA. Representative Wendy Ullman

Pennsylvania State Representative Wendy Ullman went to Twitter to apologize for a remark she made last week while during a hearing for a bill that would require medical facilities to bury or cremate children who were miscarried or aborted. In that hearing, she said,

“It refers specifically to the product of conception after fertilization which covers an awful lot of territory. I think we all understand the concept of the loss of a fetus, but we’re also talking about a woman who comes into a facility and is having cramps and — not to be, not to be, concrete — an early miscarriage is just some mess on a napkin.”

Women who have miscarried children and felt the pain that comes with that death called her out on her remarks, which devalue not only the lives of preborn children but also their personal struggles dealing with the loss of a child. She responded this week in a series of tweets that acknowledge the harshness of her language, but don't reverse her position.

Some would choose donation for medical research, like my family friend, who I quoted in a committee meeting, saying, “So my loss can have meaning.” 2/4

— Rep. Wendy Ullman (@RepUllman) November 1, 2019

This issue is intensely important to me, and that’s why I struggled for words. My words were poorly chosen, and I apologize. I remain steadfast that every single step of a medical process, including the handling of remains, should be decided by a patient and her doctor. 4/4

— Rep. Wendy Ullman (@RepUllman) November 1, 2019

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California Nurse Charged with Murder for Allegedly Injecting Friend with Assisted Suicide Drugs

Kristie Koepplin
Credit: National Right to Life News

Arizona nurse Kristie Koepplin has been charged with murder by California authorities, who claim that she killed a friend by giving him a lethal injection of assisted suicide drugs. Koepplin is a nurse and has posted $1 million bail, but will not be allowed to practice nursing until further notice.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that Koepplin helped Matthew Peter Sokalski die, but the circumstances do not align with the criteria of the assisted suicide law.

“It is beyond disturbing that someone who is trained as a nurse to aid the sick and the dying would twist their duty to willingly end the life of another human being,” Spitzer told the Washington Post.

Koepplin pleaded not guilty to the charge.

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Daleiden Trial: Planned Parenthood Agreed to Sell Aborted Baby Livers for $750 Each

David Daleiden
Credit: American Life League / Flickr

In his final day on the witness stand, undercover journalist David Daleiden said that the Texas Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast abortion clinic agreed to sell him the livers of aborted children for $750 each. He was posing as an employee of a fictitious company called BioMax and convinced clinics to sell to him using a brochure that detailed a “specifically criminal transaction over fetal body parts,” including “a per-volume kickback based on the number of body parts sold.”

Only one abortionist ever questioned the procedure, and her question was only “to make sure that she would still get her per-specimen fee,” according to Daleiden.

The trial is centered around recordings of conversations that David Daleiden and Sandra Merrit had with abortionists about the sale of fetal body parts. The prosecution claims that these conversations were confidential in nature and therefore the recordings were illegal. This is not true if the recordings were done to expose violent crimes, so the defense is trying to prove that abortion clinics altered abortion procedures in ways that could harm women so they could obtain more intact body parts.

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March of Dimes Report Card Gives Illinois D+ for High Preterm Birth Rates. Pro-Life Leader Says Unrestricted Abortion is to Blame.

A recent March of Dimes report card for Illinois gave the state a D+ for its high rate of preterm births. One interesting detail to note in this report is that African American women in Illinois are 52% more likely to give birth before their term is complete than other women. Illinois Right to Life Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr responded to the report:

“It is no surprise that Illinois and Chicago have a preterm birth problem – because Illinois and Chicago have an obvious abortion problem. Abortion procedures do irreversible damage to a woman’s uterine wall and cervix, drastically increasing the likelihood she’ll experience future miscarriages or preterm delivery.”

Studies conducted in the last decade suggest that the more abortions a woman has, the more likely she is to give birth before completing their term.

“Who can be surprised that women struggle to sustain their pregnancies when Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers in our state are willfully ending pregnancies by the tens of thousands every year?” said Knorr. “In fact, I’d like to hear from Planned Parenthood. Are they not a women’s healthcare provider? What do they intend to do to address preterm births, which is clearly a major women’s health issue in communities across our state?”

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Connecticut Supreme Court Uses Pseudo-Science Term to Rule Embryos "Marital Property"

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos could be destroyed at the request of a mother even though the father objected. They were ruled "marital property" and the couple who created them had previously agreed to destroy them in the event of divorce.

A quote from the decision includes the term “pre-embryo,” which isn't a scientific term and was constructed purely for the sake of politics.

“Pre-embryo is a medically accurate term for a zygote or fertilized egg that has not been implanted in a uterus,” the court wrote. “It refers to the approximately 14-day period of development from fertilization to the time when the embryo implants in the uterine wall and the primitive streak, the precursor to the nervous system, appears. An embryo proper develops only after implantation.”

A textbook would say something entirely different. The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (6th ed.), by Keith Moore and T.V.N. Persaud, says this:

The term “pre-embryo” is not used here [in their book] for the following reasons: (1) it is ill-defined; (2) it is inaccurate…(3) it is unjustified because the accepted meaning of the word embryo includes all of the first 8 weeks; (4) it is equivocal because it may convey the erroneous idea that a new human organism is formed at only some considerable time after fertilization; and (5) it was introduced in 1986 “largely for public policy reasons.”

By controlling and manipulating the language by which many understand the development of human life, those who don't care about what happens to preborn children can have a powerful influence on how politicians respond to the issue.

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Pennsylvania Representative Calls Early Miscarriage “just some mess on a napkin.”

During a debate on legislation that would require burial or cremation for the bodies of babies who die from miscarriage or abortion, Rep. Wendy Ullman made the statement “Not to be…not to be concrete…An early miscarriage is just some mess on a napkin.”

The Pennsylvania House Health Committee was debating HB 1890 when Ullman made the statement demeaning the value of preborn children in their early stages of development. Preborn children, without the help of legislation like this, are treated as medical waste after death. This legislation, which has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court, calls for human lives to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their age.

Abortion advocates argue that these kinds of laws decrease access to abortion by increasing the cost that abortion facilities must pay to dispose of bodies.

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Pennsylvania State Representative Privately Apologizes Five Months After Harassing Pro-Life Mom and Teens

Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims privately apologized to the family of Ashley Garecht via mail five months after harassing her and her teenage daughters and attempting to dox them for praying outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. The message on the card Sims sent read:

“Dear Ashley, I want to reiterate my sincere apologies to you and your family. I regret the harm that I caused and I have learned a great deal from this. I can only ask for your forgiveness and I wish you all the best in the future. Sincerely, Brian Sims.”

According to Life Site News, Sims had not apologized to the family before sending this care. He did, however, apologize to the Planned Parenthood facility for the negative press this incident generated.

In the original video, Sims said:

“What we’ve got here is a bunch of … pseudo-Christian protesters who’ve been out here shaming young girls for being here. So, here’s the deal, I’ve got $100 to anybody who will identify these three, and I will donate to Planned Parenthood.”

The Garecht family accepted his apology, but also stated, “It is our sincere hope that Mr. Sims will modify his conduct in the future and that he will stand in defense of all citizens who exercise their First Amendment rights in the public square, including those who advocate for life outside of abortion facilities.”

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World Medical Association Declares Opposition to Euthanasia

This month, the World Medical Organization (WMA) released a declaration of its stance on euthanasia, including all forms of medically assisted suicide. Unlike many other organizations, the WMA took a strong stance which reinforces the value of human life, as doctors should:

"The WMA reiterates its strong commitment to the principles of medical ethics and that utmost respect has to be maintained for human life. Therefore, the WMA is firmly opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide."

Furthermore, it stated that doctors should be given the right to conscientiously object to killing a patient in any area where such actions are legal:

"No physician should be forced to participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide, nor should any physician be obliged to make referral decisions to this end."

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Senate Bill Could Prevent Pro-Life Groups from Receiving Foreign Aid

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) inserted an amendment into an omnibus funding bill which “would prop up the abortion industry and overseas promoting of abortion with federal funds,” and create a “vehicle to harass pro-life recipients” according to a letter to senators from March for Life Action.

H.R. 2740, the omnibus funding bill with this amendment, was pulled from a vote on Thursday, but the entire bill or a new bill that still includes this language could be reintroduced. Congress has until Nov. 21 to pass an appropriations bill to fund government agencies in the 2020 fiscal year.

The amendment increases aid to domestic groups that support abortion and also creates an enforcement mechanism against "discrimination" of aid beneficiaries on the basis of sex, “including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy.” March for Life Action is concerned that this enforcement mechanism could prevent pro-life groups from receiving aid which they currently use to provide life-affirming care.

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Michigan Governor Unveils New York-Like Abortion Law

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

On October 29, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and pro-abortion allies unveiled the “Reproductive Health Act.” This bill, if passed, would allow unlimited abortions in the state of Michigan up to the moment of birth

Although it has not yet been introduced to a legislative body, it has been confirmed that the bill would:

• Allow minor teens to have secret abortions without their parents’ consent—or even knowledge.
• Allow abortion facilities to ignore health and safety regulations that other medical clinics follow.
• Allow abortion facilities to refuse to provide informed consent to women.
• Allow walk-in abortions with no waiting period.

The bill may also allow taxpayer dollars to fund abortions and allow nurses and physician assistants to perform surgical abortions.

“They’ve already passed a bill to ban a safe procedure that has saved women’s lives,” Governor Whitmer said, referring to a bill that outlaws abortion procedures in which doctors forcibly tear a baby apart limb from limb in order to remove it from its mother's womb. “And as they know, I’m going to veto those bills if they ever have the backbone to send them to my desk.”

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4 Year Old UK Girl Told ‘You should have been aborted!’

While walking her two children to school, Emma Ross was confronted by a man who noticed her four-year-old's wheelchair. “The man was yelling in her face, saying she shouldn’t have been born, she was a drain on the NHS, a drain on society and that I should have had her aborted if I’d known she was going to be disabled,” Emma said according to the Mirror. Hertfordshire Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Quinn Ross, the four-year-old girl, suffers from Perthes disease, a hip condition which makes walking painful. She can only walk 10-15 steps at a time without the wheelchair, but after the incident, her mother says that Quinn is afraid to leave her home in her wheelchair. In the United Kingdom, disabilities are frowned upon to the point that parents can get the permission of judges to "put down" their children after they are born.

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Paralympic Champion Follows Through with Euthanasia Plans

Marieke Vervoort, a gold medal winner in the 2012 London Paralympic Games for the 100-meter wheelchair sprint, recently followed through on an announcement that she would have a medically-assisted suicide. After the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, she told fans that she would not only be retiring but also looking into euthanasia due to the progression of her neuromuscular condition. Her athleticism was her career, so, understandably, she would find it difficult to adapt to losing that part of her life, but for her to take this drastic action is saddening, to say the least.

It shows her hopelessness at the idea of living out her life with this condition and communicates to others that medically-assisted suicide might be a viable option if they feel similarly about medical difficulties in their own lives. People surrounding those facing medical difficulties need to facilitate their emotional and medical needs with meaningful relationships and palliative care so that they are not left feeling hopeless.

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Joe Biden Denied Communion Over Abortion Stance.

Credit: Marc Nozell / Flickr

A Catholic Priest in North Carolina denied communion to former Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden because of the candidate's support for legal abortion.

“Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching,” Fr. Robert Morey, pastor of St. Anthony Catholic Church in the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina said to the Catholic News Agency.

Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states that “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

Joe Biden has stated that he would increase funding to Planned Parenthood while during his campaign for the 2020 presidential election, flipping on his previous stance that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund abortions.

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Alabama Abortion Ban Blocked by Courts. Legislators Welcome Decision and Plan to Challenge Roe v. Wade.

Credit: Nicolas Michaud / Flickr

An Alabama law that was planned to go into effect November 15 was blocked by a preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson after the ACLU went to court to stop it. Alabama legislators welcome the decision and plan to use the injunction to take the abortion issue up to the Supreme Court to challenge Roe v. Wade.

Alabama passed the Human Life Protection Act in May; a law that banned abortion at all gestational ages except to “avert (a mother’s) death or to avert serious risk of substantial physical impairment of a major bodily function.” There is also an exception if a licensed psychiatrist diagnoses a mental illness and has a “reasonable medical judgment that she will engage in conduct that could result in her death or the death of her unborn child.”

Republican state Rep. Terri Collins said in a statement,

“Our law was designed to overturn Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court level, and today’s ruling is merely the first of many steps on that legal journey. I remain confident that our mission will be successful and appreciate the support of millions of citizens who support our effort to preserve unborn life.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has also declared that he will work to bring the case all the way to the supreme court.

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Judge Allows Student Attacked in Washington Post Article to Sue

US District Judge William Bertelsman partially reversed his ruling which prevented a defamation suit against the Washington Post from progressing further. This decision moves a young student one step closer to having his day in court against the news giant and bodes well for lawsuits against other outlets.

Nick Sandmann, who was portrayed in numerous media outlets after a charged confrontation between a Native American man and students from Covington Catholic High School. The students were at the Lincoln Memorial waiting for a bus after participating in the January March for Life in Washington, D.C. when the man walked up to the group while beating a drum. The students were trying to drown out racist taunts from the nearby Black Hebrew Israelites when the event occurred. Nick was captured on video looking the man in the eye while he beat his drum, and the media jumped to conclusions about the short clip without waiting for context.

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Missouri's Last Abortion Clinic Facing Closure due to Health Violations

Credit: American Life League

The Missouri Department of Health denied the renewal of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic's license, the only remaining abortion facility in the state after it did not comply with health protocols.

The Department of Health cited “unprecedented lack of cooperation” and “failure to meet basic standards of patient care, and refusal to comply with state law and regulations protecting women’s health and safety that resulted in numerous serious and extensive unresolved deficiencies including multiple that involved life-threatening conditions for patients.”

The Planned Parenthood clinic would not perform required pelvic examinations as a “preoperative health requirement,” according to the state. In addition, doctors refused to provide interviews and the clinic was not prepared for a case of "extreme hemorrhaging."

A judge and the Administration Hearing Commission both granted a temporary stay of the health department’s decision while the case is reviewed. The clinic will be allowed to stay open during that time.

The Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood facility was created in preparation for a situation such as this since Illinois' liberal abortion legislation facilitates women crossing the border to obtain abortions there.

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Planned Parenthood Publishes Book to Answer Teens' Questions about Sex

Planned Parenthood released a book designed to inform young people about sex titled “In case you’re curious: Questions about sex from young people with answers from the experts.” The book was written by Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) as a continuation of its In Case You're Curious (ICYC) project. Using its ICYC branding, PPRM provided a phone number that young people could text to ask questions about sex, and Planned Parenthood would respond with answers. Planned Parenthood claimed that it responded to 14,176 texts by 2017.

The book features nine chapters, each with different groups of similar questions. Many of these important questions are presented as part of illustrations that seem to be designed for children. An illustrated elephant couple, for example, asks “When should I start having sex?” An owl asks, “Is emergency contraception an abortion?” This is paired with fairly mature material and explicit illustrations of the human body.

Parents should be aware that materials like this are becoming increasingly accessible to children. They should take action to inform their children about human sexuality in a responsible way before others (like Planned Parenthood) take that opportunity away. If Planned Parenthood answers questions like “When should I start having sex?” or “Is twelve too young to know I’m Bi?” before a parent does, those parents will have missed out on an incredibly important teaching moment for their children.

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San Francisco Mayor Bans City Employees from Travelling to States with Pro-Life Legislation on Business

Effective January 1, 2020, San Fransisco public employees will not be allowed to conduct business with or embark on work-related travel to states that ban abortion between 20 and 24 weeks.

In total, this list includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. This is very similar to a recently-announced Illinois bill that would prevent state workers from traveling to states with abortion restrictions.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed called the move a stand “against states that put women’s health at risk and that are actively working to limit reproductive freedoms,” and said that while “tax revenue from San Francisco alone may not be sufficient to encourage states to rethink their laws, if other cities and states follow San Francisco’s lead, the financial pressure might be enough to prompt policy changes.”

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Jury Sees Screenshots of Delivery Form for Fetal Body Parts

Among many other things, jurors in the ongoing legal battle between Planned Parenthood and undercover journalists saw 2012 screenshots from a website which detailed a variety of options for ordering fetal body parts.

“You have one drop-down menu for the kind of body part you wanted. They had about 50 to a hundred different body parts listed. You could get a heart, you could get a heart with veins and arteries still attached, you could get a brain, you could get kidneys, you could get genitals. You could get the scalp. Really, anything you could imagine,” Daleiden said.

The website had menus for specifying gestational age, the number of specimens, and shipping methods. One could receive the body parts with same-day, overnight, or ground Fed-Ex shipping.

The testimony helps show that Daleiden was focused on exposing violent actions of abortion facilities which were altering abortion procedures in order to obtain intact body parts. A California privacy law that Daleiden is accused of breaking also says that someone who records others while trying to expose violent activities is exempt from punishment.

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