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.

Well, We Finally Did It

We found somewhere in Washington State law which recognizes the unborn child as a separate and unique person under the law.

As most people know, in America if you are poor and need medical attention, you can apply for the Medicaid program. It turns out that the government not only uses your income to determine if you qualify for the benefits, but also your family size. That makes sense: the same amount of income spread over more children means less money per child.

For example, Washington State's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has an online questionnaire here where you can fill out your info and it will tell you if you qualify. Question 2 is about family size, specifically "how many children live with you?". The comments add: "If you are pregnant, please include that unborn child." (emphasis ours)

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.







State Must Cancel 'Take Charge', End Bogus Birth Control Boondoggle for Planned Parenthood

Readers of this blog know that we were the first to call attention to a little known state Medicaid program called Take Charge, and have worked hard to get it terminated.

So we were thrilled to discover, originally from Planned Parenthood as it turns out, that the the 10-year-old program is on the chopping block. With record budget shortfalls, Olympia is being forced against their will to find programs to cut. And the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has indicated that all optional Medicaid programs are fair game.

Take Charge is a federally approved exception to standard Medicaid rules exclusive to Washington State. It means about 50,000 low-income women who normally are above the income cutoff for Medicaid can get free birth control for a year courtesy of taxpayers. (When liberals says 'get the government out of my sex life', they only mean when the government is encouraging the formation of new life, it turns out.)

Definition of Violence Continues to Shrink

Blessings and adoration surround leader in child-killing industry.

Compassion & Choices rejoices in killing of 66 year old cancer patient.

Priestess, Catholics, Rabbi and intellectuals have a thoughtful conversation about the sweet justice of killing.

Meanwhile...

Husband Poisons Wife.

Ho hum. Just another day in Washington.

Washington Ranks 15th Worst in Protecting Life

Americans United for Life has come out with their state rankings for protecting life.

Washington ranks as the 36th "Most Pro-Life State", which translates to 15th worst.

Their evaluation criteria can be found here (.pdf).

One error I noticed in their assessment of Washington is the following: Only a physician licensed in Washington may perform an abortion.

This is not true. Former Attorney General Christine Gregoire (now governor) in January 2004 signed off on an opinion stating that Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners may, "when consistent with his or her professional license, lawfully furnish or prescribe a drug to a woman for the purpose of inducing an abortion where the drug may lawfully be prescribed and the woman seeks to terminate her pregnancy before the fetus is viable or for the purpose of preserving the woman’s life or health."

The general protocol for administering a chemical-medical abortion (RU-486) is to give the woman the drug and send her home, or at least somewhere away from the "clinic," to wait for her dead child, blood and placenta to fall from inside her.

I thought legalized abortion was going to put abortion in the hands of caring, loving professionals not quacks who ply their wicked trade then leave the scene of the crime.

The fallout from this decision is two-fold: Chemical abortion is on the rise in the state as are the complications and, the door has been opened to other "medical" professionals performing these abortions, either voluntarily or through state coercion, as we saw with the anti-conscience actions of the state Board of Pharmacy.

Tough Talk from Seattle Archdiocese

Speaking of relativism, the Seattle Archdiocese has been coming out stronger in recent months against the abortion culture and state apparatus that supports it.

Archbishop Brunett made this comment in the May 3rd issue of the Progress last year in reference to the fight to maintain First Amendment rights for pharmacists --

Just before he was elected pope in April of 2005, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger delivered a homily in the Vatican Basilica to the College of Cardinals. In his talk he made the point that having a clear, definitive faith like that proclaimed in the Creed of the Church is today often labeled as fundamentalism.

He said that allowing oneself to be tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine, on the other hand, seemed to be the only acceptable attitude in our current cultural environment. We are building, he said, a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.

We don't need to look any further than the debate over pharmacists' right of conscience to recognize that he chose his words well. A society that denies individuals the right to act in accord with their conscience is a dictatorship of the most oppressive sort, and among its chief threats are Christians who possess what Pope Benedict XVI calls an adult faith.

Take that Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Now the Catholic newspaper the Northwest Progress has come out with a series of great articles on adoption and abortion. The truth is all there in black and white for anyone with the interest and time to read it.

Crisis pregnancy options not always clear
One chose abortion, one selected life
Ad campaign asks TV viewers to ‘think about it’

Looking at the Pharmacist Conscience Clause Issue in Context

Many people have bought into the mistaken idea that the dispute over the proposed pharmacist conscience clause and Plan B is a struggle between religion and women’s health care. In reality, it is something else entirely. All impartial observers of the conscience issue need to be aware of larger context in which it is moving: An overall strategy by the abortion industry to increase the number of health care workers performing abortion either voluntarily or through state or economic coercion.

One of the biggest problems facing the abortion industry right now is the lack of “providers.” Most doctors who spend a good deal of time, money and effort to finish medical school and complete a residency don’t want to be involved in a business that kills children. While the money might be there, the prestige, gratitude, and professionalism isn’t. After 35 years the abortion industry hasn’t been able to shake their “back-alley” image. Furthermore, doctors are burnt-out and many suffer from the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

The response of the abortion industry has been to first search for escape hatches and magic bullets, i.e. chemical abortion pills like RU-486, to help distance the physician from the trauma of abortion. In this scenario, the woman, rather than the physician, is the one usually left to confront the bloody parts of the dismembered fetus. Secondly, they’ve made serious efforts to recruit non-physicians to voluntarily participate in abortion while simultaneously working to pass laws and apply pressure that will compel others to participate.

That Seems a Little Extreme
You don’t have to take my word for it. Visit the web site of groups like The Abortion Access Project and you can see that they are already recruiting midwives, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants for abortion training. Or as AAP explains on their web site:

New Abortion Provider Training Initiative (NAPTI) seeks to address the shortage of abortion providers and to expand the scope of practice of advanced practice and other primary care clinicians to include medical and surgical abortion.

Hospitals aren’t off the hook either. They are slated for a strategy of intimidation and pressure as the abortion industry attempts to shift abortion services away from the current archipelago of abortion dominated mills toward a “community-based” delivery system. In pharmacies, community or hospital health clinics, and small one- and two-nurse practices in strip-malls, the idea is that abortion could mix in seamlessly with flu shots, mid-wifery, and cold medications.

More Abortions over a Larger Group of Providers
This strategy benefits the industry by increasing access to abortion and diffusing abortion services over a larger number of providers, making it harder for pro-life activists to target any particular provider. It also seeks to address some of the isolation that abortion providers feel within the medical community as well as release the pressure that comes with doing abortions as a primary part of one’s practice. If “everybody’s doing it” there’s support and comfort for those who have a nagging conscience. Of course there will be financial incentives along with the honors and awards that generally fall to those who assist those in power.

But I thought only Doctors were Supposed to do Abortions
Tell it to the governor, or the health department or the sheriff. But don’t expect much of a response. Despite the state law only allowing physicians to perform abortions, Christine Gregoire as attorney general, ruled that Advanced Nurse Practitioners can administer RU-486 chemical abortions without physician supervision,

Attorney General Gregoire, in the 2004 ruling, declared that the “physicians-only” part of Initiative Measure No 120 was obsolete by stating,

[T]he state now recognizes a new category of health care professional with a scope of practice that overlaps in certain ways the “practice of medicine” that was once reserved to licensed physicians.

She also ruled that the “right to abortion” is preeminent and that the state is required by the statute to place the “least restrictions on a woman’s right to have an abortion”. Therefore, “freezing” (her word) the scope of practice of health care professions would make it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion and conflicts with the statute. Washington’s abortion law is obviously continually evolving.

Hey, I didn’t Vote for That
Well, maybe you did and maybe you didn’t. It all depends on who is doing the interpreting.
Here’s the language from Gregoire’s ruling:

We note, first of all, the opening language of RCW 9.02.110 itself that the “state may not deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, or to protect her life or health.” The initiative opens with a statement of policy that “[e]very woman has the fundamental right to choose or refuse to have an abortion”. RCW 9.02.100(2). Furthermore, the initiative also contains language requiring that the state impose “the least restrictions on the woman’s right to have an abortion” of the available alternatives. RCW 9.02.140(3). It would be inconsistent with these statements of intent to read RCW 9.02.110 as
“freezing” the scope of practice of health care professionals in such a way as to make it more difficult for a woman to obtain an abortion in those circumstances where she is constitutionally and statutorily entitled to do so.

According to this logic, NOT allowing pharmacists or other health care workers to administer abortifacient drugs or perform abortions in any manner would be contrary to the statute.

Finally, we are told that when new laws conflict with old laws the new law prevails: “If there is an irreconcilable conflict between the new provision and the prior statutes, the new provision will control as it is the later expression of the legislature.”


They Can’t Force Me
Why not? If the “right to abortion” is preeminent and the state is required by the statute to place the “least restrictions on a woman’s right to have an abortion” then what reason could anyone possibly give for resisting participation. Employers who enjoy the revenue certainly won’t stand by such trouble makers. Any fall-back on conscience rights you think you might have is just about to be eviscerated by either the state Board of Pharmacy or legislature – both heavily influenced by the abortion industry.

It Couldn’t Happen Here
Advanced Nurse Practitioners can already administer RU-486 in our state, so it is happening. Here’s how it can continue to happen on a much grander scale.

Are pharmacists, because of Collaborative Practice Agreement legislation currently on the books in Washington and Attorney General Gregoire’s 2004 ruling that a “new category of health care provider with a scope of practice that overlaps in certain ways the ‘practice of medicine’…,” already empowered to administer RU-486? If pharmacists don’t have a right to conscience regarding Plan B how will they have a right to conscience for RU-486 or other abortion drugs?

Will physicians and health care workers be compelled to offer abortion as a matter of course whenever and wherever a woman seeks pregnancy related health care? A friend of mine reported that when she went to Group Health for a pregnancy test not too long ago they did just that. When her pregnancy test came back positive they handed her a list of abortion centers simply because she was pregnant. The medical establishment in the state as long viewed abortion as “health care” so such a move wouldn’t be radical for them in the least.

If hospitals in Washington (including Catholic hospitals) that are already compelled to administer Plan B to “rape” victims, and workers in the health care field do not currently have a right to conscience as has been argued by the state of Washington, then how can they expect an exemption from offering and performing abortions?

Clearly the going forward strategy on the part of the abortion lobby is to find ways within the existing laws (or through new legislation), and with the help of abortion-friendly attorneys general, to allow for all health care workers to practice both chemical and surgical abortion and to force others to do so under fear of losing their employment.

What about the Women?
It’s never been about the women. And it’s never been about health care. All it really takes is the right attorney general, an arrogant and misdirected legislature, and a public uncomfortable with and uninformed about abortion to twist the laws and institutions of Washington to the idea that anything that doesn’t serve the cause of abortion is against the law.

(This is the second in our series on the pharmacist conscience clause leading up to the March 29th Board of Pharmacy meeting.)

Dumb, Dumber and Just Plain Stupid

Gov. Chris Gregoire has appointed a board member of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington to the state Board of Pharmacy.

This move pretty much confirms the fact that the Democrat party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the culture of death.

They also hate the Constitution,

"We will pass a law the revokes the license of any business that refuses to dispense medication based on ethical preferences," said Senator Karen Keiser.

And science,

She [Vandana Slatter] said that emergency contraception prevents implantation of the egg.

A pharmacist on the state Board of Pharmacy that doesn't even know the fundamentals of human development and the female reproductive system. Eggs can't implant Vandana. That would be why you get your period every month. No need for Plan B.

But they sure love money,

She [Karen Cooper] reminded us that NARAL is the organization that does this work and that they cannot do it without the support of the folks in that room.
[Insert perfunctory link to donation page here.]

There you have it: Karen Cooper the smartest of the bunch.