Planned Parenthood decides to stop taking reimbursements for tissue donation.

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: 

Planned Parenthood Federation of America said it is immediately stopping taking reimbursements for procuring fetal tissue for medical research, an attempt to tamp down controversy that has led to Republican investigations in Congress and efforts to end federal funding. 

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in a letter Tuesday to the National Institutes of Health that the organization’s affiliates will no longer accept any reimbursements for costs associated with procuring tissue from abortions. Fetal tissue has been provided by affiliates in California and Washington state, and the Washington clinics haven’t been taking any money for it, she said. The Oregon affiliate has been providing placental tissue for reimbursement. Planned Parenthood didn’t disclose the amount it will forgo with its new policy.

“The real goal of these extremists has nothing to do with our fetal tissue donation compliance process but is instead to ban abortion in the U.S. and block women from getting any health care from Planned Parenthood,” Ms. Richards wrote. “Today, we’re taking their smokescreen away.”

Gee how will the Republicans justify shutting down the government in order to defund Planned Parenthood now?

And let's face it this was such a small part of what Planned Parenthood did, and only in so few states, that stopping it will have virtually no impact on them whatsoever.

I think the word here is "Checkmate."

Jason Chaffetz admits that after investigation he could find no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Thursday that the GOP's investigation into Planned Parenthood's use of federal funds hasn't turned up anything. 

"Did I look at the finances and have a hearing specifically as to the revenue portion and how they spend? Yes. Was there any wrongdoing? I didn't find any," he said during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the family planning provider. 

Chaffetz, a candidate for House speaker, grilled Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards during a five-hour hearing last week. He questioned her salary, asked about the organization's expenses and revenues, and pressed Richards on why the group had revenue of $127 million last year if it's a nonprofit. (Nonprofits put their revenues back into their programs.) 

But after all that, he concluded that Planned Parenthood isn't doing anything sketchy with its money. "Did we find any wrongdoing? The answer was no," Chaffetz said.

You are you now thinking, "Well good now that they have failed to find anything they will stop harassing Cecile Richards and trying to shut down Planned Parenthood clinics."

You are so cute.

No this is political catnip to the conservatives and there is no way that they are going to drop this thing until they have squeezed every bit of unmitigated rage and opportunism out of it.

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, says that Roe vs Wade is on the ballot in 2016.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Last Tuesday, when Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, appeared at a hearing to account for her organisation’s federal funding, it might have only attracted political diehards. But during the course of a day-long appearance, Richards was interrogated with such undisguised contempt, such outright hostility and disregard for the facts, that video of the hearing jumped out of the political and into the popular realm. 

In the days that followed, Richards was stopped at every juncture – on the train back to New York, on the subway, in the coffee shop next to her office – by people echoing disbelief both at how she had been treated, and the things ostensibly sane Republican congressmen had said. The footage was so bananas, says Richards, that “it has really ignited people who don’t think about this day in and day out”. 

“This” is women’s reproductive rights, an issue that, 40-odd years after Roe v Wade, is still as central to US electoral politics as it ever was.

...........

“In this primary, I think they’ve moved even further to the right than Governor Romney,” says Richards, quite an achievement given Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign pledge to eliminate Planned Parenthood. 

“In this coming presidential election, Roe v Wade is on the ballot. The battle lines were drawn last week. This isn’t about Planned Parenthood or fetal tissue” – one of the charges against the organisation is that it sells fetal tissue to scientific researchers – “it’s about whether abortion is going to be legal any more in this country.”

You really cannot argue with this statement considering what we have seen these last few months.

There is an incredibly aggressive effort by the conservatives to  undermine or do away with legal abortion in this country, and there are NO indications that they are going to stop any time soon.

This is why it is incredibly important to support the Democratic candidate in 2016.

And I think it's clear that no matter who wins they will fight for the preservation of Roe vs Wade.

Which is why I get so angry when people say that if Hillary is the candidate that they will sit out this election.

My response to that is "Fuck you! If that is true you might as well go register as a Republican now because you are essentially working to promote their agenda."

This is NOT the time to take your ball and go home because the game is not going the way you envisioned it in your fantasies. Now is the time to take your lumps, dust yourself off, and get back into the game.

And if you need any more incentive just keep this in mind: 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the oldest justice, was born on March 15, 1933. She is now 82. When the next presidential term ends she will be 87 years and 10 months old — or 87.8 years old.

Antonin Scalia, the second oldest justice, was born on March 11, 1936. He is now 79. When the next presidential term ends, he will be 84 years and 10 months — or 84.8 years old.

Anthony Kennedy, the third oldest justice, was born on July 23, 1936. He is now 78. When the next presidential term ends, he will be 84 years and 5 months — or 84.4 years old.

Stephen Breyer, the fourth oldest justice, was born on August 15, 1938. He is now 76. When the next presidential term ends, he will be 82 years and 5 months — or 82.4 years old.

Clarence Thomas, the fifth oldest justice, was born on June 23, 1948. He is now 66 — and will turn 67 next week. When the next presidential term ends, he will be 72 years and 6 months — or 72.5 years old.

Samuel Alito, the sixth oldest justice, was born on April 1, 1950. He is now 65. When the next presidential term ends, he will be 70 years and 9 months — or 70.8 years old.

Sonia Sotomayor, the seventh oldest justice, was born on June 25, 1954. She is now 60 — and will turn 61 next week. When the next presidential term ends, she will be 66 years and 6 months — or 66.5 years old.

Chief Justice John Roberts, the eighth oldest, was born on January 27, 1955. He is now 60. When the next presidential term ends, he will be 65 years and 11 months — or 65.9 years old.

Elena Kagan, the youngest justice, was born on April 28, 1960. She is now 55. When the next presidential term ends, she will be 60 years and 8 months — or 60.7 years old.

By 2020 the average age of the Justices will be 75 years old.

However it is very unlikely that all of them will remain in the Court until then, and if the next President is lucky enough to get two terms it is relatively certain they will have to replace four or more of the Supreme Court Justices during that time.

Still feel like sitting this one out?

Republicans on anti-abortion witch hunt attempt to tie Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards to a stake and strike a match.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

As Republicans in Congress kicked off another effort to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the organization's president told lawmakers that the firestorm of controversy is the result of fraudulent videos that distort the organization's work and tissue donation practices. 

Cecile Richards said her group is being targeted because of "deceptively edited videos released by a group that is dedicated to making abortion illegal." The "outrageous accusations" based on those videos — that the organization is profiting from selling fetal tissue — are "offensive and categorically untrue."

 ..... 


Richards said what the videos show are practitioners describing efforts to provide fetal tissue for medial research. Fetal tissue donation is "a minuscule part of the work of Planned Parenthood. Of the hundreds of health centers that are part of the Planned Parenthood network, currently just 1 percent facilitate their patients’ tissue donation in support of fetal tissue research." Nevertheless, she strongly defended the practice. "While our involvement with fetal tissue research is a small component of Planned Parenthood, it offers the potential of lifesaving research."

I watched quite a bit of this yesterday and once again found the behavior of the Republicans to be deplorable.

At one point the committee chairman Jason Chaffetz had the temerity to bring up Richards' annual salary and suggest that she was overpaid.

Just the very idea of a member of this do nothing Congress suggesting that some other person was overpaid is enough to make my head explode in rage. Not only that but to my ears it sounded more than a little sexist.

And that is also the way it sounded to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who had this to say:

I'd like to register my opposition and my objection to the chairman beating up on a woman on our witness today for making a good salary. The entire time I've been in Congress I've never seen a witness beaten up and questioned about their salary. Ms. Richards heads a distinguished organization providing health care services to millions of Americans and I find it totally inappropriate and discriminatory.

Here here!

The committee threw a lot of BS at Richards during her testimony including a chart that they threw up on the screen to shame her.

 Chaffetz claimed the chart was created from data supplied by Planned Parenthood, however right there on the spot attorneys for Planned Parenthood were able to debunk the chart and reveal that it came from an anti-abortion group called Americans United for Life.

And before you get too concerned about the jackals that salivated around Ms. Richards you should know that she had one very competent warrior fighting on her side.

None other than Elijah "Fuck you and your stupid Republican investigations" Cummings!

Rep. Cummings as we know has also been the voice of reason during the incredibly long Benghazi witch hunt as well.

I don't think the Republicans got much they can use from this inquisition yesterday.

However that does not mean they have any intention of giving up.

After all if they can keep that ridiculous Benghazi investigation going for 72 weeks there is no telling how long they can beat this dead horse.