Lawsuit Filed by Publisher of Abortion in Washington Finds Planned Parenthood Defrauded Taxpayers in Wash. state

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys file third lawsuit to expose abortion giant's mishandling of taxpayer dollars

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Attorney sound bite: Michael Norton

SEATTLE — Planned Parenthood submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursement” to the state of Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services, according to a federal lawsuit made public Tuesday. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed the lawsuit in July 2011 on behalf of Jonathan Bloedow, a Washington resident who discovered the alleged frauds through state open records requests.

“Americans deserve to know, especially in economic times like these, if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” said Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. Attorney. “Compliance with the law should not be sacrificed for the sake of Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. They have cheated the American taxpayer for too long. It’s time the abortion giant is held accountable.”

Federal law allows “whistleblowers” with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors. By law, such cases must initially be filed under seal and may not be made public while federal authorities decide whether to join the case.

Bloedow has sued under the federal False Claims Act. The suit alleges that Planned Parenthood submitted false claims to Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services and its Health and Recovery Services Administration. HRSA runs the state’s Title XIX Medicaid program.

The lawsuit alleges that Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest filed at least 25,000 false claims with HRSA for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for oral contraceptive pills and at least another 25,000 for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for “emergency contraceptive” (“Plan B”) pills under the federal government’s 340B drug reimbursement program. Total damages could be as much as $377,134,130.

The allegations of Bloedow’s complaint are consistent with a 2011 Government Accountability Office report that concluded that HRSA monitoring of the 340B program was inadequate and recommended that “HRSA take steps to strengthen oversight regarding program participation and compliance with program requirements.”

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed two prior False Claims Act lawsuits, Johnson v. Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas and Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. Bloedow v. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Allied Attorney Todd Nelson with Nelson Law Group in Seattle is co-counsel and is one of nearly 2,200 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom.

In 2012, Alliance Defending Freedom publicly released its report to Congress that identified nearly $100 million in waste, abuse, and potential fraud committed by Planned Parenthood affiliates and other providers. Seventy-two Members of Congress, led by Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee and Rep. Pete Olson of Texas, continue to press for the investigation of how Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest purveyor of abortions, has spent more than $2.3 billion of federal taxpayer dollars over the last few years.

• Pronunciation guide: Bloedow (BLAY’-dow)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest Continues to Promote VD Among Population

Leave it to CEO Christine Charbonneau and Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. Really. These people are slaves to money, sex and power and I think enjoy bringing other people down into the gutter with them.
“In 2010, 283 cases of syphilis were reported, an 82 percent increase from 2009. Syphilis had been virtually eliminated in King County in the early-1990s.”

"1 in 4 teen girls has an STD, study says".

"Chlamydia becomes widest STD threat".

"Gonorrhea Superbug: First Antibiotic-Resistant STD Strain Discovered."

Don't forget PP's favorite STD, pregnancy: "Number of abortions performed by PPWW  jumped a shocking 16% from 2006 to 2007".

We've got a major public health problem on our hands and PP continues to push a piece of latex and "safe sex"? Why does anyone take these people seriously?

The only "safe sex" there is is monogomous relations betwen a married man and woman for a lifetime. Of course, PP won't tell you that. They'll tell you if it feels good do it and they'll start telling you that in preschool like they did in this handout from Mountlake Terrace Cooperative Preschool. After kids have learned to mastrubate at MTCP they are ready for full-on sex-ed,(and we do mean full-on) condoms, contraceptives and abortion in junior high and high school just like at Ballard High School.

Here's the many ways PP makes money on the whole cycle:
-Sex-ed programs paid for by taxpayers sexualize the kids at an early age. Collect $$$.
-PP abortion/contraception/sex centers sell pre-teens, teens, adults condoms, contraceptives, etc. Collect $$$
-When contraceptives fail, PP sells abortion. Collect $$$
-When teens and adults get VD, which they do, PP sells testing services through their privately owned testing clinic. Collect $$$

Repeat as necessary.

As PP leaders told Abby Johnson, "Non-profit is a tax staus, not a business model." Indeed!

Gimicks like the QR-coded condoms just keep everybody, especially the media, giggling through the broken hearts and ruined health.

Swedish Hospital Lied about Abortion, Allies with Butchers under Federal Investigation

While some of this news came out recently, we were holding off publishing anything while we gave the parties involved a chance to respond. We wanted to ensure we had the facts straight. But it appears clear now that Swedish Hospital has utterly disgraced itself and put itself under a moral cloud that will take a long time to undo.

In late 2011, Swedish Hospital announced a new partnership with Providence Medical Systems, a large regional Catholic hospital network. Under this arrangement, Providence required Swedish not to be directly involved in killing unborn babies. But Swedish, in a bizarre, contrived, and morally deviant move that could only come from the Seattle region, got suckered  into putting up money to help build a new Planned Parenthood abortion mill so that "abortion access would not be limited" by this move.

Before getting to the details of why Swedish would support a such a radical, controversial, and immoral organization that is under investigation for fraud in numerous states, and found to enable child rape, sexual slavery, forced abortion, and unlimited abortion on demand, it's worth noting another detail of the story that emerged.

Ten years ago, Providence sold their King County hospitals to Swedish, and there was a well publicized condition that Swedish not do abortions at any of these newly acquired facilities. Swedish apparently agreed, admitting that they were "only" doing about 50 abortions a year in hospital settings anyway, so it's not as though there was some sort of huge real issue here.

In commemoration of all the lives lost to abortion on the 39th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

"It is a shame that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
--Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Today we mourn the millions of babies who were killed by abortion throughout the United States, but most especially here in Washington State.

It's also a shame that all those women who chose abortion had no one to help them, to walk beside them. No one to show them a different, better way.

Wouldn't it be a shame if Christine Charbonneau of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest had to lose her $265,368 a year salary because she was the CEO of the state's largest baby killing operation? And wouldn't it be a shame if all the politicians who traded away the lives of women and children by giving millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood and concealed their crimes in exchange for power and riches had to give up their big houses and fancy lifestyles and went to jail instead?

Then there's Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna's hometown, Bellevue, Washington host to possibly one of the state's most grusome mass murder sites ever documented.  Wouldn't it be a shame if Rob McKenna had to see those murdered children face to face one day now that he's built his career ignoring the plight of the innocents?  Some people were born to be Herod. Others aspire to it.

Using statistics from the State Department of Health (sic) we calculate that over 1 Million children have been slaughtered in this way in Washington State since 1970. And that doesn't even include the chemical and mechanical abortions facilitated through oral contraceptives and IUDs.

Our state is sick. One can only wonder where and when it will all end. God save us.

Planned Parenthood to Receive Funding Boost from Bankrupt State of Washington

We've written about and led the charge against the Take Charge "Family Planning" program for years.

It is basically a decade old program which funnels millions of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood affiliates of Washington in a way that makes everybody say, "Look, we are helping to decrease the need for abortion."

NARAL was the first to celebrate the Olympia House Democrats' new "austerity" budget:

"While there are many steep cuts in critical programs and services, the House budget not only protects family planning funds, it expands eligibility in the Take Charge Medicaid family planning program. This means that more women will be able to access birth control, STD screening and treatment, and other basic medical care."

It's interesting that they were the first to know. Readers will also observe that NARAL exists for one and only one reason: abortions here, abortions there, abortions absolutely everywhere.

This is the actual text from the Washington House Democratic budget summary:

Eligibility for the Take Charge program, which provides family planning services for adults under 200 percent of the federal poverty level, will expand to cover adults under 250 percent of the federal poverty level. Savings are expected from reducing unplanned pregnancies. Approximately 45.6 percent of Washington births are reimbursed through the Medical Assistance program.

If you look at their budget, they are actually booking this as a budget cut of more than $7 million! Yes, we just have to repeat this one. The people who gave us a $5 billion budget deficit increased spending (by $2-3 million) and called it a $7 million cut. Even the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) which administers the program didn't do that when they proposed cutting the program last year to help balance the budget.

As Dan Kennedy from Human Life of Washington pointed out:

"So now we know the priorities of the Olympia Democrats budget. They are writing checks to Planned Parenthood with your money. Apparently subsidizing sexual activity is more important than feeding the poor, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, and caring for the sick. Are these the priorities they should have? You may want to let them know how you feel about it. LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE 1-800-562-6000"

At Governor Gregoire's 2010 Everett townhall, we personally delivered to her and the panel of experts she organized an information sheet on Take Charge with data clearly showing that Take Charge doesn't work. It simply doesn't deliver the promised decrease in costs.

Here's the truth we reported to them:

When the program began, the state was paying out $200 million a year for childbirth services under Medicaid. That figure has shot up 50%, to $300 million under the program.

The state’s primary subcontractor for Take Charge, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, has seen their annual revenues skyrocket from about $17 million to near $35 million since the program was started. According to Planned Parenthood of Western Washington’s latest Annual Report: “Over the previous 5-year period, approximately 70% of our clinic visits were covered by Take Charge." The state is then left to cover the cost of an abortion or a Medicaid birth.

We also know that PP's abortion numbers have sky-rocketed since Take Charge was initiated. The frightening thing to ponder now is: Will Planned Parenthood and the state start putting more pressure on Medicaid eligible women to abort to make the Take Charge numbers look better?

It's not too late to end this madness. We're calling on the state senate to strip this ideologically-driven, extremist provision in their budget and cut this failed program once and for all.

Planned Parenthood Partners with Nation's Illegal Sex Trade

We received this news item last week that Planned Parenthood was running scared after learning they were part of another sting operation by Lila Rose's Live Action.

Today, Live Action released a transcript and video from the first abortion clinic in the series, this one in New Jersey. The details are sickening.

As reported in the CBS News article, "In each case, according to Planned Parenthood, the man sought to speak confidentially with a clinic employee and then requested information regarding health services for sex workers, including some who he said were minors and in the U.S. illegally."

As Jill Stanek reports:

The sting:

“Joe” is the sex trafficking pimp and “Gia” is his bottom girl. They manage several very young girls, ages 14 and 15, in their prostitution ring, some of whom are Asian illegals who don’t speak English.

In the video the clinic manager of PP Central New Jersey’s Perth Amboy mill, LPN Amy Woodruff, tells “Joe” and “Gia” how to get abortions, STD treatment, and contraceptives for their brothel of adolescents as young as 14, some here illegally.

Woodruff coaches the pair on how to have the younger girls lie about their age. She gives them the name of a mill that is apparently schlockier than hers, Metropolitan Medical Associates, that will do abortions with fewer questions asked.

The most awful part of the video, IMO, is Woodruff’s cavalier business advice when asked what can the girls do during the 2 weeks after their abortion when they can’t have sex?

Woodruff: Yeah, um, waist up.

Pimp: Waist up?

Woodruff: Waist up, or just be that extra action walking by. Because then they’re at more risk for infection, and you don’t want to do that….

“Waist up”? That line will live in infamy.

Go watch the whole thing here.

AIW readers will be interested to know that that at least one of Planned Parenthood's Washington facilities was apparently caught up in the sting. (Calls to Live Action to confirm this were not returned at press time.) And we know that Seattle is a hub for sex trafficing of minors and adults. Has anyone bothered to ask where the victims are being taken for abortions? We may have the answer.

It appears that Planned Parenthood can't stand to lose a single dollar, so they don't turn away anyone, despite the sickening canard that they're interested in women's rights. But it's worse than that, as you can see in the video. The clinic manager glibly jokes with the erstwhile pimp and conspires with him on how to best exploit his girls.

Now you would expect Washington state legislators, law enforcement agencies, and health regulators to jump up and take notice, and to open investigations into Planned Parenthood affiliates in our state, where it has one of its strongest state presences.

Actually, not so much.

If you want to know the kind of video that gets the Washington State Democratic Party seriously geared up for action, drafting legislation, you'd have to watch this video of testimony before the Health and Wellness Committee.

Women testifying complained that the a crisis pregnancy center volunteer "asked many of same questions that were on the form she had already completed" instead of telling her the results of her pregnancy test! She was asked what she "did for a living" and what the father did for a living! She was also asked how she felt about abortion!

She also complained that they wouldn't give her a written copy of her test results so she could sign up for state benefits.

The volunteer counselors showed an active, concerned interest in the woman's life, her circumstances, and wanted to help her make a decision she would not regret, and maybe to help her turn her life around.

This is how you make a Washington State Democrat angry.

Rather than investigate Planned Parenthood, rather than inspect their facilities, rather than suspend millions in Medicaid payments to them, rather than stopping meeting with them regularly to set state health policy, rather than reconsider contracts that put Planned Parenthood staff in state health offices, our state legislators let the abortionists write legislation designed to shut down their pro-life competition (House Bill 1366)!

Let's just review this so we're completely clear. Planned Parenthood gladly partners with pimps engaged in illegal, underage sex trafficking to cover up the abuse of minors and immigrants. Pro-life pregnancy centers are spending 'too much time' showing genuine interest in poor and potentially exploited women and girls. And the Democrat legislature is trying to shut the pregnancy centers down on behalf of Planned Parenthood.

AIW, along with Lila Rose, calls on AG Rob McKenna and the state legislature to immediately suspend all payments to Planned Parentood and to begin an immediate investigation into the state's abortion facilities to determine how deeply involved our state is aiding the exploitation of women and children.

Pro-Aborts, Dems Drop Heinous Anti-CPC Bill on Olympia

We got word from Olympia today that the abortion lobby and their allies in the Washington State Democratic Party have, as expected, just reintroduced a bill they tried to pass last year but never got out of committee. The bill is designed to destroy Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) that offer safe and compassionate health care to women in need while leaving the filthy, manipulative, chop-shops staffed by quacks free to ply their deadly trade unmolested.

(Here's the text of the House Bill HB1366. Senate Bill is here.)

The Family Policy Institute of Washington has provided a good summary of the effects of the legislation:

1. It creates two classes of medical/pregnancy centers based on whether or not they provide abortion services.

2. Requires centers that do not provide abortion services to disclose that fact in five different languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Cambodian, and Laotian) in 30 point font on the front door of the centers, and on any advertisement or notice promoting the centers services.

3. Creates regulations and liabilities associated with medical records that do not apply to any other medical/pregnancy centers in Washington State.

4. Creates a private cause of action (lawsuit) against pregnancy centers for violations of any of the above regulations. In lawsuits against pregnancy centers: (1) anyone can be an aggrieved party even if you have never been in or even seen a pregnancy center; (2) there is no need to prove damages; (3) those who sue a pregnancy center can collect legal fees from the center if they win; (4) but pregnancy centers cannot collect legal fees if they win.

In summary, this bill creates significant liability for non-profit, faith-based, pregnancy centers that receive no tax dollars and provide at least $16 million in free services to communities in Washington simply because they do not offer abortion services. The stated reason is that they are afraid that women who are looking for an abortion will go to one of these centers. Why the attention of the Washington State legislature is required to prevent that from happening is something each of us can ponder for ourselves.

Most craftily, for purposes of seeking damages against CPCs and shutting them down, it defines "person" as "counties or other municipalities". No doubt the City or Seattle and King County would quickly move to shut down all CPCs that didn't have a huge 30-point font size sign in Laotian, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic stating they don't pass out the sacred condom or offer babies for live sacrifice.

Jill Stanek, who is following similar efforts in NYC, doubts that such a radical bill will pass even in the abortion capital of America. She sites the bad PR from NARAL's recent granting of an A- to NY for abortion advocacy, the report from the New York City Department of Health that a staggering 41 percent of all pregnancies in NYC ended in abortion in 2009, and the fact that abortions are on the rise after a 20 year decline.

How's that compare with Washington?

Gregoire Restores Funding to Planned Parenthood, Cuts Billions Everywhere Else

Confirming once again that the Washington State Governor's Mansion is little more than the Olympia office of Planned Parenthood, Governor Christine Gregoire just decided to preserve the state's "Take Charge" free birth control program.

We have exposed how the program, now in its 10th year, has done almost nothing to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies, births to low-income women, or abortions, but has become a massive, multi-million dollar slush fund for Planned Parenthood affiliates of Washington.

As everyone now knows, the state has been facing a budget deficit in the billions, and state legislators have been forced to cut spending on a host of health and education programs, even those which are widely supported, and which help the truly sick and destitute.

The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) gave Gregoire a list of programs for possible elimination. The Take Charge program was in that list, raising hopes that the scandalous scheme would be eliminated once and for all, and abortion clinics would start closing immediately.

But, alas, Gregoire decided to cut the state's Basic Health Plan, which covers 66,000 otherwise uninsured Washingtonians, rather than cut birth control payments to Planned Parenthood.

She cut the Children’s Health Program, which was helping 27,000 kids. But Planned Parenthood's sacred cow was untouched.

She chose to eliminate Disability Lifeline grants to 28,000 people each month who are temporarily disabled and who can’t work, rather than cut the Planned Parenthood CEO Cadillac plan.

She chose to eliminate the Disability Lifeline Medical Program, but not the Abortion Industry Slush Fund.

Gregoire cuddling former NARAL
director Karen Cooper

She thought it better to reduce in-home Medicaid personal care, which benefits 45,000 people, who will now have to look elsewhere for assistance with bathing, dressing, medication management and other activities. But the Planned Parenthood spendapalooza? Not on your life.

She slashed public education funding in every direction. But free birth control that essentially ends up as millions of dollars in Planned Parenthood's Abortion Clinic Expansion Program was off the table.

You get the idea.

"Take Charge" -- which is exclusive to Washington State, and started in the George W Bush administration -- is an 'experimental' Medicaid program which provides a year's supply of birth control to women who would normally be ineligible for Medicaid because of income at taxpayer's expense.

Most women enrolled in the program get their contraceptives through Planned Parenthood, so it is this organization which ends up getting paid. PP makes huge profits on oral contraceptives sales, and so the program has been a cash cow for them for a decade.

For example, in 1998, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington was pulling in about $5m each year in program revenue. Ten years later, in 2008, that figure had rocketed up to over $25m. In their 2006 annual report, they admitted that fully 70% of their clients the previous 5 years had been Take Charge participants.

PPWW has used these millions in revenue to expand their network of clinics, all of which provide or abortions or at least close the abortion sale.

Defenders of the program argue that all those women on free birth control adds up to fewer unplanned pregnancies, fewer Medicaid-paid births, and fewer abortions. As hard as it may be for contraceptive ideologues to accept this, the numbers are in, and the truth is just the opposite.

In 1999, before the program, Medicaid was paying for 32,000 births each year, at a cost of less than $200 million. Now it's 42,000, at a cost of over $330 million.

Before the program began, Medicaid paid for over 10,000 abortions in Washington. At the program's peak, that figure crossed 14,000, with Planned Parenthood doing an increasing share of those. It's not known how many abortions PPWW was committing back in 1999, but the figure grew from about 6,000 to about 9,000 at one point during the program, due in part to their massive new reach.







King County Public Health Hires Doctor who "Loves" Doing Abortions

You may recall that King County's Public Health Department was recently embroiled in controversy because it was revealed that they had helped a teenage Ballard High School student get an abortion without her parents' knowledge.

After that story broke across the country, TJ Cosgrove, spokesman for KC Public Health, stunned the nation by saying he was completely unapologetic about the incident. He added insult to injury by adding that the girl's mother should have known this could happen when she had signed a general waiver allowing emergency medical treatment and transportation.

We have since learned more about KC Public Health's radical pro-abortion agenda. It seems that each year for the last several years they have hired one of the region's most outspoken and enthusiastic late-term abortionist as their primary "Family Planning" contracted physician.

Dr. Deboray Oyer owns and operates Aurora Medical Services, which does abortions up to 19 weeks of pregnancy. Those are fully formed, thumb-sucking babies.

Abortion in Washington Calls on Legislature to Shut Down State's Abortion Industry

We are reprinting the following Seattle abortion story from AbortionTV.com. The abortion happened just over a decade ago, and unfortunately the abortion clinics and abortionist are not identified. But chances are they are still doing this today. There only a few individuals who do abortions this late. Was it Dr. Oyer? Was it Dr. Kothenbeutel? Was it Dr. Komarow? Was it Dr. Browne? Or was it Dr. Gibbons? We don't know.

8/14/00

Two years ago, my husband and I went into an abortion clinic in Seattle, WA. I was 26 weeks pregnant. They told me to sign a form stating that I was only 24 weeks along. They also gave me a drug to make me relax and feel sleepy. I was so nervous lying there on the table as they did an ultra sound. It was all so familiar, since I already have 3 other kids at home. Ages 1-5.

I watched the screen and saw my baby's heart beating. Then we watched our baby suck on his hand. They really did not want me to see any of this, but I insisted. I could not believe I was doing this. I looked up at my husband with tears in my eyes, trying to read his thoughts. Maybe he would have second thoughts too. But we both knew we had to go threw with it. I almost died after a c-section with our last child, and we were told that another birth would have the same results. So they took me into another room. They gave me gas to breath and they gave me pain medication.

I lied there with my legs spread apart. As I started to drift off, I was saying to myself "How can I be doing this" About 20 minutes later I was still on the table with a blue cloth draped over me. I pulled the cloth away from my face and looked over at a table a few feet from me. It took my eyes awhile to adjust, but when they did I was horrified to see my little baby boy lying on that cold table. His tiny legs were moving, and his hands were opening and closing. He made sounds like a baby bird. The nurse turned the table around when she was leaving the room, and I looked right into my sons eyes. They pierced threw me with sadness.

It was then that I saw his left arm was hanging on by only skin. When the nurse pushed the table out of the room, I thought for a while maybe my baby is going to live and they are going to take him to another room to fix him. I kind of smiled as she left the room. I was sure I would see my son again. He looked so big and just like any other baby just a little smaller. Well, I never saw him again. I am only left knowing that he suffered and died all alone because I had him murdered. I have moved on in life, but daily I wonder what ever happened to my little boy.

Forever filled with sadness

So very sorry baby boy.

Lisa

We don't need to change hearts and minds. We need to stop letting this horror go on each and every day in buildings next to our dentist offices, behind our fast food restaurants, and above our offices.

Where are our political leaders? Where are our pastors and priests? Why isn't Dino Rossi running ads on TV with pictures of aborted babies lying in metal dishes looking up with arms severed, looking up at Patty Murray saying: "Choose Your America"!

Read another Washington Abortion story here.

Washington State Capitulates, Recognizes Pharmacists' Conscience Rights

Something for the "We told you so file":

From the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
Jul 7, 2010

Washington State Capitulates, Recognizes Pharmacists' Conscience Rights

This afternoon, less than two weeks before the start of a civil rights trial in Tacoma federal court, attorneys for the State of Washington told a federal judge that the State would seek to create new rules for pharmacists with conscientious objections. The new regulations would give the plaintiffs in the lawsuit--the owners of Ralph's Thriftway pharmacy and two pharmacists--what they've wanted all along: the right to refuse to stock or dispense Plan B (the so-called "morning after pill") based on their conscientious objection.

Read more...

Time to End Tax Funding of Abortions for 'Poor Little Rich Girls'

One of the most interesting revelations from the coverage of the Ballard High School 'Secret Abortion Program' by KIRO Radio's Dori Monson came when an employee of DSHS called in. The caller, who identified herself as Randi, said that not only are we one of the few states where minors can get abortions without parental notification or consent, and not only are we one of the few states where the government -- her department, to be specific -- gladly pays for abortions for low income girls and women, but in fact the taxpayer is picking up the tab for abortions even for 'poor little rich girls' from Mercer Island.

"So if a girl comes in," asked Mr. Monson, "and her family's got money, but she obviously doesn't have access to that money, and she says I can't pay for it, I don't want my parents to know, what does DSHS do?"

Clinic that Performed Abortion on Ballard High Teen Remains Unnamed

Fox News has issued a correction to their story naming the abortion center that performed the abortion on the 15-year old Ballard High School student who was taken out of school without parental permission.

AIW's initial look at the story is here.

We Need a 'Pay Czar' to Cap Abortionist Salaries

With all this action these days from the White House to cap "excessive" salaries of CEOs, it's time to look at capping the salaries of abortion industry workers, like doctors, and executives.

It's time to get the money out of the abortion industry. There should never be a financial incentive to perform or sell an abortion. We have heard for years how the abortion industry is driven by profits and financial incentives. We can fix that.

Did you know that Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) CEO Chris Charbonneau pulls down almost $260,000 a year. We've documented some of the outrageous salaries being made by abortion industry workers, especially the doctors that do the actual killing, here.

Looking at the most recent figures from Cedar River Clinics, the Western Washington abortion chain which are also the only non-hospital facilities that do horrific abortions right up to the 6th month of pregnancy, that are actually illegal in most Western European countries, we see that Dr. Charlie Browne made $217,175 in 2007.

That's a paltry sum compared to his colleague Dr. Robert Kothenbeutel, who took home almost $305,000. Amazingly, Cedar River also was employing two full-time anesthetists: Douglas L. Raber and Dennis O Johnston. Anesthesia is only used for surgical abortions, and then mostly for the grisly second trimester abortions Cedar River specializes in.

Raber managed to make $190,000, considerably higher than the average for his specialty.

One of the premises of the current obsession with scrutinizing how much money CEOs are making in this country is a recognition of how money can "incentivize" an unethical and aggressive approach to sales of things which should not be aggressively sold.

Everyone -- abortion providers conspicuously notwithstanding -- pays lip service to the idea that reducing the number of abortions is a Good Thing. From this it irresistibly follows that we should never allow there to be a financial incentive to sell abortion.

The way to do that is to cap the salaries abortion providers can make. There are numerous ways this can be done. We suggest that the Washington State Legislature pass a law that says that no doctor can make more than 10% of his income from the provision of abortion services.

The abortion industry can squawk all it wants claiming they're not in it for the money. But if you speak to those who have come out of that industry and blown the whistle, we find out the truth.

Carol Everett used to run a chain of abortion clinics in Texas. She has since gone very public about how the pursuit of profits drove them to sell as many abortions as possible.

A new movie, Blood Money, goes into great detail on this problem.

For the record, in 2007 we spoke with PPWW spokesman Brian Cutler and asked him if Planned Parenthood's doctors would be willing to back up his claim that they were not in this "for the money" by doing abortions "pro bono". Needless to say, he said they had declined.

While some in the medical profession will whine that "this is a legal medical service" and doctors "deserve to get paid for their services", the fact is that countless doctors donate their time and talents both here and abroad.

In many other Western European countries, and Canada, the notion that medicine should be "non-profit" has widespread acceptance. We are not arguing that we should adopt the same notion across all real medicine, just making the point that the government stepping in to a certain, specific area of the economy and eliminating financial incentives to sell something that should never be "sold" has plenty of precedent.

Yes, the time for abortion salary caps is now. The time for a Washington State Abortion Pay Czar is today. This cause should truly bring together Left and Right and unite us on some common ground.

Planned Parenthood Spokane Slapped with $700,000 Bill from Audit

This is an AIW Exclusive.

Planned Parenthood of Spokane (PPS) has been caught overbilling Medicaid for condoms, charging for contraceptives without a prescription, "unbundling" abortion claims, and claiming patients were having doctor visits when they were just picking up a prescription.

All of this is in an audit of the organization just completed by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). And as a result, PPS has been ordered to reimburse the government $630,000 plus interest for the overpayments. The audit did not get into the question of whether the overbilling was part of a systematic fraud scheme, but it also was clear that if this practice continued PPS would lose its Medicaid billing priveleges.

The audit found 5 categories of overbilling:

1) Numerous examples of billing Medicaid for oral contraceptives either without any underlying prescription for the drugs, or where the prescription was completely invalid, e.g., "Continue with drug XYZ".

2) Many cases where male condoms were billed at some nicely rounded up price instead of the actual acquisition price, as has been required since 2003. For example, in some cases they billed Medicaid $3.00 where the invoices clearly showed that PPS paid $0.84. In other cases, they billed $2.00 where the invoice showed the acquisition price was $0.56.

3) Unbundling post-abortion antibiotics and billing them to Medicaid under Family Planning, which is strictly prohibited.

4) Billing office visits to pick up a prescription or get an injection as "Evaluation and Management" -- a sit-down consult with a doctor or ARNP, and which have a higher reimbursement rate, in some cases double.

5) Billing for pregnancy tests which were done when the client never even suspected she was pregnant, and without any indication of medical necessity.

The audit covered the three-year period from Spring 2004 through Spring 2007, and made a point that it didn't claim to have been exhaustive, meaning that PPS shouldn't assume that they are free and clear if they are guilty of additional overbilling from this period not discovered in the audit.

The audit didn't address the question of whether these practices were going on prior to 2004, or after 2007, including up to the present, or the question of whether it was systematic and intentional, thus rising to the level of fraud.

If it's any indication, though, PPS has lawyered up and hired a fancy Medicaid fraud expert from Seattle to defend itself. The audit was addressed to David B. Robbins, with Bennett Bigelow& Leedom. Mr. Robbins was "selected for inclusion in the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Best Lawyers in America 2008 Edition," according to his website. That can't be cheap.

The audit itself also didn't deal with the question of who is going to ensure that these overbillings are not going on right now.

There is also the question of whether these practices are common to the other Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state, including PP of the Great Northwest (formerly Western Washington), and PP of Central Washington, and whether this audit will trigger audits of the sister organizations.

The audit made it into the news back in June when it was reported in the Spokane Spokesman-Review. The organization's then president was removed, and the group is reportedly being run by Anna Franks, president of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington, which is right now trying to expand into Pasco. But there's nothing to indicate that her practices are any different from the Spokane-centered affiliates.

A $700,000 bill would be a bitter pill for most "non-profits", but with over $11 million the bank, PPS can easily afford it. How did a supposed not-for-profit get into such a comfortable financial situation? Some critics argue that this huge cash reserve has been generated through schemes uncovered in this audit, and that there is more to be discovered.

In 2005, for example, they reported $2 million in profits off of total revenue of $6 million. That's a 33% (net) profit margin for a non-profit.

Some might argue that Medicaid billing is complicated and errors are inevitable. But no organization on earth should have more expertise in how to bill Medicaid correctly for contraceptives than Planned Parenthood.

In the days ahead, this blog will be contacting representatives of Planned Parenthood for comment, as well as representatives of the government to get answers to some of these questions.

The audit didn't mention what prompted the government to initiate this investigation in the first place.

View the Audit Documents here.

Seattle Area Late-Term Abortion Clinic in Financial Scandal?

This blog has spent a long time investigating the finances of Cedar River Clinics, which runs three late-term abortion clinics in Western Washington. Cedar River runs clinics which do abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy -- and those are just the ones they admit to! -- in Renton, Yakima, and Tacoma. While our investigation is still ongoing, it's now time to publicize what we know so far.

Cedar River, which also goes by the moniker of Feminist Women's Health Center, is registered as a non-profit, or 501(c)3. This means their tax returns are available, by law, for public scrutiny.

From those tax returns, we learn that they have annual revenues of just over $5 million per year. From documents accompanying their tax returns, we know that they have 5,700 abortion customers a year. According to a Yakima Herald article, they have more than 7,000 clients total per year. Previous IRS filings and reports put their client volume closer to 6,000. 7,000 unduplicated clients seems unlikely, given that unlike Planned Parenthood, Cedar River's business is almost exclusively abortion related. The higher figure would mean that somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 clients were there for birth control alone. That is unlikely. So we're going with 6,500 unduplicated clients per year.

Dividing the $5m revenue across 6,500 clients gives an average revenue per client of $770. This is the number to focus on. This number is extraordinarily high.

If you compare it to the now defunct Aradia abortion clinic in downtown Seattle, that clinic reported revenues per client near $350. (About $1 million in program service revenue, and just under 3,000 clients).

Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country provide a very valuable reference point. Laughably, but conveniently for these purposes, Planned Parenthood is also a 501(c)3 with public tax returns. Planned Parenthood of Western Washington is notoriously aggressive when it comes to revenue generation, but even they only report $200 revenue per client ($22 million over about 110,000 unduplicated clients), and that includes the $7 million in allegedly illegal profits from 340b Medicaid overbilling fraud! Other Planned Parenthood operations in Washington State show similar revenues per client.

So how does Cedar River come up with $770 in revenue per client? Are they just catering to the rich and famous? Clinic CEO Beverly Whipple claims that they are mostly serving the low-income and indigent, to the tune of 65% of the total clients.

We don't see any legitimate way to explain this figure.

What is more, this abortion chain claims that they are writing off almost half their would-be revenues due to unpaid bills. In other words, their revenues should be closer to $9.5 million. The $5 million in revenues is just the actually realized revenue. That would put the claimed revenue per client at about $1,450!

Of further interest is the fact that for several years, the way in which they were accounting for this on their annual tax returns to the IRS (known as 990s) was highly suspicious. They were actually claiming $9 million in revenue and a single line-item of negative revenue called "Contracts and Other Allowances" in the amount of $4 million.

When we contacted them about this, they said that "Other Allowances" was the amount they were writing off in unclaimed revenue, or unpaid bills. Experts we spoke to informed us that it's not illegal to operate this way, listing a "woulda-coulda-shoulda" idealized figure for your top-line revenue and then subtracting the difference between that and actual revenue, but it is unusual, and it's not clear what purpose it serves.

Additionally, Ms. Whipple told us they started doing this because they changed accountants. When I pointed out to her that the tax returns clearly listed the same Yakima accounting firm of Alegria & Company before and after they started reporting in this way, she had no comment.

Also of interest is a blantant mistake on their 2005 return which they corrected after we brought it to their attention: they accidentally listed the $5+ million writeoff under their management expenses rather than their operational expenses. This made it look like they were spending close to 60% of their expenses on management! Which would make them the worst
"charity" on earth. When we asked them about this, they admitted it was a mistake, and actually refiled their taxes to correct the mistake!

Also, in their most recent tax returns, since we started asking them about the reasons for listing $9 million in revenue and $4-5 million in "unpaid bills" as a single expense, they switched back to the more "natural" way of reporting their finances.

Last year we decided that all these financial shenanigans and unanswered questions deserved the attention of the authorities. We filed a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General's office Charities Division. Unfortunately, this just consisted of the AG's office forwarding a letter to Beverly Whipple.

Ms. Whipple's response was astonishing, and seemed to suggest a certain lack of fear of the authorities.

First, she said if we didn't "understand" the finances of non-profit health care she didn't "have the time to explain it" to us.

Second, she indicated she was aware that we had made inquiries into her finances through other branches of the state government. There is no legal way she should have had any knowledge of these inquries. It would seem that Ms. Whipple has friends in DSHS who are illegally tipping her off, with names.

Third, she issued a threat that she would characterize any further inquiries into her affairs as harassment. What wasn't clear was whether this threat was aimed at us or at the AG's office! But the AG's office said there was nothing further for them to do here!

We are going to continue to press this investigation. Does Ms. Whipple really want to meet us in court and go through a discovery process whereby all her secrets will be revealed? It is our intention to find out how they are making such large amounts of money per client, who in DSHS is feeding them information, and why they seem fearless of being prosecuted.

Stay Tuned!

Bellevue's Slaughterhouse: "It's all for the women"

[I met Wendy Elizabeth Leigh (a pen name) a few weeks ago. We talked by phone a few times, exchanged emails, and finally met in my office. She shared her story with me. It was, as you can imagine, very emotional and draining for her - and me. I asked if she would be willing to share it with you in writing. She agreed. We hugged as she left, but I wondered: How many times has her story been lived by other women? And how many yet to come? When will our neighbors eyes be opened to recognize that we need not scan the horizon of history, or news from foreign nations to find evil? We live in the killing fields. - Dan Kennedy, Human Life of Washington]

by Wendy Elizabeth Leigh
I came to Bellevue, Washington in the summer of 1973, just after Roe V. Wade. I was 19 and in the middle of a divorce with 2 small children and I needed a job. Having never worked before, but with some medical receptionist training, I went to apply at a medical office next door. The doctor was younger; mid thirties. The interview was going well, I thought, as I didn't have any experience. "How do you feel about terminations?", he asked. "I don't know what that is.", I answered sheepishly. "Well, we are a family practice office; that includes doing abortions two days a week... how would you feel about doing that?" He studied my face waiting for my answer. "Aborting babies? I'm not sure I can do that." - fearful I had just cost myself the job. "Oh, NO!" he explained, "We don’t do that! A baby is something that weighs nine pounds, has blond hair, blue eyes and bounces on a grandpa's knees. What we do here is simply dispose of tissue… Just a blob of tissue. I am the son of a Baptist minister; if this were wrong I wouldn't be doing it! Just remember...we do what we do for the women." I needed this job. I knew what I needed to say...and I said it. "Well, it's better than being an unwanted and unloved child like I was. "You're hired". I was excited to realize I was about to earn my first paycheck. What I failed to understand at that moment is what working for this doctor was going to cost me.

Even though my training was front office skills like making appointments, transcription, etc., I was hired to work in the back office lab. The three days a week of true family practice was mundane stuff. Taking blood pressures, helping with kids exams, re-setting exam rooms after patients had been seen. The real job was Tuesdays and Saturdays. These two days always began with the doctor coming out into the waiting room full of frightened or nervous women. He would always jump up on the receptionist counter and give his "pep talk".... always giving his "disclaimer" that he was the son of a Baptist minister..."

My training had been simple enough. The doctor's head nurse showed me how to sterilize instruments, arrange the procedure trays to the doctor's liking and how to set up the buckets of red liquid to soak instruments before going into the steaming chamber along with filling syringes; small and big. I was comfortable so far. It was explained to me that first "termination day" that I was also going to be responsible for disposing of the contents of the large, white suction machine before me. I watched dutifully as the nurse wrapped the jars with a sterile drape; securely taping the ends. "We don't want to upset these poor women who are going through enough already!" Then came the unexpected threat, "Just remember one thing; it's your job if even one woman finds even one drop of blood on the toilet when you flush the jars!" Message received.

And so it began. The women were scheduled like clockwork. A finely tuned operation. Five rooms loaded up with women of every description. Some looking very poor and desperate; most looking very wealthy...and very blaze'. The first abortion was in the exam room right next to the lab. When I heard the doctor turn on that suction machine and I heard the horrific sounds... a slurping, gulping...high pitched... like a vacuum cleaner with something stuck in the hose, it was shocking and awful! But, there were worse things yet to come. Soon after... the used tray was shoved at me. "Here ya go!", the nurse said, laughing... was that a snicker?

When I lifted the drape off the tray, it didn't seem that bad. Not too much blood I thought, I can do this...but as I began to do one tray after another I quickly learned that not all trays would be the same...and I began to systematically gag. Especially when I would unscrew the vaginal speculum and "blobs of tissue" would fall into my bare hands. I was never instructed to use or offered gloves. It was beyond disturbing... I had to find a way to endure this, so I would just turn my head away and quietly whisper, "I'm just washing dishes,..Just washing dishes..."

But by far, the worse part of the job was emptying those jars every day, and more than once, "tissue" by the handfuls plopped in the toilet every time making quite a splash. I hated having to wipe the blood off with toilet paper, so I quickly learned to lay the jar opening down close to the bowl and gently pour. The most unnerving part was spying out the hallway to make sure I didn't run into any of the women leaving after having their "procedures". I had been warned of that as well. They clearly didn't want these women knowing what we were doing to dispose of the "fetuses".

Part of my duties in setting up the trays was the preparation of the syringes. The small ones were atropine; the numbing agent for the cervix as I recall. But the big ones? I had to press them for an explanation. Well, we also do "saline procedures"; but I was told I would have no part in those since I was "new at this". It took some time before someone finally explained it. This doctor also did later term abortions removing the amniotic fluid and replacing it with saline to kill the "fetus". A small piece of some kind of seaweed was placed in the vaginal cavity to assist dilation and then these women were sent to a local motel room specially set up for this doctor's patients. Several beds in one room. The women were sent there to get bed rest and wait until they went into labor and then they were to meet the doctor at the hospital to deliver. I tried to imagine these women (8 beds to my recollection) all lying there waiting...what did they talk about? I decided I could not let my mind go there.

After a couple of months I finally stopped gagging. I took an almost robotic attitude about what I was doing...and kept reminding myself. "We do this for the women". But there was one part of the daily "ritual" in the office I could never quite reconcile in my mind with that statement - the "Count and the Amount" celebration at the end of the day. How many?/How much? After all, women were "done and gone", we all met in the reception area for the day's tally. I would always stand back in awe and watch. Piles of cash...always cash...no checks accepted. We were doing an average of 50 women two times a week. The price varied according to how far along women were: between $200-$500 a head. At an average of $350, that was $17,500 a day, times two: $35,000 a week for a total of over $140,000/month NOT including the other 3 days/week...and this was 1973! The goal was to make enough money to pay for the new building under construction that was to be a full time abortion clinic set to open at the end of the year...just in time for Christmas! The holidays were busier, they said. So, this day's end celebration always had a happy air to it.... for them. I witnessed high fives with the office manager and the doctor...and his nurse.... they were especially friendly. Later I was told she was the doctor's girlfriend and I should watch out and not make her mad; especially no flirting with the doctor. "You are too young and cute for your own good", the manager warned, "Watch out!" No problem there. There was something about this man... it was "all for the women.”

About six months had gone by and while I would love to say it began to get to me...it did not. I actually got very accustomed to it all. Until that day...

I am ashamed I have forgotten her name. I will never forget her face. She was blond, blue-eyed...and probably bounced on her grandpa's knee. And afraid. Very afraid. She had lied about her last period. She had a "tipped uterus". The doctor failed to recognize she was not the usual 8-10 weeks. She was 17 weeks pregnant. The doctor attempted to do the usual dilation "D & C" suction procedure... it went very wrong...horribly wrong.

My first clue was that the trays that I had waiting were backing up in the lab. No new trays that always "flowed like clock-work" were coming at me. I could actually hear voices "buzzing" in the waiting room. The front door of the office was opening and closing...and often. Angry voices at the front reception desk began to drift back down the hallway to me. I stood in the open door way...listening... what was going on? The exam room at the far end of the hall suddenly flew open and the head nurse came charging down the hall at me demanding I go in and "assist doctor..." I quickly did as I was told.

My accruing complacency was summarily shattered by what I witnessed when I stepped into that room. I stepped back against the door I had just closed behind me. The nice white exam room was awash in blood...splattered blood. Like some perverted artist who had dipped his paint brush in a gallon of crimson red paint and hap-haphazardly flung it all up and down the walls and across the ceiling... and this poor girl! She was laying there in obvious shock; shaking violently.. and splattered all over with her own blood…and her baby’s! Doctor was in his customary position with forceps in both hands swearing up a storm and feverishly attempting to extract - "it".

He seemed oblivious to me. My first instinct kicked me into action. I rushed to the sink and grabbed some paper towels. I leaned down close to this girl's ear and began to whisper comforting reassurances to her. Words truly failed me as I tried to gently wipe the splattered blood from her face. All I could muster was to simply say repeatedly, "I'm sorry. I’m so sorry” She had no response. Save the silent messengers pooling in her eyes and running down the sides of her face into her damp, bloody hair. Suddenly now, I was in pain! The door had opened and I felt a clinched hand firmly grabbing my elbow; nails digging into my flesh. "Come with me!" came a growling in my ear through clinched teeth. I was in trouble...but for what?

The doctor's girlfriend dragged me back into the lab and shut the door behind her. She erupted into an effusive, explosive rebuke. "WHAT did you think you were doing?! I sent you in there to assist the doctor, NOT the patient! Have you ever heard the word LIABILITY!?... ‘I'm sorry!?...I'm sorry’... was THAT your idea of assisting the doctor...talking to the patient like we had done something WRONG!?"

Just as suddenly as it had begun. It was over. The door opened and the doctor darted in. He didn't seem interested in joining in on her verbal assault. He reached up and threw open a cupboard door grabbing a small, white, garbage bag. He opened it with one hand and in the other hand held a small "single version" of the Gomco unit suction machine.... and without any hesitation or reservation, unceremoniously dumped the contents of the jar into the bag. He ordered his nurse to go prepare the patient for transport by ambulance for an emergency surgery procedure to complete her "termination".

He scurried around the lab grabbing some instruments from one of my clean trays, I was not happy. I would have to redo that whole tray... then...suddenly... that didn't matter. My eyes were fixed on the doctor...as he systematically began to "inventory parts"... body parts... NO!... BABY PARTS!... One perfect little leg...snapped off at the hip... then the other... one perfect little arm...snapped off at the shoulder...then the other... I could not even speak... I almost fainted with what came next! The entire spine...all vertebrae in-tack with the spinal cord and little wire like nerves dangling from both ends... no skin in sight...just bloody parts torn out of the back of this little child! "Good!", he declared with great relief. "I have everything here but the head and the trunk!” My stunned disbelief was interrupted with the doctor's hurried instructions as he rushed to peel off his grotesquely sullied, white medical jacket and doing a quick look in the mirror hanging by! the lab door and straightening his now disheveled tie, he flew out the back door to his car! "Don't touch that tray until I call you from the hospital to give you the 'all clear'...got it!" As he exited... I was clear... I waited for the call.

Over the next several minutes, I listened as women were rescheduled. Some leaving in tears...a few...a precious few, deciding not to reschedule. Were some babies saved that day? I will never know... all I remember is the waiting. I watched in disbelief as the nurse and office manager enjoyed the customary McDonald's Big Macs, fries and colas that I had to go get two times a week, as we were so busy "helping the women" we were not allowed to take a lunch hour. It was my job to walk the 2 blocks down the road and get take-out for us to gulp down in between each procedure. (I have not been able to eat a Big Mac since then.) My stomach that day was so nauseous I felt like I had morning sickness. Watching those two devour their food like nothing had happened was too much. But no time to indulge myself. The phone rang. It was doctor giving me the OK to clean up and call it a day. He sent word that all was successful.

I approached that single, stainless steel, medical tray with great trepidation. I knew this was going to be bad...messy. I reached out with my left hand and ever so slowly picked up the very soiled drape covering the instruments. I gulped with one eye closed and head turned sideways before looking... I was dreading this. As I held the drape to peer over the top of it... I felt something drop into my right hand that was resting open under the drape. I scarcely recall the gore of the instruments for the vivid, so indescribable... horrid recollection. I cast my eyes down; head tilted to the side to see what was in my hand. There...it... was.... One tiny little foot snapped off at the ankle... Perfect...and with five miniature little toes! Everything suddenly went into slow motion...and I could not hear anything around me... until... there was that brash and haughty office manager: she grabbed the foot out of my hand and flung open one of the counter drawers grabbing a stainless! steel, metric ruler. "COOL!" she exclaimed with gleeful delight! "THIS one was a whooper!"... And incredulously began to place the frail, little remnant on the ruler to measure it! All I remember is her face…eyes lit like fire... I think she said it was 5 cm. I just recall checking years later and realizing it was larger than the little foot pins pro-life supporters wear.

I thought I would vomit that day, even without lunch. I begged off completing my usual shut down procedures of the lab and said I had to get out of there and go home. I was clearly very ill. The office manager barely noticed and doctor's girlfriend was now there in the mix engaged in the speculations of that tiny foot. I slipped out the back door and relished the fact that I had Sunday off before I had to return.

Monday came too soon. I had a physical to do on a five-year-old little boy who had just moved into the area and needed to be seen before he could go to school. My job was to prick his index finger and draw one small drop of blood to get a reading on the health of his blood. That was all it took... the room began to spin...I stepped back, leaning against the wall, shell-shocked – like I had just witnessed a horrible crime! Suddenly the doctor was at my side throwing off his latex gloves and demanding I join him in his office!

I was ready. I knew what was coming... but this time I would have a few words to say for myself! I had barely gotten in the room and taken a chair when he began his tirade rebuking me for being so "unprofessional". I summarily interrupted and told him I didn't think I could do this anymore after what had happened on Saturday. He was clearly disgusted and offered me part time work for "family practice" days... Most of that conversation is a blur but I remember ending it with this: "Doctor, you said this was for the women... you said "they are just blobs of tissue! What fell off in my hand was NOT a blob of tissue!"... I hastened to finish my point before I lost it... “I can’t do this any more!” The doctor wasted no time in getting on the intercom and instructing the office manager I had quit and she should prepare my last paycheck, totally unaffected by my sudden combativeness. He tried to get me calmed down before I left his office but it was no use. I think because he didn! ’t want any scene as I left… The tears began to flow as I walked through a waiting room full of people. My last words were more to me than the puzzled spectators… "And what happened in that room was NOT for that woman!” I ran out of his office breaking into sobs as I rushed out the door, not bothering to pick up my last paycheck. I wept uncontrollably all the way home.

It would be only a few more months and I fled Washington State in the midst of my own personal crisis with my children. I wanted desperately to get away and never look back! I moved to Central California where I swore I would remain and never return to Washington State. I began engaging in reckless behavior of my own. Smoking marijuana... bars... going home with anyone who would have me...married or not.

I soon began to have a dreadful, reoccurring nightmare. I was in the bottom of a big, white toilet...suddenly huge amounts of bloody baby parts and buckets of blood began pouring down over my head, running down my face; leaving me gasping for air! "STOP, STOP. STOP!!!" , I would shout... "SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE IT STOP!!!!"...and then I would wake up panicked, helpless and soaking wet...and wailing... this went on for years.

I would find myself pregnant again 4 years later and standing in the same desperate shoes of the that tragic young lady in Washington. I was engaged. I had finally found someone to “love me”...and willing to care for my two children...even if, as I knew, he couldn't care less about them. I walked into his beautiful home that he owned out in the countryside and gave him the announcement, I was pregnant.... and without batting an eye he said, "Hold out your hand" as he reached for his wallet in his back pocket; clearly annoyed, he counted out $178 and told me in no uncertain terms, "Don't let me see your face again until this is taken care of! Go to the women's clinic on the west side of town and get this taken care of.” Funny how he knew right where to send me and with how much cash! I couldn't get there fast enough.

The woman seemed nice. That “sweet” countenance - too sweet – like I saw in Bellevue. I was immediately scheduled for an abortion. But, this had a difference. They offered sterilizations with their services. Ah, but alas, I was only 23; the minimum age requirement was 25. I knew what I was doing. I knew what this meant. It was wrong. But I could not end up with 3 children with 3 different fathers! I begged. I got a call later... it was all set...they would do it all... Women's Hospital of Oakland.

My sister who was 25, single, and unable to have children, offered at the last minute to take my baby. What?! How ridiculous would that be?, I thought. Seeing a child I had given away all the time? What if I wanted it back and she wouldn’t give it to me? No!

I showed up, and walked through the process like a zombie! I was told it was a good thing I would be "out cold" as I wouldn't feel a thing and there would be no emotional trauma for me being unconscious and all. What a stupid lie! I woke up to a nice looking doctor telling me all was well...well... except for one little complication...."You were a little further along than we anticipated... you were not 8 weeks... you were over 10 weeks... perhaps 13."... My mind flashed back to that girl in Washington... and the toilet dream continued. When I showed up at my boyfriend’s home to let him know I had followed his demands and we could go forward with wedding plans, he wasted no time making it clear where things stood. “Do you REALLY think I would marry a woman who would murder her own child?” Game over.

It was only about a year later; I couldn't take it any more. I fell on my face and cried out to God to help me! I thought I had been raised in a normal Christian home. I had accepted Jesus into my heart at ten years old: November 5, 1963. But at 18... just 2 years before Roe v Wade, I was told my dad was not my father. Then my dad walked out the door and never came back. It was all my fault. So many family secrets... but I had secrets of my own…I was emotionally unraveling on that floor! I now know my real father was my mother's pastor... and what he had done I tried to bury... he AND my mother had done something terrible to me when I was 3...but that was after my mother took me at 9 months old and left me in her car in the middle of a hot summer day, 100 plus degrees outside, windows rolled up; she left me while she went shopping. A passerby rescued me. No charges filed; the doors were not locked. Then, I had been raped at 9 years old in the middle of the night while my mot! her visited my father now living in another town. He put a pillow over my face and I was almost suffocated... Raped by my first boyfriend at 14... I wanted to die! There I was crying out to God, as I thought I was losing my mind! It would take over 30 years to realize it… I was flushing myself down that toilet!

The first Sunday after that "carpet time" with God, I began going to church...it wasn't long before I would be attending my first "Pro-Life Sunday" service. I sat in terrifying disbelief as I heard my pastor preach about what the Bible had to say about life...and when it began! I couldn't hold it in any longer. I burst into sobs and fled the sanctuary to the women's restroom just off the backend of the room. Only a swinging door between the attentive crowd and me. I slid down the wall wailing so hard as my voice reverberated off the whitewashed brick walls...and I slid down onto the floor unable to stand. I suddenly felt an arm around me, embracing me! Pastor's wife had slipped in and sat on the floor there comforting me! I wept and wailed all the harder at such mercy!... "I didn't know!... I didn't know!.... I didn't know!"... Then suddenly... my words hit my ears...and my heart... no... I didn't know... not about those babies I had flushed down the toilet for 6 months (about 1,200)... but I DID know... I DID know... my own baby was NO blob of tissue! NOT at OVER 10 weeks!"... I became hysterical... Suddenly there was another woman in the bathroom bent over and rebuking me to pipe down! I was disturbing the service! I thought pastor's wife would come to her feet and deck that woman! "JENNY!... THIS is why WE are HERE!... GET OUT!"... Jenny was an elder's wife...and very gone. As I sat there choking on my sobs, I began to wretch. Then I knew I was going to be sick. I crawled on my hands and knees into a stall...and laid my head on the nice, clean white toilet...and vomited more pain than anything else... begging God to forgive all those other trips to the toilet! I walked out of that bathroom well after the service had ended... very determined I would somehow make up to God what I had done.

I joined the pro-life group at church; one assistant pastor who led the group was clearly repulsed by me, my story...and my presence. I stopped going. But I accepted an invitation to go to schools to tell my story. I wanted to spare young girls from not just having abortions but from EVER getting pregnant!... That went well for a few months... until the day I got home after speaking at a school and I began wailing again as I had in that bathroom at church that day. I could not take the anguish any more. Revisiting the memories was also revisiting the horrible guilt! I surely had done enough to make amends... I put it all away... and walked away from pro-life ministry. That was the mid 1980's.

It would not be until the year 2000 that I found myself in Colorado Springs, and mentioning to an elder's wife the safer parts of my "pro-life story". She suggested I contact the local Pregnancy Life Center of Colorado Springs and offer to train as a volunteer; thinking that may help relieve my guilt. I did contact them and was told I would need to take the 24 week study, "Forgiven and Set-Free" as a requirement of service. I was very ready to do that but still very afraid to open up old wounds.

That class was a pure joy and delight. I was able to walk through the healing process of that study each week and see progress. I learned there I didn't have to "make amends to God; Jesus did that for me! I was also seeing opportunities to share encouragement with the 8 women in the group. One said, "If God could forgive YOU, He certainly could forgive ME!"...So it went... the last week of the group came and I was so excited. The leader of the group had prayed over us early in the study asking God to reveal to each woman what sex the aborted child was for each of us so we could give them a name. She said in all the years they had been doing this ministry, they had never seen even one woman not receive an answer. Mine was a girl; I named her Rachael Rose. She let us know we would be having a memorial service on the 24th and last week of meeting together. I could hardly wait.

During our study time, we made a keepsake booklet out of pictures in magazines, cut outs, words, phrases... what ever we could find to do a collage of our own story. I recall one particular phrase: Stop the Insanity! I placed that phrase right over a big picture of fashionable porcelain toilet! I wanted to frame mine; not put it in a binder to set on a shelf. Now it was time for the big event - the memorial service. We were each to bring a candle to light; have something to share for a few moments of dedication and remembrance and share their name...at last, a name for our babies.

I love to write poetry and had already written one for my own child. I asked our leader if I could write one for all the aborted babies I had flushed, could I read it to share? I thought, hopefully, it would help these women see that someone who had participated in what had been done to them was sorry. I was given permission. A church in the area donated the use of a small chapel on their church grounds. The chapel was beautiful, warm... the Spirit of the Lord was so strong in that room that day. We sang Amazing Grace together and after a few words by our group leader, each woman, one by one, came up and shared some thoughts, lit her candle and said the name of her baby. We would pause for a moment of silence for each one. I had been asked to go last as I had the poem to read for not only my baby but each baby's life I had flushed without a thought all those years ago.

It was finally my turn. I walked to the front. But I didn't just bring a single candle for my baby. I set out on the table that one candle but then a large multi-wicked candle...then... a small penny bank I had found when I bought the candles. It was a small trash can...silver...shinny...reflecting the light from all the candles now placed on the table of remembrance... I had also purchased a small packet of alphabet letters and put two words on the trash can lid as well as on the side of the trashcan.

It simply read:
STOP IT! 1,201

I read my poem and closed with a prayer for those women... one by one they came up to me and thanked me as they embraced me and wept on my shoulder. THANKING me?... It was amazing! I was one of last women still in the chapel after we had some fellowship and desert. I sat down in the front pew of that little chapel...just staring at the last 2 candles still left on the table.... the ones that belonged to me... I said, "Lord, I know I am forgiven... I want to FEEL set free."... "How shall I ever forget what I did?"... God's answer was immediate...Suddenly, a line from the poem I had read for those babies came to mind... and I saw in my mind's eye a huge cross. Blood was flowing from feet pierced and fixed to that cross.... blood was flowing down from those feet onto the ground. There was blood already lying there but the Blood from The Cross began to spill over and cover that blood... that is when I heard it... Just remember from this day forward... never forget...that their blood is under Mine."

Isaiah 49;15, 16 Can a mother forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the child of her womb? Even these may forget but I will never forget...

Speaker Pelosi’s “Birth Control Stimulus” Could Worsen Washington State’s Budget Crisis

Contact: Mary Emanuel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2009

Seattle, Wa, JAN 26, 2009 --- The independent web site Abortion in Washington reacted to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s defense of “stimulating the economy with more birth control” by saying, “Speaker Pelosi simply hasn’t looked at the numbers, which clearly show that despite giant subsidies to the state’s single largest supplier of birth control, abortions are up, as are Medicaid funded births. Pumping more deficit spending into birth control would be a disaster for the state’s budget and women.”

Abortion in Washington released several reports in 2008 on the Washington’s Take Charge program and the finances of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest (formerly Planned Parenthood of Western Washington). The site reports that the program has led to increased abortion and is costing the state millions in funds it promised it would save. One report shows the number of abortions performed by the program’s leading partner, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, has been increasing 11% per year and jumped a shocking 16% from 2006 to 2007, to a record 9,059. Additionally, the cost-savings effects intended by the designers of the program are not being realized.

Take Charge is a Medicaid section 1115 Waiver program initiated in 2001 to provide free contraceptives to low-income women not already covered under Medicaid. It was originally funded for 5 years in 2001, then extended for 3 more years, and comes up for renewal in 2009.

When the program began, the state was paying out $200 million a year for childbirth services under Medicaid. That figure has shot up 50%, to $300 million under the program. The state of Washington is now at a point where almost half of all births in the state are paid for by Medicaid.
“We need to put some sanity back in to our state finances as well as our public policy toward women and children,” said Mary Emanuel, assistant publisher of Abortion in Washington.

The state of Washington encourages the widespread use of contraceptives on the theory that with more women using contraceptives the number of unwanted pregnancies will decline, thus leading to a decline in the number of high cost Medicaid-paid births. Contrary to the justification for the program, this has not turned out to be the case. Additionally, further harm has been created because birth control does nothing to prevent the rampant spread of STD’s.

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Revised 2007 Numbers on State Planned Parenthood Funding

By Jonathan B.
In a previous post, we estimated the total amount of money given by DSHS to all Planned Parenthood’s in Washington State through Medicaid at $15 million. We want to apologize. We were wrong.

Our numbers were off.

It turns out that the total, for 2007, was $23 million! ($23,158,857 to be precise)

The only good news in there for those who want to see the state get out of our children’s bedrooms is that this was actually down from the previous year, wherein Olympia doled out over $26 million for “health care” services.

That $23 million which was spread across the four state affiliates: PP of Western Washington [PPWW], PP of Central Washington [PPCW], PP of Spokane [PPS], and PP of Mt. Baker [PPMB].

The lion’s share of that figure, of course, went to PPWW: $15 million. The break down was as follows:

PPWW: $15 million
PPCW: $3.3 million
PPS: $2.4 million
PPMB: $2.1 million

About $2 million of the $23 million was directly for abortion. Most of the remainder was for contraception.

In typical Planned Parenthood fashion, a few legitimate health care services like STD testing are thrown in there as well.

No funds were spent on labor and child delivery.