Gee it seems that if a fella defunds Planned Parenthood he can't even go out for a coffee without somebody shaming him for it.

Courtesy of Injustice:  

Rick Scott, the Trump-loving, women-hating governor of Florida, can’t even visit a local Starbucks for a caffeine fix without hearing from disgruntled Floridians enraged over his political theater. 

Cara Jennings, a 39 year old woman from Gainesville, happened to be in the local Starbucks when the Governor popped in unannounced for a drink. 

Jennings decided in the moment to let him know just what she thought of his recent decisions to de-fund Planned Parenthood and significantly cut Medicaid. 

“You cut Medicaid, so I couldn’t get Obamacare, said Jennings pointing her finger at Scott and simultaneously silencing one of his aides trying in vain to intervene, “You’re an a–hole. You don’t care about working people. You should be ashamed to show your face around here.”

I LOVE how Scott runs out of the Starbucks with his tail between his legs.

Well now this woman is my new hero.

Good for her in standing up for women all over her state, and calling this guy exactly what he is, an asshole.

Florida politicians think it is perfectly okay to defund Planned parenthood because dentists and elementary school can always provide breast exams and birth control. Wait, what?

Courtesy of the Guardian:  

A bill passed in the Florida legislature this week would effectively defund Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights clinics by preventing state agencies from working with any organization that provides abortion care other than that for victims of rape, incest, or if the life of the woman is at risk. 

As the bill heads to governor Rick Scott for his signature, several state lawmakers who have insisted that plentiful alternatives exist for reproductive and sexual healthcare have cited a list of health centers that includes dentists, optometrists, and elementary schools. 

“I don’t understand how they put this list together,” said Kheyanna Suarez, a student at Florida Atlantic University who first started visiting Planned Parenthood when she was 16. “Were they blind and mashed everything from Google on to one list? A dental office, a Salvation Army, an elementary school – I can’t go and get care at those places. If I have to leave my healthcare up to the places on that list, I am scared. I don’t think an elementary school can prescribe me birth control.”

During a March 2 hearing state lawmaker Lori Berman asked a co-sponsor of the bill for a list of alternative clinics that could provide the same services to those provided by Planned Parenthood.

This is what she received: 

The state list of federally qualified health centers that Berman received the next day includes 67 schools ranging from the elementary to high school level. 

During the hearing, the bill’s supporters also repeatedly noted that there are 29 federally funded public health centers for every one Planned Parenthood health center in the state, implying that the defunding of Planned Parenthood would have little impact on patients. The anti-choice Florida Family Policy Council, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, and Americans Defending Freedom repeatedly cited this 29:1 ratio in their lobbying for HB 1411. 

“That ratio number is based on this list,” Berman told the Guardian, “which is a fallacious list since many of the providers on that list are in no position to provide women’s healthcare.”

And let's not forget that all of this overreaction is based on those doctored videos that have been proven in a court of law to have been falsified and whose creators have now been indicted.

And yet this witch hunt continues on as if those facts simply do not matter.

Because let's fact it, to conservatives those facts simply do not matter.

While everybody was distracted by news of another mass shooting the Senate voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

Less than a week after three people were killed and nine others injured at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, the Senate on Thursday came one step closer to blocking all federal funding to the nation's largest women's health care organization. 

The move is part of the GOP's latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Following the series of widely debunked videos showing Planned Parenthood staff talk about fetal tissue donation, Congress included language to defund the organization in their bill to repeal President Barack Obama's signature health law. 

Earlier this week, centrist Republican Sens. Mark Kirk (Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Susan Collins (Maine) introduced an amendment to remove the Planned Parenthood defunding provision from the bill. But that amendment was blocked today in a 48-52 vote. Obama has said he will veto the bill if it gets to his desk.

I guess I should be impressed that my Senator voted to remove the Planned Parenthood provision, but I have really lost any ability to trust her anymore.

Of course this is just more political pandering to the base, since we know that Obama will veto the crap out of it.

However it is also a signal to let us know how incredibly important it is to keep a Democrat in the White House.

Alabama taxpayers to pick up the $51,000 tab for Republicans efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Not only have Alabama's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood Southeast been blocked by the courts, Alabama taxpayers will also have to foot the bill in the more than $51,000 in legal fees for the reproductive health organization, the Montgomery Advertiser reported, under a settlement filed in federal court Monday morning. The agreement still must be approved by a U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. 

Other states have faced their own legal obstacles in attempting to defund the healthcare organization. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has warned states that blocking Planned Parenthood's Medicaid funding may not be legal. 

In Monday's agreement, Planned Parenthood Southeast said it does not participate in the fetal tissue donation programs that led to the claims that clinics are harvesting tissue for profit. 

"Had the governor checked beforehand, he would have known that," ACLU attorney Randall Marshall, who represented Planned Parenthood Southeast, told the Montgomery Advertiser.

Yeah but calling and finding out it was all a waste of time, would not give these idiots that chance to  beat their chests and look like champions for the unborn.

Not children mind you, fuck them, but potential children who are not yet a huge disappointment to their parents.

Man I hope this sends a signal to all of the other right wing politicians thinking about wasting taxpayer money on this witch hunt.

But you know, it probably won't.

Mike Huckabee suggests that Congress defund the White House. Seriously?

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:  

"He's got a Republican Congress that has never tried to slow him down on his unconstitutional actions. They don't try to slow down the judicial branch when it goes into judicial overreach and practices what Thomas Jefferson would have called judicial tyranny. They've ignored the typical checks and balances that are the constitutional duties of the other branches of government. So I think Obama's going to just go ahead and do whatever he thinks he can get away with, and up until now he's gotten away with pretty much anything he wanted to do. 

"And I hold the Republican Congress responsible and accountable. It's time for them to step up, and if they have to cut the funding out of the White House and simply not appropriate funds for him to function, they have the power of the purse, they simply need to start exercising it."

Holy shit that is a boatload of stupid!

This of course is the same idea floated by professional moron Louie Gohmert over a year ago, so that gives you some idea of the level of wingnuttery we are dealing with here.

If Congress were to attempt such a step it would open them up to charges of sedition and would certainly open a rift between the executive branch and the legislative branch that would have long term ramifications lasting long past the end of the Obama presidency.

Only an idiot or an anarchist would suggest such a thing, so which one is Huckabee?

P.S. By the way you might notice that this interview was giving to Newmax, which is the same low rent Fox News knock off that invited Sarah Palin to spew nonsense after the last Republican debate.

Which just goes to show how far the Huckabee candidacy has fallen these days.

And that is so far that he now has been excluded from the grownups table during the next RNC debate.

Gee what a shame. 

Ohio Senate votes to defund Planned Parenthood. Really Ohio?

Courtesy of Cleveland.com:  

The Ohio Senate on Wednesday quickly passed legislation to block state funding for Planned Parenthood's health education and prevention programs. 

Senate Bill 214 passed the Republican-controlled Senate along party lines in a 23-10 vote and now heads to the House for consideration. 

The bill would redirect about $1.3 million annually from Planned Parenthood to federally qualified health centers, health departments, and other clinics that don't perform or promote abortions or contract with facilities that do. 

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio offers birth control, cancer screenings, tests for sexually transmitted diseases and well-woman exams at its 28 centers across the state. Three centers perform abortions.

And of course they also do not provide fetal tissue samples to researchers, which is what inspired this new outrage in the first place.

Planned Parenthood as an agency is also no longer asking for reimbursement for the clinics in the only two states which provide fetal tissue for research purposes.

And yet for purely political reasons this Senate thinks it is reasonable to deprive the women of Ohio access to medical care and cancer screenings.

But remember there is NO war on women.

The war is on their uterus. And Republicans are planning to murder that sucker or imprison it and throw away the key. 

Texas has now defunded Planned Parenthood over those doctored videos. Well of course they did.

"Government should stay out of our business. Except vaginas. Government should all up in that."

Courtesy of Time: 

Texas is eliminating taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood in the state, based on concerns over the organization’s fetal tissue donations, the governor announced on Monday. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office issued a statement, saying Texas is ending Medicaid’s participation with Planned Parenthood, which means the women’s reproductive health nonprofit will no longer receive Medicaid funding in the state. The decision came in a letter sent Monday by the Office of Inspector General at Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Abbott’s statement said. 

“Following the release of gruesome videos filmed at Planned Parenthood facilities, including Gulf Coast in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced his LIFE Initiative to provide greater protections for children in the womb and prevent the sale of baby body parts,” Abbott’s statement reads. 

The cancellation “calls for funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers out of taxpayer money to be eliminated completely, both at the State and local levels,” according to the announcement. 

Abbott said that canceling Medicaid participation for Planned Parenthood in Texas moves the state closer to “providing greater access to safe healthcare for women while protecting our most vulnerable – the unborn.”

Of course neither those last two statements are accurate as health clinics for women in Texas are rapidly disappearing and without access to safe legal abortion services women will resort to the same back alley butchers that performed them BEFORE Roe vs Wade.

By the way let's remember that Planned Parenthood has already said that they will no longer charge for the shipping of fetal tissue, and not only that Texas Planned Parenthood NEVER participated in fetal tissue donations.

So this defunding does NOTHING to address the concerns brought up by those bullshit videos, but instead puts the health of Texas women at serious risk and gives Governor Greg Abbott another victory against women's rights.

Hey, I tried to get y'all to vote for Wendy Davis. But did you listen? Hell no!

Update: Well guess who felt the need to chime in on this story?

None other than Nancy French wearing her Bristol Palin skin suit:  

There is no reason that an organization that has proven itself so untrustworthy and that has based its business around the murder of innocent babies should be receiving tax-payer dollars. Yet, Planned Parenthood has rallied its friends in the media, in Hollywood and in the White House to try to deflect our attention from the truth. 

It is so refreshing to see state’s standing up for life and refusing to be bullied by Planned Parenthood and all of their allies! I hope that my state follows suit soon!

Well I assume that when French says "my state" she is referring to Tennessee where she and her husband actually live, because now that Alaska dumped Sean Parnell there is no way we are doing anything this fucking stupid.

I assume at some point today Palin will link to this Brancy post and the trifecta of ignorance will be complete.

Another win for Planned Parenthood in Utah.

Courtesy of The Salt Lake Tribune:  

A judge on Tuesday blocked an order issued by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to cut off federal money going to Planned Parenthood in the state after the release of secretly recorded videos by a California anti-abortion group. 

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups issued the temporary restraining order during a hearing, allowing the money to keep flowing while the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah seeks a longer-term injunction. 

Planned Parenthood sought the emergency order a day after suing Herbert. It said some programs would have expired Wednesday if the money was blocked. 

Herbert acted on his personal and political agenda when he cut off funding to the organization following the release of the videos, said Peggy Tomsic, a lawyer for the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.

State by state, lawsuit by lawsuit, Republicans are getting their asses handed to them over their overreaction to those doctored videos.

It is just sad that Planned Parenthood has to waste time and money defending themselves against what is clearly a partisan attack inspired by phony videos that were proven false almost the moment they first appeared.

Ted Cruz loudly rebuked by fellow Republicans while trying to hijack Senate vote on government funding.

Courtesy of Politico:

Ted Cruz can’t even get a protest vote in the Senate anymore. 

On Monday night, Cruz’s colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood. In an unusual rebuke, even fellow Republicans denied him a “sufficient second” that would have allowed him a roll call vote. 

Then, his Republican colleagues loudly bellowed “no” when Cruz sought a voice vote, a second repudiation that showed how little support Cruz has: Just one other GOP senator — Utah’s Mike Lee — joined with Cruz as he was overruled by McConnell and his deputies. 

It was the second time that Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that’s routinely granted to senators in both parties. The first came after he called McConnell a liar this summer. 

Cruz was incredulous on Monday, calling it an “unprecedented procedural trick." 

“What does denying a second mean? Denying a recorded vote. Why is that important?” Cruz said. “When you are breaking the commitment you’ve made to the men and women who elected you, the most painful thing in the world is accountability.” 

Actually McConnell IS being accountable to all of the Americans who are NOT lunatics fooled by those doctored videos into believing the government should shut down rather than help fund an organization that provides crucial health care services to women. 

In fact recent polling shows that rather than slipping support for Planned Parenthood has in fact gone up. And this came as quite a surprise to Rep. Steve King: 

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was perplexed. Two long months had passed since the Center for Medical Progress started releasing undercover videos in which current and former Planned Parenthood employees described the grim economics of fetal tissue harvesting. Since then, a long congressional recess had come and gone and Republican-run states had redoubled their efforts to defund the family planning titan. Yet in the most recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos, 54 percent of voters still favored federal funding for Planned Parenthood. 

"Those numbers are news to me," said King. "I haven’t paid any attention to the polls. But am I surprised? Yes. That would explain some of the reasons why the leadership is not committing to defund."

Exactly. Just because there is a very vocal group, with an obvious political agenda, losing their minds over a few doctored videos does not mean that the American people are quite so easily manipulated.

This woman has a special message for those trying to defund Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of US Uncut:

Like many women who rely on the services of Planned Parenthood for everything from cancer screenings, birth control, and in some cases yes — abortions — one young woman has a message to Republicans who would like to see these services grind to a halt, endangering those who need them. 

She’s flipping them all off, from her hospital bed — post surgery. 

In 2013, Ambarie Stacey Schiefer was 23 years old and required surgery to have abnormal cells removed from her cervix to prevent them from becoming cancerous. From her hospital bed, she took a strong selfie flipping off those in the future who would stand against Planned Parenthood, the organization which helped make it possible for her to have the potentially life-saving surgery.

The article goes on to explain that cervical cancer is the 4th most common cause of cancer related death in women, but if caught early through pap smears can be treated quite effectively.

In the last 50 years cervical cancer deaths have decreased by 74% largely due to the availability of pap smears like those offered for free by Planned Parenthood. 

Of course none of that matters to the conservatives who would condemn these women to death for the opportunity to also dramatically decrease their access to legal abortion.

But remember, the war on women is merely a figment of the liberal's imagination.  

OB/GYN's expose Carly Fiorina's claims of an aborted fetus kicking its legs in those doctored Planned Parenthood videos as false.

Courtesy of Dr. Jen Gunter's blog:

This weekend I posted about my hypothesis that the 3rd Planned Parenthood video deceptively shot and edited by the Center for Medical Progress did not contain video of a “fully formed fetus” (Carly Fiorina’s words), I believe it is a premature delivery. I reached that conclusion from 25 years of clinical practice in OB/GYN. I decided to ask nine other OB/GYNs what they thought about the clip, meaning I put a lot more effort into getting the facts than the politicians who voted to defund Planned Parenthood. All nine OB/GYNs agree with me. Several are OB/GYns who have done advanced training in family planning and so are experts in the field. 

We all agree the video clip is highly unlikely to be from an abortion. We all agree it is likely a premature delivery. We all agree it can’t be from a Planned Parenthood clinic. 

Here’s why: 

• The cord is clamped. No one ever clamps the cord in a 2nd trimester abortion. Ever. No one has seen it and no one has even heard of it happening. If you want to see the image where I point out the clamp, click here. I know it disturbs some so I’m not reposting. 
• The condition of the skin. Fetal skin is very fragile at 18 weeks, but here it is perfect. There is also no bruising. With 2nd trimester abortions, even when the purpose is to deliver intact (which is rarely the case), there is some instrumentation and this always leaves marks. If this were an induction of labor there is almost always bruising and skin maceration. Inductions are only done for malformations and none are present. 
• The gestational age. Likely 18 weeks, maybe 20 weeks. At a Planned Parenthood an abortion at this gestation would be a D & E. Inductions don’t happen at Planned Parenthood. 

The evidence suggests this is a premature delivery. The perfect condition is typical of a rapid but atraumatic delivery, such as cervical incompetence or a second twin.
It is always nice when a person with actual knowledge and facts to back them up is able to bitchslap conservative bullshit right back at those that are propagating it.

Dr. Gunter has more revealing information on her blog as well, such as the fact that the  organization which originally provided the  clip stands behind it, but is unwilling to reveal how they came by it or where it is from.

How convenient.

House Republicans vote to defund Planned Parenthood. Government shutdown in 3..2..1

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed on Friday the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, 248-177. The bill strips the women’s health provider of its funding for contraception, pap smears, and testing for sexually-transmitted infections, unless it stops performing abortions. 

President Barack Obama has vowed to veto the bill, setting the stage for a possible government shutdown. Some congressional Republicans have vowed not to vote for any budget that includes funding for the organization. 

“Planned Parenthood can get their money back if they fully commit to what they talk about, women’s healthcare, and stop performing abortions for this year,” said Rep. Diane Black. Her fellow Republican of Tennessee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, also a vocal supporter of the bill, declared, “If there is reason to investigate, there is reason to withhold taxpayer funding during that time.”

Well actually there is no reason to investigate, as evidenced by the five investigations in five different states which found nothing wrong.

According to The Hill the vote went down mostly along party lines:

In a 241-187 vote, nearly all Republicans and two Democrats approved legislation that would block Planned Parenthood's federal funding for one year, giving time for Congress to fully investigate claims of wrongdoing by the provider. 

Lawmakers also passed a bill tightening restrictions on abortion doctors who violate infant protections in a 248-177 vote. 

“What we’ve learned about Planned Parenthood is appalling, barbaric and indefensible,” Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) said. 

What "we've learned" is that conservatives are easily manipulated by doctored video and hyperbolic posting on Facebook.

Of course this was the plan all long when that group, Center for Medical Progress, and their conservative backers, created those doctored videos in the first place.

They know full well they are dealing with a bunch of barely literate mouth breathers who will follow the shiny object every time. And so they have. 

I bet all of you already know what Nancy French/Bristol Palin/Sarah Palin's favorite moment from last night's debate was, don't you? Of course you do.

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Carly! The Best 35 Seconds of the GOP Debate... http://t.co/b8EXiKpCIi

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) September 17, 2015

Courtesy of Brancy's blog under the title "Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Carly! The Best 35 Seconds of the GOP Debate": 

Did you see this??

Yes, yes we did.

We not only saw it, but we researched it, and found it incredibly misleading:

I've been trying to figure out where Fiorina got these vivid images, and Mollie Hemmingway suggests one answer: there is a mini-documentary series produced by CMP, the group that conducted the Planned Parenthood sting videos, called Human Capital. This series uses some footage from the tapes shot inside Planned Parenthood, as well as stock footage, clips of cable news shows, and an interview with a former fetal tissue procurement technician who worked with a company that worked with Planned Parenthood. 

The third Human Capital video has stock footage of a fetus kicking on a table — though that footage isn't from inside a Planned Parenthood. The video cites the Center for Bioethical Reform and the Grantham Collection as the sources for that footage, and never claims to have taped those images themselves.

So yes there is some video evidence of what Fiorina is talking about, however the video is NOT from inside Planned Parenthood, was NOT part of the videos that were released to the public, and was only added to this so-called "documentary" in order to further damage PP's reputation and vilify them so that conservatives could garner enough political support to attack legal abortion in this country.

And who better to help spread misinformation and attack a woman's right to control her own body, than Sarah Palin, and her adopted daughter Nancy French?

French was also in a snit about the President reaching out to that student who was arrested in Texas for building a clock and bringing it to school: 

This is the kind of stuff Obama needs to STAY out of. This encourages more racial strife that is already going on with the “Black Lives Matter” crowd and encourages victimhood. 

The police made a mistake, clearly. 

But why put more people against them? Why egg it on? Childish games like this from our president have divided our country… even more today than when he was elected. 

So in the mind of Nancy French, addressing racial injustice, CAUSES racial injustice?

Perhaps French missed the fact that this has been all over the news and social media, and was even mentioned in last night's GOP debate.

Hell even an astronaut weighed in.

Hi @IStandWithAhmed ! I'd love you to join us for our science show Generator in Toronto on 28 Oct. There's a ticket waiting for you.

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) September 16, 2015

Let me guess, Commander Hadfield is also fanning the flames of racism?

You know you would think that a woman who adopted a child from Ethiopia might be a little more racially sensitive.

Or is she the shield that you wield against criticism Nancy, like Palin wields poor little Trig?

Gee, maybe you ARE her daughter.

Conservatives plan to shut down the government again unless they stop funding Planned Parenthood. What is the definition of insanity again?

Courtesy of Cleveland.com: 

A conservative House of Representatives faction led by Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan announced Thursday its members will vote against any federal spending bill that contains money for Planned Parenthood, dramatically increasing the chance of an Oct. 1 government shutdown. 

"Given the appalling revelations surrounding Planned Parenthood, we cannot in good moral conscience vote to send taxpayer money to this organization while still fulfilling our duty to represent our constituents," said the statement issued by the House Freedom Caucus, which Jordan heads. 

Jordan and his group are angered by the release of videos that suggest Planned Parenthood profits from selling tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers. He and his supporters want to redirect Planned Parenthood's share of federal reproductive health care money to clinics that don't perform abortions. 

The stance by the Freedom Caucus' roughly 40 members will make it harder for Republican leaders who control the House and Senate to a pass a bill to keep the federal government open after current government funding expires on Sept. 30. 

"No one wants to shut down the government, but I believe that Congress should take the money that is currently going to Planned Parenthood and give it to federally qualified clinics that are providing more comprehensive care to women," said Jordan. "If President Obama and Harry Reid want to shut down the government over an allegiance to that one particular organization, instead of funding our troops and funding women's health care, then that's a sad commentary on their priorities."

Okay when this jerkwad talks about "federally qualified clinics that are providing more comprehensive care to women," what he really means is "Religious based anti-choice clinics that push abstinence only education, adoption as the only alternative to an unwanted pregnancy, and of course offer numerous pamphlets that shame women for being such sluts."

I don't think I still need to point out that those Planned Parenthood videos were heavily edited in order to smear Planned Parenthood, but for anybody still on the fence here you go.

If these idiots go through with their threat this will be the second government shutdown under Barack Obama, and like the third or fourth time the conservatives have threatened to do so since he took office back in 2008.

I seriously doubt that the administration is going to buckle under to this kind of hostage taking, especially since their reasons for doing it are based on ignorance and ideology.

Mitch McConnell concedes that he does not have the votes to defund Planned Parenthood right now. Suggests that if the next President is a Republican then he will.

Courtesy of the AP:  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says Republicans lack the votes to halt the payments. He also says that standing in the GOP's way is President Barack Obama, who doesn't leave office until January 2017. 

"The way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it, the president has to sign it," McConnell said in an interview with Kentucky TV station WYMT recorded Monday. 

"The president's made it very clear he's not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood," McConnell said. "So that's another issue that awaits a new president, hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood."

As you might imagine the conservative purists were very unhappy about this announcement and are now comparing him unfavorably to Democratic leader Harry Reid.

At this point I cannot imagine that I need to give any of you yet another reason to vote for the Democrat, regardless of who it might be, in 2016.

I do NOT care if you don't trust Hillary, I do NOT care if you think Bernie Sanders is un-electable, I do NOT care if you think Joe Biden is too closely tied to the failed war on drugs, and do NOT care what your reasons might be for refusing to vote for whoever else might be able to garner the Democratic nomination.

The facts are that if we lose the White House, we are going to have to once again fight over Obamacare, watch as conservative justices pack the Supreme Court, see yet another war started for no damn good reason, and now also watch as a program that literally helps millions of women get important information about sex, disease, and pregnancy crushed under the boot heel of conservatives just as it once happened to ACORN.

Arkansas is ending its contract with Planned Parenthood in response to heavily edited videos.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Arkansas is ending its Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday, despite warnings federal officials have given other states that such a move could violate the law. 

Hutchinson ordered the Arkansas Department of Human Services to terminate its Medicaid provider contract in 30 days. The move came in response to secretly recorded videos released by an anti-abortion group showing Planned Parenthood officials describing how they provide fetal tissue from abortions for medical research. 

"It is apparent that after the recent revelations on the actions of Planned Parenthood, that this organization does not represent the values of the people of our state and Arkansas is better served by terminating any and all existing contracts with them," Hutchinson said in a statement.

As it turns out Arkansas may find themselves in some serious hot water over this decision.

Courtesy of Reuters: 

The U.S. government has warned states moving to defund women's health group Planned Parenthood that they may be in conflict with federal law, officials said on Wednesday. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency, was in contact with officials in Louisiana and Alabama this month, said a spokesperson for the agency's parent, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

The agency warned those two states that their plans to terminate Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood may illegally restrict beneficiary access to services, the spokesperson said in a statement.

I knew when I saw that first video that things were going to get bad, and I predict that this is just the beginning. 

These conservatives have just been waiting for an excuse to go after Planned Parenthood, and to find a way to deny women access to contraceptives and now they have it.

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.

Elizabeth Warren drops the hammer on Republicans over their attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

As the Senate convened on Monday to vote on a bill seeking to defund Planned Parenthood, Sen. Elizabeth Warren took the floor to issue a fierce defense of the health organization. "Do you have any idea what year it is?" Warren asked. 

"Did you fall down, hit your head, and think you woke up in the 1950's or the 1890's? Should we call for a doctor? Because I simply cannot believe that in the year 2015, the United States Senate would be spending its time trying to defund women's health care centers. You know, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. The Republicans have had a plan for years to strip away women's rights to make choices over our own bodies. Just look at the recent facts."

Warren continued by listing all of the other recent attempts by the Republicans to undermine health care services for women and to essentially sabotage the Roe vs Wade decision piece by piece.

Damn she's good!

And I love watching her slap the snot out of the GOP. 

Democrats block attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of Time: 

Senate Democrats blocked a proposal to defund Planned Parenthood Monday. The Republican proposal failed to reach a 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster in a 53-46 vote that fell mostly along party lines. 

Only two Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, backed the bill. 

The proposal came after a series of undercover videos were released by the Center for Medical Progress, a group of anti-abortion activists, which showed Planned Parenthood staffers and others who work with the organization discussing fetal tissue donations. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.

Of course this is only the first volley in what will no doubt be a protracted battle. 

And fuck Senators Joe Manchin and Joe Donnelly for caving to this bullshit attack.

Thankfully we have more courageous Democrats who refuse to be bullied into submission. 

I think it might be about time to think about finding primary challengers in Indiana and West Virginia. What do you think?

Sarah Palin is going for broke on this whole defund Planned parenthood thing. (If she had been this tenacious about her political career, she might still have one.)

Okay that's just stupid.

Courtesy of Palin's Facebook page: 

Help elect more leaders committed to #DefundPlannedParenthood by clicking here.

Just in case you were wondering, yes that link sends you to SarahPAC. Because clearly the political PAC that is going to stop the Iran deal can multi-task and also destroy Planned Parenthood at the same time.

In her next Facebook post Palin continues to strain credulity by claiming the politicians that she endorsed are going to take down the evil agency that provides mammograms and birth control: 

Thank you, Senators Deb Fischer & Joni Ernst, for leading the fight in the U.S. Senate to ‪#‎DefundPlannedParenthood‬! These two strong Mama Grizzlies were candidates SarahPAC was proud to support early on. Please add your name to the petition below to thank them for fighting for those who can't fight for themselves. Let's work together in 2016 to elect more strong leaders like Deb & Joni!

If you guessed that there was yet another link to SarahPAC well then give yourself a gold star.

By the way so far this drive to defund Planned Parenthood has resulted in the agency receiving a significant spike in donations and currently there are not enough votes in the Senate to actually defund the program.

So good job so far crazy lady.