Phyllis Schlafly has died. I know what song is playing in your head, and that's not nice.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Cultural conservative activist and icon Phyllis Schlafly died Monday at her home in St. Louis, according to a spokesman for the Eagle Forum political group she founded. 

She was 92. 

Schlafly rose to prominence and influence among conservative Republicans beginning in the early 1960s through her focus on promoting conservative family values, namely her opposition to feminism and abortion rights.

In fact Schlafly was opposed not only to equal rights for women and their right to choose, she was also against marriage equality and immigration reform.

She believed that a woman's primary role in life was as a wife and mother, and that all other things such as employment, education, and self actualization were secondary.

Essentially Schlafly opposed every human rights advance in the last four decades, and of course she used Christianity and the Bible as her excuse for doing so. 

That might lead one to ask, in this age of enlightenment who could possibly still respect this repellent human being?

Funny you should ask.

Courtesy of the Facebook page for the president of the Wasilla chapter of the self loathing club for women:

She Went Down Swinging! - Phyllis Schlafly. 

May she rest in peace. 

Iconic. Heroic. No one can fill her sensible high heeled shoes. She opened my eyes to the rights and wrongs in worldly government back in my college days as she spoke about the Reagan era and all that Reagan's pro-America efforts were doing for our great country. Many of us owe our political awakening to Phyllis Schlafly. 

Our friend is now in the arms of her Lord, rooting for all of us - and expecting us! - to do the right thing.

- Sarah Palin

Of course Palin was a huge fan, how could she not be?

Ted Cruz is starting a super wing-nutty anti-abortion group. Apparently he does not feel enough people hate him yet.

"Agh! I told you don't hold up a mirror to my face! It's terrifying!"

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

 During a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he's created an anti-abortion group that will "champion every child, born and unborn." The Pro-Lifers for Cruz coalition already has more than 17,000 members, according to a press release, and will be chaired by Tony Perkins, the anti-LGBT president of the Family Research Council who recently said same-sex marriage is responsible for "havoc in our homes and blood in our streets." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has also created a committee, but Cruz has cornered some of the more extreme members of the anti-abortion movement. Also heading up the coalition are 11 anti-abortion co-chairs "representing virtually every perspective on the pro-life spectrum." 

One of those perspectives is that of Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue and a board member of the Center for Medical Progress, the group behind the debunked Planned Parenthood videos, whose founder David Daleiden was recently indicted for alleged crimes in connection to the videos. In his announcement on Wednesday, Cruz called Newman's group "one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation."

This Troy Newman guy is so divorced from reality that he once said this about women's health clinics in California:

"Is it no wonder that California is experiencing the worst drought in history when it is the largest child-killer in all of the United States?"

Yes because a lack of precipitation and women controlling their own reproductive organs are so clearly intertwined.

Let's just add this to the growing list of reasons that Ted Cruz must NEVER be allowed to gain any real political power.

Despite findings by a Texas grand jury Carly Fiorina has no intention to stop lying about Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:

Carly Fiorina hears only what she wants to hear, apparently. 

In Thursday's GOP undercard debate, the presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard executive clung to the notion that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit, an allegation that a Texan grand jury declared baseless on Tuesday. Fiorina, however, is having none of that. 

"Here are the facts," she said in the debate. "Planned Parenthood engages in partial birth abortion, in late-term abortion. They alter those abortion techniques to harvest and sell body parts." 

To be clear: There is no evidence that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit.

I think it's pretty clear who Planned Parenthood needs to sue next. 

Interesting how Fiorina seems to think that since Hillary Clinton has not been indicted that it somehow proves our justice system is broken.

You know it could just be that Hillary is innocent as well.

You know, just like Planned Parenthood.

Grand jury indicts anti-choice activists behind doctored Planned Parenthood videos.

David Daleiden

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

A grand jury here that was investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who made videos of the organization. 

In a statement, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said Monday that the director of the Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, had been indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. 

Another center employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record. 

The Center for Medical Progress had covertly shot videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the provision of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. Mr. Daleiden, 26, had posed as a biotechnology representative to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and surreptitiously record his attempts to procure tissue for research. 

Ms. Anderson said in the statement that grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing. She did not specify in the statement what record or records were allegedly tampered with.

You know sometimes justice does prevail.

This is great news and I look forward to Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Carly Fiorina, Fox News, and many other conservatives to come out an apologize to the American people for misleading them about these videos.

Oh who am I kidding, these people will NEVER take responsibility for their actions.

Planned Parenthood shooter (Remember him?) claims that he is a "warrior for the babies."

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The man accused of killing three people during an attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic bellowed in court Wednesday that he is a "warrior for the babies." 

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, declared his guilt and said there would be no trial. He was in court to be formally advised of the 179 charges against him, including murder, after a shooting rampage Nov. 27 in Colorado Springs that also wounded nine people. 

Authorities said Dear mentioned "no more baby parts" during his arrest. Dear's attorney said the suspect's mental competency must be investigated before the case proceeds. 

“I’m a warrior for the babies,” Dear hollered, his wrists and and ankles shackled. Dear repeatedly interrupted his attorney during the hearing and said he wouldn't meet with him again. 

So for all of those folks on the Right desperately hoping that this guy was not an anti-abortion terrorist inspired by pro-life rhetoric, I guess your prayers went unanswered.

Of course fortunately for them a much more digestible terrorist attack has happened since so now the media will be focusing on that and completely forget this totally non-Muslim, non-ISIS related, terrorist attack.

Gee and here I was hoping that Donald Trump might call for the denying of all visas to pro-life members and fundamentalist Christians coming into this country.

No huh?

Supreme Court lays the smackdown on the anti-abortion group that created those doctored anti-Planned Parenthood videos.

Uh oh.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

The Supreme Court on Friday denied an emergency appeal from the California-based antiabortion group behind the secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue recovery. 

The group, known as the Center for Medical Progress, had filed an emergency appeal asking the high court to allow it to keep its list of key donors and supporters confidential. 

But Justice Anthony Kennedy, who oversees appeals from California, turned down the request. 

The center is fighting a lawsuit from the National Abortion Federation, which alleges the center's members got into federation meetings by lying about themselves and falsely promising not to reveal what transpired.

Now why do I think that the donors to this group REALLY do not want their names to be made public? 

I think I am really going to enjoy watching this case move forward.

Dropping a little truth this Saturday morning.

Over 100,000 women in Texas have turned to the do it yourself method for ending a pregnancy. With clinics closing all over the state just imagine how that number will increase.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

New research paints a bleak picture of what could be in store for U.S. women if the Supreme Court upholds an abortion law that makes it more difficult for health clinics to remain open. 

Somewhere between 100,000 and 240,000 women of reproductive age living in Texas have tried to end their pregnancy entirely on their own, without any medical assistance, according to a group of policy researchers. Most of these women either used home remedies, like herbs or vitamins, or went across the border to Mexico to buy misoprostol, the drug used in U.S. clinics to terminate a pregnancy. 

The Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) — a research group based at the University of Texas that’s been tracking the state’s reproductive health policy over the past four years — released this information to illustrate the detrimental impact a recent slew of abortion clinics closures has had on its population. 

“As clinic-based care becomes harder to access in Texas, we can expect more women to feel that they have no other option and take matters into their own hands,” said Daniel Grossman, a TxPEP co-investigator and Professor in Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

"We're protecting the sanctity of human life" they say.

Well what about the lives of thousands of women which are now at risk due to their archaic attitudes toward reproduction rights?

Is the "sanctity" of their lives not worth protecting?

Sarah Palin greatly appreciates being chosen by Newmax, as one of "100 Most Influential Pro-Life Advocates" based mostly on her faked pregnancy.

Courtesy of Hypocritical Hattie's Facebook page:

I greatly appreciate a respected media leader, Newsmax, acknowledging the importance of acting on our Founders' commitment to protecting innocent Americans' God-given right to LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, no matter their age. And to even be mentioned in the same breath as many of our culture warriors on this list - I mean Phyllis Schaffly and reps from Concerned Women for America and Susan B. Anthony List? I'm not worthy - but it's the kind of a humbling experience that strengthens resolve to making my life's work useful to the cause of helping save America. (Her "life's work?") Our nation's majority understands respect for life, and I'm sure I speak for others here when I say we're more committed than ever to working on their behalf to open the eyes and hearts of any in a lost culture who were led to believe it's somehow conscionable, profitable and even celebratory to kill a child for convenience. (Says Ms. Wite Out.) By the grace of God, we won't let you down. 

--Sarah Palin

Palin then links to this article over at Newsmax.

There they place her on the list in third place, right behind Franklin Graham and David Daleiden, the guy who created those doctored Planned Parenthood videos.

In the description they wrote, "Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor — Palin proudly doted on “perfectly beautiful” infant son Trig during her address to the 2008 Republican National Convention. Some 40 million viewers learned Trig had been prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome. Palin, the “mama grizzly” who ran for vice president, has been revered by the pro-life community ever since."

So after all of these years that phony pregnancy is still paying off for Palin. 

Not very well of course, but still paying off a little.

Of course this final babygate story remains my great white whale. Now that Palin has lost all credibility as a potential candidate, political king maker, and Christian this remains the final nail to drive into her coffin of irrelevance.

But I'm working on it.

I actually have a new approach to the babygate story that I am pursuing, as well the possibility of an interview with somebody with some very interesting things to share.

Just waiting for some final pieces to fall into place.

Keep those fingers crossed.

Judge blocks Alabama's attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. Cites lack of "legal reason." Gee, no kidding.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Alabama to restore Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, money the state tried to cut off in the wake of undercover videos shot by abortion opponents. 

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued an order that temporarily bars Alabama from cutting off Medicaid contracts with the group's clinics in Alabama. Planned Parenthood Southeast and a Medicaid recipient filed suit in August, days after Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley announced he was ending the Medicaid agreements with the two clinics. 

"Today's ruling is a victory for the women who rely on Planned Parenthood for quality, compassionate affordable health care," said Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast. "It's outrageous that Governor Bentley is trying to take care away from women and families in our communities who need it the most." 

In his 66-page opinion, Thompson said Alabama did not identify a legal reason to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood and that the state's action likely violated a free-choice-of-provider provision of the federal Medicaid Act that limits a state's ability to bar family planning providers for reasons unrelated to quality of care.

And once again let's remind ourselves that Alabama is NOT one of the places where Planned Parenthood donated fetal tissue to researchers, so this  entire thing was ridiculous from the get go.

Of course you would think that the anti-choice folks would look at this and think "Well if we can't accomplish this in Alabama what  chance do we have in other states?"

But of course that will not happen and these Right Wing assholes will just keep right on spending tax payer money in the desperate attempt to take away a woman's right to choose.

When Republican Senator David Vitter found out that the former prostitute he was having an affair with was pregnant he did what any pro-life hypocrite would do, he asked her to get an abortion.

"I am100% pro-life. Unless my mistress gets knocked up of course."

Courtesy of Best of New Orleans: 

Now we know why David Vitter avoided so many live TV debates, why he wanted forum questions in advance, why he ducked the media after the two TV debates he did attend — and most of all, why he has never answered questions about the specifics of the “serious sin” to which he allegedly confessed in July 2007. 

According to investigative blogger Jason Brad Berry (www.americanzombie.com), Vitter had a nearly three-year sexual relationship with a woman he first met through a New Orleans escort service in 1998. In 2000, she told him she was pregnant. His first reaction, according to the woman, was to deny paternity. The next words out of the mouth of the man who proudly claims he has a “100 percent pro-life” record: Get an abortion. 

She did not. Instead, she put the child up for adoption. 

There’s the real irony: If the woman is telling the truth — and she certainly comes across as sincere in Berry’s videotaped interview with her — the “prostitute” that Vitter impregnated is clearly more “pro-life” than the senator.

Cannot say that this is in anyway surprising. These pro-life assholes always change their tune when the potential baby threatens to change THEIR life or damage THEIR reputation.

Of course we already know what kind of a scumbag Vitter is based on the fact that he frequently visited prostitutes and had a diaper fetish.

Currently Vitter is running to be the governor of Louisiana.

I would like to say that there is no way he can win in the face of these allegations, but since his past daliances with prostitutes did not seem to significantly damage his political aspirations, all bets are off. 

Update: Okay well apparently that link to Best of new Orleans is no longer working. You can also get the story here at Raw Story. They even have video of the ex-mistress making the remarks.

New documentary about the incongruous connection between the pro-life and pro-gun advocates features a very familiar face.

Courtesy of Addicting Info:  

The documentary The Armor of Light is opening Oct. 30, and features an Evangelical minister who walks the audience through the question, “is it possible to be both pro-gun and pro-life?” Reverend Rob Schenck is an anti-abortion activist and serves as a fixture on the political far right, but he breaks with the cult to press conservatives on the conflict in their so-called values. 

The trailer of the documentary opens on the keynote address Sarah Palin gave to the 2014 NRA convention feeding the fear that the government is coming for people’s guns and 2nd Amendment rights are being stripped away by the left. Palin told the audience “Gals, now, ya know, ammo is expensive! Don’t waste a bullet on a warning shot.” She got a standing ovation for the line.

Who better to demonstrate the lunacy of the Christian pro-gun than Sarah Palin?

After all she is essentially the epitome of everything wrong with both the Christian fundamentalists and those who believe the 2nd Amendment is the ONLY Constitutional right worth defending.

Speaking of Palin as it turns out we were not the only ones horrified over her Facebook post yesterday:

If you want to understand the type of thinking progressives forces are up against in the eternal struggle for America’s sanity, look no further than Sarah Palin – the country’s greatest example of banal mediocrity and willful ignorance. Palin isn’t completely stupid, she’s just very not-bright, which in the Fox News era translates into huge amounts of influence and success. Palin has hacked America’s Id and now speaks for it via her facebook page. 

In another gnawingly irritating and downright bizarre screed against Obama for his fictional transgressions against ‘real Americans’ (white people), Palin has outdone herself with a wonderful mixture of sexual innuendo, racism and violent rage.

Like I said Sarah Palin is the perfect example to use when you are demonstrating the ignorance of a particular group or the negativity of a particular movement.

In fact her major contribution to the world seems to be as a measuring tool to determine just how batshit crazy or hateful a person, organization, or political movement is by comparison. 

Guess which is the only state targeting anti-abortion pregnancy centers? Did you guess California? Of course it's California.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

California on Friday became the only state to target anti-abortion pregnancy centers with a law cracking down on deceptive practices some have used to prevent or dissuade women from having an abortion. 

The new law, which forces some crisis pregnancy centers to offer information about public assistance for reproductive services and others to notify patients that there are no medical professionals on staff, passed the California state assembly with a large majority in late May. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed the bill on Friday night. 

It is the first time reproductive rights groups have succeeded in pushing regulations on crisis pregnancy centers across an entire state; only a handful of cities or counties have passed similar laws. Shortly before the act became law, Amy Everitt, the director of NARAL Pro-Choice California, a reproductive rights group that helped draft the bill, said in an interview, "There is more to come."

Okay I am REALLY loving California right now. 

It was just on Sunday that I was touting the fact that California had passed automatic voter registration, and laws restricting conceal carry on college campuses.

And now this?

It's like the Liberal version of Nirvana.

Too bad it costs an arm and a leg to live there, and keeps bursting into flames.

Another Planned Parenthood clinic burned. This time in California.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Police and fire investigators are combing through a charred and water-logged Planned Parenthood clinic near Los Angeles after a nighttime arson attack. 

An intruder broke a window and used a liquid accelerant to start a fire on the ground floor of the two-storey structure in Thousand Oaks late on Wednesday, just six weeks after the abortion provider was vandalised. 

A sprinkler system doused the flames, averting serious fire damage but covering the floor with several inches of water, forcing it to remain closed on Thursday. 

The attack came amid a political storm over Planned Parenthood triggered by a series of videos posted online by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, which has accused the healthcare provider of profiting from the sale of foetal tissue.

Those doctored videos, and the emotions they were designed to spark, have real world consequences well outside of political debate about defunding and policy changes. 

There are people who are willing to destroy, to threaten, and yes even to kill because in their minds they are saving actual children from slaughter.

In my opinion the group that doctored and then released those videos should be held criminally responsible for EVERY health clinic torched by anti-choice arsonists, EVERY incidence of vandalism against a Planned Parenthood facility, and of course any injuries or deaths that might be linked to their propaganda.

Oh and it goes without saying that Planned Parenthood needs to sue them for every cent that they have.

The guy behind those bogus Planned Parenthood videos admits he used a stillborn fetus to portray an aborted one, and Dr. Jen Gunter has more on that video which supposedly defends Carly Fiorina.

Courtesy of AATTP:

Daleiden admits that the image is that of a stillborn baby, but insists it was only used to show what a fetus at that gestational period looks like. 

It is quite clear about halfway through the video that Cuomo’s attempts are futile because Daleiden is simply not going to agree that he sees how using the photograph out of context is misleading. Perhaps using one of the hundreds of thousands of images available of live fetuses in that same gestational period would have made your claim a little more credible. 

Daleiden responds by saying: 

“It’s the same baby, whether it’s born dead or alive, whether the organs are harvested or not.” 

To which Cuomo says, in a “don’t play dumb” tone: 

“It’s also completely irrelevant to the point you’re trying to make, which is, ‘Look at what they do to these babies.’” It was born stillborn. It was not aborted. Doesn’t that matter to you if you’re talking about abortion?” 

Daleiden repeats again that it’s the “same kind” of fetus. 

Cuomo, still trying to drill through the thickness of Daleiden’s skull, says: 

“My point is context. You’re saying, ‘what they do in abortions,’ that wasn’t an abortion. That’s my point.” 

So the guy finally admits to using false imagery as a means to manipulate the emotions of the viewer.

That's not something we didn't already know but it is nice the POS finally admitted it.

As for that video we talked about yesterday which supposedly PROVES that Carly Fiorina is not a big fat liar, well my new favorite OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter examined it again and discovered this: 

Today I viewed it again on a very large screen and noticed the width of the bed. It is clearly a labor and delivery bed, procedure/operating tables (used for clinic abortions and in the operating room) are much narrower. Also the part of the stirrup that is visible in the upper left is typical of a labor and delivery bed. As I was going through it frame by frame I noticed movement on the right side close to the minute mark. There is an African-American man who is sitting and moving back and forth as if he is wiping the brow of the woman on the table and comforting her. His face is clearly visible in the right upper corner at the 54 second mark. And of course that is what happens at premature deliveries, support persons come in. Partners don’t get to come back for abortions, that’s not how it works. I took a screen shot to be sure, but I feel wrong about posting it. Anyone who doesn’t believe me can look for themselves. 

As for the “poking and prodding” of the premature fetus that enraged many people on Twitter it looks as if the operator is inspecting for any grossly visible defects, but it is also possible he is describing a fetus at the 17-18 week developmental stage to the person who was illegally taping the premature delivery. Maybe the operator was asked to describe things? As there are no obvious defects this is unlikely an induction of labor for genetic reasons, also those happen at a later gestational age (around 20-22 weeks). 

Why wasn’t a blanket given to the baby? If the mother declined to hold her baby after delivery then typically nothing additional would be done and the body would go to the morgue or pathology for autopsy depending on the plans/circumstance. It is also possible no one offered the patient the option to hold and that would be sad. However, not everyone is brave to hold their baby in that situation. It took me over an hour to work up the courage when my son was born prematurely at 22 weeks and died. 

But all I can say is this is a premature delivery and it is despicable that it was held out as an abortion.

So we have the creator of the initial anti-abortion attack videos admitting that he used deceptive images to manipulate the viewer, and an actual doctor calling bullshit on the video that supposedly vindicated Carly Fiorina's  histrionic claims of seeing an aborted baby kept alive so that its brain could be harvested.

At this point I would usually simply say "We're done here." But knowing the cognitive dissonance which infects the Right Wing that is in fact very unlikely.

Anti-choice activists are dumpster diving in order to find the personal records of women using abortion services. WTF?

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Abortion opponents are sifting through public records — including 911 calls, autopsy reports, and state health department documents — in order to glean medical information about women who have had abortions, according to a report from the Washington Post and ProPublica. 

The report also states that some activists dig through the trash at abortion clinics to look for patient records in dumpsters. If they find these documents, they use them to file complaints that providers are violating privacy laws by making their patients’ information too easily accessible. 

The anti-abortion activists who seek this type of medical information — many of whom publish their findings online — say they’re not trying to identify patients’ identities or breach women’s privacy. Instead, they want to make sure that abortion doctors aren’t breaking the law.

Oh yeah these folks are not creepy stalkers invading the privacy of women making an incredibly personal and private decision, they are simply doing this because they care about women and want to make sure that their privacy is not being invaded.

You know by creepily stalking them and invading their privacy.

Makes perfect sense.

Analysis shows that those Planned Parenthood videos were purposefully altered to give false impression. Gee, really?

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The undercover Planned Parenthood videos that spurred a congressional investigation were so severely manipulated that they wouldn't hold up in court, according to an analysis by three teams of forensic experts. 

Planned Parenthood hired independent research firm Fusion GPS to investigate the validity of the first five "sting" videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group. 

Glenn Simpson, a partner at the firm and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, assembled three teams of neutral experts to comb through the tapes using special video software. He said the teams found that all of the videos analyzed -- even the supposedly "full," unedited footage the CMP released -- were missing large sections of time and misleadingly altered so that separate conversations appeared to take place in an uninterrupted take. Moreover, the forensic team found that the transcripts CMS released with the videos were frequently erroneous. 

"It appears they commit what I would call 'wishful thinking' about what was said," Simpson told reporters Thursday.

So not only were the videos used to attack Planned Parenthood altered, but even the so-called "unedited" versions, which already undermined the premise that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue for a profit, were changed to push forward a false impression. 

Color me unsurprised.

And yet THIS is what is being used to once again launch an attack against women's access to legal abortion services, as well as cancer screenings and important information about contraception and STD's.

Teacher harassed on Facebook and at her school for her work as an abortion clinic escort.

Courtesy of Cosmopolitan:  

Shana Broders has been an elementary school teacher for over two decades. For the last year and a half, she has spent her downtime as a clinic escort, helping patients at a nearby North Carolina abortion provider navigate their way past the protesters and into the building for services. For that, a group of extreme anti-abortion activists wants to get her fired from her job. As a new school year begins, they have escalated their efforts, harassing her school by phone and threatening to picket. Broders tells Cosmopolitan.com how her school has responded and why no threats will make her give up supporting a person's right to a legal, safe abortion procedure. 

Ms. Broder explains in the article how her world got turned upside down:  

I have very strong and passionate beliefs and views on bodily autonomy and women's rights. I was following something on Twitter and I saw a video clip of protesters at a clinic in another city. I tweeted or made a comment, "Wow. That's so horrible. I'm so glad that doesn't happen where I live," in my ignorance. Then someone commented back, "Oh, yes it does, right down the road." I was like, "What? Where? Can I be an escort?" They said, "Yes and let me hook you up," so I got hooked up though Twitter with an escort group in Raleigh, North Carolina. That's how it started. 

I'm not sure how I was targeted for this. All I can tell you is that I got [one activist] called out for trespass, me personally. It was July of 2014, and I was escorting, and he went behind our building and another building, and he hid in the bushes waiting for the doctor. I was afraid if he jumped out of the bushes at him, someone could get hurt. I called the police for that reason. I think that made it personal. He learned my name fairly early on and he calls me by name. "You know, Shana, you were nice when you first started." I have him on video saying, "You were nice. What you were doing was evil but you weren't a bad person when you first started this but the darkness is taking over you." 

He called me out. He told me he would come to my school. He named my school. Another man who is in this group, AHA [Abolish Human Abortion], who lives in my town — that scares me — he has told me he's going to come to my school and tell all the parents that I'm a baby murderer. Pure intimidation tactics.

At first nothing happened, but then the next year the anti-choice folks followed up on their threats and the school started receiving harassing phone calls referring to her as a "baby murderer." And then they took to Facebook and started sharing the graphic at the top of the page, until it was essentially everywhere.

Now this poor woman, a teacher of small children, feels threatened and under siege in her own community.

Fortunately her school has rallied around her and she has support from her fellow teachers, and of course she is in no danger of losing her job.

However the question remains how long will it be before the people making these threatening accusations are no longer simply happy using words to cause her harm?

Because as we have seen time and time again, this kind of illogical hatred can often take the form of physical violence and even murder.

Dr. George Tiller.

Personally I think this woman is incredibly courageous and hope that she serves as an inspiration for others to consider volunteering at their local clinics as well.

Media Matters provides the smackdown to the newest video from the anti-abortion group currently attacking Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The anti-abortion group that has accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling organs and tissue from aborted fetuses released a new video Tuesday, a day after the Senate blocked a bill that would have defunded the organization. 

The latest undercover video, which is clearly edited, features operatives for The Center for Medical Progress posing as employees of a fetal tissue procurement company attempting to buy intact fetal organs from a Planned Parenthood branch in Houston. In the clip, Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, discusses the relationship between altering abortion procedures to get the most intact organs possible and costs. 

"If we alter our process and we're able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, it's all a matter of line items," she said in the video. 

Farrell, who said in the video that she is responsible for diversifying Planned Parenthood's revenue streams, also said the group works with multiple academics and researchers studying fetuses looking for intact organs -- and sometimes complete cadavers.

As you can imagine such frank talk about harvesting organs from aborted fetuses has further enraged the anti-choice crowd and driven them into a frenzy of letter writing and e-mailing to their local politicians who now feel they have little choice but to at least appear to be making an effort to defund Planned Parenthood.

However the video also makes it appear that the doctors performing the abortions will alter the procedure in order to get a better "sample" for sale later which might place the mother at risk during the procedure.

Here is the press release by the group The Center for Medical Progress who are behind these videos:

The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood's sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch's track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact fetuses. 

In the video, actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company meet with Farrell at the abortion-clinic headquarters of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston to discuss a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs. 

"Where we probably have an edge over other organizations, our organization has been doing research for many many years," explains Farrell. When researchers need a specific part from the aborted fetus, Farrell says, "We bake that into our contract, and our protocol, that we follow this, so we deviate from our standard in order to do that." 

Asked specifically if this means Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast can change abortion procedures to supply intact fetal specimens, Farrell affirms, "Some of our doctors in the past have projects and they're collecting the specimens, so they do it in a way that they get the best specimens, so I know it can happen." 

The investigators ask Farrell how she will frame a contract in which they pay a higher price for higher quality fetal body parts, and she replies, "We can work it out in the context of--obviously, the procedure itself is more complicated," suggesting that "without having you cover the procedural cost" and paying for the abortion, the higher specimen price could be framed as "additional time, cost, administrative burden." 

Farrell finally summarizes her affiliate's approach to fetal tissue payments: "If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. It's all just a matter of line items."

However Media Matters has compared the released fifteen minutes of footage and compared it to the full transcript and found some very deceptive edits.

Here are a few of them:

The Center for Medical Progress' full-transcript of their undercover video reveals that the anti-choice organization cut-out portions of Farrell's comments in order to make it appear that the official was suggesting changes to protocol that could endanger a patient. The short video skipped over Farrell explaining that everything done "is there for the safety of the patient" and under "our standard process." 

Not included in the 15-minute version of the video is Farrell's further explanation that the clinic would not alter or delay a procedure for the sake of fetal tissue donation, per Planned Parenthood and tissue donation guidelines. 

The unedited transcript reveals Farrell explaining that any changes to the procedure would need to be cleared by doctors and pose no threat to the patient. 

The full, unedited transcript reveals Farrell's explanation that any reimbursement for the costs incurred by the clinic cover only administrative costs, and would not be calculated on a per-specimen basis.

The problem of course is this now has become a conflict between logic and faith. The folks on the anti-choice side are driven by their faith that God places a child in the mother's womb, and that man has no right to interfere with its birth.

On the pro-choice side is the understanding that reproduction is not the product of divine intervention but rather every day biological interactions between human beings, and that allowing one of those humans to walk away unburdened by the interaction, while forcing the other to take full responsibility for the embryo created by the mingling of sperm and egg, is patently unfair and should not be forced on women simply due to a different reproductive system.

If these people REALLY wanted to reduce the number of abortions in this country, instead of simply controlling women, they would turn their attention to increased education and the increased availability of preventive measures and stop attacking programs that provide very important services for the health of American women.

The Republicans can huff and puff all they want about defunding Planned Parenthood, but one person stands in their way. President Obama.

That's our hero. Fighting for truth, justice, and women's basic health rights.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

The White House on Friday threatened a veto on any bill that defunds Planned Parenthood. A budget measure that strips funding from the organization “is certainly something that would draw a presidential veto,” press secretary Josh Earnest said. 

“We have routinely opposed the inclusion of ideologically driven riders” in budget bills, Earnest added. 

It is the first time the White House issued a veto threat against Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood since an anti-abortion group began releasing secretly recorded videos.

I am extremely glad to have Obama in the White House in times like this. And I am equally glad to know that if elected both Hillary and Bernie would continue to fight the Republicans on these key issues.

If you are a woman, and care even a little about women's rights, then you want to make damn sure to keep a Democrat is the White House. Because have no doubt that if the Republicans get their way, Planned Parenthood is finished. 

And if possible they WILL repeal Roe vs Wade just as soon as they get the deck stacked in their favor.