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.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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...
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...
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Planned Parenthood Attempts to Open Clinic in Pasco
Many of our readers may already be aware of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington's attempt to sneak another clinic into Eastern Washington. The target this time: Pasco, Washington.
A meeting of the Planning Commission was held June 18th. (See report below.)
The citizens of Pasco and through out the state are rallying to keep Planned Parenthood OUT of Pasco. You can keep up to date with the events, hearings and rallys at a new blog that has been launched -- Protect Our Pasco.
We are in contact with many of the concerned citizens in Pasco and will keep you up-to-date at AIW and on the Protect Our Pasco site as more information is available.
Below is a report from Jim Toth of the Knights of Columbus in Pasco about the hearing before the Planning Commission:
The Knights of Columbus learned about a scheduled public hearing at Pasco City Hall via a website news article. The Pasco city web site confirmed the hearing for a special permit for a new facility in Pasco. The facility was to be operated by Planned Parenthood of Central Washington (PPCW). The hearing was scheduled for June 18th at 7 PM. The announcement on the web site indicated that all property owners within 300 ft of the proposed facility received a copy of the notice which was woefully inadequate in view of the decision of this import. PPCW already operates a facility in Kennewick. The Kennewick facility performs over 400 chemical, medical and surgical abortions each year. Contributing to the importance of the hearing was that the proposed PPCW facility is adjacent to Mark Twain Elementary school.
The point is that PPCW wished to establish a satellite facility in Pasco. Even if they claim to perform no abortions, there is every likelihood that the counseling conducted there will increase the number of abortions at their existing facility in Kennewick, and as far as anyone knows, there is nothing that would preclude performing abortions in Pasco. The 400 abortions performed in Kennewick represents an entire high school class. The Tri-Cities does not need any more abortions or pro-abortion counseling centers. The Knights took it upon themselves to publicize the hearing by distributing flyers throughout the community.
About 200 residents of Pasco attended the hearing and voiced their opposition to the permit. The hearing began at 7:30 and ended at 10:30. Everyone who attended did not speak, but a petition opposing the permit was circulated throughout the meeting for residents to sign. Promoters of the permit wore pink T-shirts and as was shown on the front page of the Tri-City Herald on June 19th, the promoters were outnumbered by Pasco residents by about a factor of seven. Those who promoted approval of the permit included employees, directors and agents of PPCW.
Those opposing the permit included psychologists, teachers, parents, engineers, scientists, physical therapists, high school students, junior high school students, business owners, accountants, real estate developers, new Pasco residents, ministers, architects, attorneys, physicians and nurses.
The Knights are proud to oppose, by peaceful means, all efforts to expand abortion in our great community.
James Toth
Washington State Council
Knights of Columbus
A meeting of the Planning Commission was held June 18th. (See report below.)
The citizens of Pasco and through out the state are rallying to keep Planned Parenthood OUT of Pasco. You can keep up to date with the events, hearings and rallys at a new blog that has been launched -- Protect Our Pasco.
We are in contact with many of the concerned citizens in Pasco and will keep you up-to-date at AIW and on the Protect Our Pasco site as more information is available.
Below is a report from Jim Toth of the Knights of Columbus in Pasco about the hearing before the Planning Commission:
The Knights of Columbus learned about a scheduled public hearing at Pasco City Hall via a website news article. The Pasco city web site confirmed the hearing for a special permit for a new facility in Pasco. The facility was to be operated by Planned Parenthood of Central Washington (PPCW). The hearing was scheduled for June 18th at 7 PM. The announcement on the web site indicated that all property owners within 300 ft of the proposed facility received a copy of the notice which was woefully inadequate in view of the decision of this import. PPCW already operates a facility in Kennewick. The Kennewick facility performs over 400 chemical, medical and surgical abortions each year. Contributing to the importance of the hearing was that the proposed PPCW facility is adjacent to Mark Twain Elementary school.
The point is that PPCW wished to establish a satellite facility in Pasco. Even if they claim to perform no abortions, there is every likelihood that the counseling conducted there will increase the number of abortions at their existing facility in Kennewick, and as far as anyone knows, there is nothing that would preclude performing abortions in Pasco. The 400 abortions performed in Kennewick represents an entire high school class. The Tri-Cities does not need any more abortions or pro-abortion counseling centers. The Knights took it upon themselves to publicize the hearing by distributing flyers throughout the community.
About 200 residents of Pasco attended the hearing and voiced their opposition to the permit. The hearing began at 7:30 and ended at 10:30. Everyone who attended did not speak, but a petition opposing the permit was circulated throughout the meeting for residents to sign. Promoters of the permit wore pink T-shirts and as was shown on the front page of the Tri-City Herald on June 19th, the promoters were outnumbered by Pasco residents by about a factor of seven. Those who promoted approval of the permit included employees, directors and agents of PPCW.
Those opposing the permit included psychologists, teachers, parents, engineers, scientists, physical therapists, high school students, junior high school students, business owners, accountants, real estate developers, new Pasco residents, ministers, architects, attorneys, physicians and nurses.
The Knights are proud to oppose, by peaceful means, all efforts to expand abortion in our great community.
James Toth
Washington State Council
Knights of Columbus
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Karen We Hardly New Ye
This post is sung to the tune of Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye and dedicated to Karen Cooper who is retiring as the head of NARAL Washington this month. It is also dedicated to all those doctors who are tempted to take up the abortionist's knife and join the war on women.
While goin' the road to Oly, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to Oly, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to Oly
A bag of cash and a drop in the eye
A doleful damsel did you hear her cry?
Karen We hardly knew ye.
With your knives and lies and lies and knives, hurroo, hurroo
With your knives and lies and lies and knives, hurroo, hurroo
With your knives and lies and lies and knives
The children how many you slew
And sold their bodies off to the U.
Karen We hardly knew ye.
Where are their eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their eyes that were so mild
When in their youth are so beguiled?
Why do ye skedaddle from a woman and her child?
Oh Karen, We hardly knew ye.
Where are their legs that wanted to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their legs that wanted to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their legs that wanted to run
When you went to carry an abortionist's gun
To be sure their dancing days are done
Oh Karen we hardly knew ye.
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg,
They're armless, boneless, motherless eggs,
They've been put in a bag and left with the dregs,
Oh Karen, We hardly knew ye.
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home
From the lunches and boardrooms and places your known
It must be lonely when your all alone
Oh Karen We hardly knew ye.
They're puttin in the knives again, hurroo, hurroo
They're puttin in the poison again, hurroo, hurroo
They're lyin' to women again,
But we'll fight for the children again and again,
Yes, we'll fight for the children again,
Karen I'm swearing to ye.
While goin' the road to Oly, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to Oly, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to Oly
A bag of cash and a drop in the eye
A doleful damsel did you hear her cry?
Karen We hardly knew ye.
With your knives and lies and lies and knives, hurroo, hurroo
With your knives and lies and lies and knives, hurroo, hurroo
With your knives and lies and lies and knives
The children how many you slew
And sold their bodies off to the U.
Karen We hardly knew ye.
Where are their eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their eyes that were so mild
When in their youth are so beguiled?
Why do ye skedaddle from a woman and her child?
Oh Karen, We hardly knew ye.
Where are their legs that wanted to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their legs that wanted to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their legs that wanted to run
When you went to carry an abortionist's gun
To be sure their dancing days are done
Oh Karen we hardly knew ye.
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg,
They're armless, boneless, motherless eggs,
They've been put in a bag and left with the dregs,
Oh Karen, We hardly knew ye.
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home
From the lunches and boardrooms and places your known
It must be lonely when your all alone
Oh Karen We hardly knew ye.
They're puttin in the knives again, hurroo, hurroo
They're puttin in the poison again, hurroo, hurroo
They're lyin' to women again,
But we'll fight for the children again and again,
Yes, we'll fight for the children again,
Karen I'm swearing to ye.
Friday, May 22, 2009
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...
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...
Ho hum. Just another day in Washington.
GAP Comes to UW Campus
What: The Genocide Awareness Project
Where: The middle of Red Square
When: ALL DAY - Tuesday and Wednesday - May 26-27 - 8am - 5pm
Who: Students for Bio-Ethical Reform
Why: Because ABORTION is GENOCIDE and because society has decided that they do not want you to see these pictures.
How: 25 different 4ft x 8ft billboards that SHOW the UNIMAGINABLE HORROR of ABORTION
"Clump of cells"..."Blob of tissue"..."Conceptus"..."Parasite"..."Alien germ"..."Punishment"...????
It's a baby.
It is so easy to trivialize when you call it everything but what it truly is.
It's a person.
And we intend to make sure you have no refuge behind ignorance.
We intend to restore that which has systematically stripped from the innocent and helpless unborn: their HUMANITY.
There will be NO Speeches and No Presentations because the pictures tell ALL.
Representatives for the group will however be on hand to speak with anyone interested, answer questions, etc.
Please email us with questions, comments, or information on how to join our struggle at: s4ber@u.washington.edu
Where: The middle of Red Square
When: ALL DAY - Tuesday and Wednesday - May 26-27 - 8am - 5pm
Who: Students for Bio-Ethical Reform
Why: Because ABORTION is GENOCIDE and because society has decided that they do not want you to see these pictures.
How: 25 different 4ft x 8ft billboards that SHOW the UNIMAGINABLE HORROR of ABORTION
"Clump of cells"..."Blob of tissue"..."Conceptus"..."Parasite"..."Alien germ"..."Punishment"...????
It's a baby.
It is so easy to trivialize when you call it everything but what it truly is.
It's a person.
And we intend to make sure you have no refuge behind ignorance.
We intend to restore that which has systematically stripped from the innocent and helpless unborn: their HUMANITY.
There will be NO Speeches and No Presentations because the pictures tell ALL.
Representatives for the group will however be on hand to speak with anyone interested, answer questions, etc.
Please email us with questions, comments, or information on how to join our struggle at: s4ber@u.washington.edu
Friday, May 08, 2009
Pro-lifers Gain Momentum at State Level
North Dakota Rep. Dan Ruby with Elisha Lancaster
Pro-lifers demoralized by last November's election results, and the rise of the most radical pro-abortion President in US history, are taking encouragement from the successes of the North Dakota state legislature. Led by State Rep. Dan Ruby, North Dakota just passed a series of regulations designed to make it much harder to kill unborn human beings in the Roughrider State. These regulations would force the state's only abortion clinic, Red River Planned Parenthood in Fargo, to offer women ultrasounds of their unborn baby (HB 1371), to notify them that abortion ends the life of a separate human being with a beating heart (HB 1445), and to protect women coerced into abortions by boyfriends, husbands, or parents (SB 2265).
These laws don't go into effect until August 1, so it's too early to know whether Planned Parenthood will comply with them, or if it will reduce the number of abortions, which although being close to half the national average, were reported in October to be heading towards a record number for the year, near 1,400. Many believe these types of laws will make a difference because, in Washington State, for example, Planned Parenthood clinics only show pregnant clients an ultrasound if and when they sign a form indicating they have chosen abortion. Also, many women who get abortions at PP clinics report never having been given medically and scientifically accurate information about their baby.
In addition to these three regulations, North Dakota also passed a resolution, HCR 3015, stating that North Dakota would reject any federally passed so-called "Freedom of Choice Act". The fifth pro-life measure, and the one which garnered the most attention from outside the state, was an attempt to enshrine in the law the medically recognized fact that human life begins at conception. Known as the "Life at Conception Bill", HB 1572 didn't just draw attention from Washington State, but also drew an important supporter.
When pro-life Washingtonian and frozen embryo adopter, Maria Lancaster, first heard that this so-called "Personhood Bill" passed the North Dakota house by a vote of 51-41 in the Spring, she felt that her testimony could be helpful, so she packed her bags and headed to Bismarck. Mrs. Lancaster and her husband Jeff, of Issaquah, adopted a frozen embryo six years ago. That former embryo is now her beautiful 6-year-old daughter, Elisha. After taking that step, one thing led to another, and she ended up standing with President George W. Bush on the podium as he heroically vetoed legislation that would have authorized government money to be spent on destructive embryonic stem cell research. She has since co-founded Embryo Adoption Services of Cedar Park, here in Bothell, Washington.
Maria, Jeff, and Elisha Lancaster with President George W. Bush
She continued to take her expertise and experience to the halls of power when she testified before the North Dakota Senate in defense of the Informed Consent and Personhood bills. "Knowing that my daughter could have been a medical experiment instead of adopted motivates me to tell people that embryos are human," Mrs. Lancaster told Abortion In Washington (AIW).
The Personhood Bill, which wasn't actually connected with the nationwide Personhood Movement despite suggestions by naysayers, ultimately failed in the state Senate after a barrage of opposition from not only super-wealthy pro-abortion forces, but also some hesitant pro-lifers, most notably the Conference of Catholic Bishops. Questions were raised about the exact wording of the bill, and the possible consequences on issues like fertility clinic practices and miscarriages. Interestingly, the publicity didn't come until after the bill had already passed the lower chamber. Rep. Ruby told AIW that he was surprised by all the reaction, but he is undeterred. It was the first time it was tried, and the first time such legislation has been approved by any legislature in the US, and Rep. Ruby told us he hopes to reintroduce the legislation in two years, when North Dakota's citizen legislature sits again, after working on perfecting the wording and letting citizens and experts discuss it more.
The bill is intended to be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade by finally addressing the elephant-in-the-room question which Roe-based jurisprudence has consistently avoided: when does human life begin? By defining an unborn human being as a person, that individual will automatically come under the protection of the 14th amendment, effectively abolishing legal abortion. It's not clear on what grounds even a liberal Supreme Court would obviate such a law, since the medical facts seem undisputed. The only real opposition seems to be based on consequences.
"North Dakota wants to be abortion free," Mrs. Lancaster told AIW, "and Dan Ruby and his colleagues are serious about taking measures to make that happen". She tells the story of how she testified about the fact that the baby's heartbeat starts at about 17 days of life, 2 days after a pregnant woman misses her first menstrual period, and hence the earliest she could know she was pregnant or schedule an abortion. Her point was that every single abortion is done on a baby with a beating heart. She was the last of the scheduled speakers in support of the Informed Consent bill. Slated to speak immediately after her was Tim Stanley, representing the radical advocates and practitioners of abortion, Planned Parenthood.
But after her testimony, she said, Mr. Stanley got up and left. "He realized he would have just looked like an idiot, a complete fool, if he'd gone ahead and tried to claim that this was just a bunch of cells, or what they like to refer to as POC, Products of Conception," she said. "A POC doesn't have a beating heart." In fact, when the committee chair, Sen. David Nething, asked if there was anyone who wanted to speak against the legislation, there was silence. He even went so far as to ask if there was anyone who was "neutral". Again, nothing.
AIW asked Rep. Ruby if he expected Planned Parenthood, which is famous for being in conflict with the law in numerous states, to comply with the new regulations, and what the enforcement provisions were. "That is a problem", he conceded. "It's up to the State's Attorney", he added, and how frequently inspections and audits are carried out. The regs require clients to sign forms indicating they have received the offer of an ultrasound, and have been told they are killing their unborn child, but he indicated he wasn't sure if PP was simply required to keep forms "on file", or required to send them in to the state Department of Health. "I will look into it," he said. He also told us that the ultrasound bill does not go so far as to require abortion clinics to offer pregnant clients a chance to listen to their baby's heartbeat on a fetal heart monitor.
AIW contacted Planned Parenthood of North Dakota for comment. We spoke with Kathi Di Nicola, media relations director for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas. She said she would try to get Mr. Stanley to call us back, but he failed to return our call by deadline. All she could tell us was that Planned Parenthood did oppose all these regulations. She wasn't, however, prepared to explain why.
Rep. Ruby said he would also be interested in investigating other regulations, such as death certificates for unborn victims of abortion, limits on how much abortionists can charge, and even investigating whether PP is engaged in Medicaid Fraud with the 340B drug discount program, as has been charged in California and Washington. But perhaps the biggest impact will come if the Personhood Bill is passed in 2011, and ultimately brings Roe v. Wade crashing down.
All this goes to show pro-lifers that even in the current climate, state-level initiatives can succeed, and can have a dramatic impact for life.
So Much for Dialogue
The Seattle area has a little know connection with Fr. Jenkins of Notre Dame University -- Rick Steves of Europe through the Back Door, a very popular travel show on public television, is married to Fr. Jenkins' sister Anne.
Rick Steves is an abortion advocate and sits on the Honorary Council of Washington NARAL.
One of Fr. Jenkins' excuses for inviting pro-abortion president Obama to Notre Dame to receive an honorary law degree is that it will promote "dialogue".
If after years of Thanksgiving dinners and family get-togethers you can't even get your brother-in-law off the radically pro-abortion NARAL Honorary Council how do you expect to get POTUS off his wildly pro-abortion ideals?
Rick Steves is an abortion advocate and sits on the Honorary Council of Washington NARAL.
One of Fr. Jenkins' excuses for inviting pro-abortion president Obama to Notre Dame to receive an honorary law degree is that it will promote "dialogue".
If after years of Thanksgiving dinners and family get-togethers you can't even get your brother-in-law off the radically pro-abortion NARAL Honorary Council how do you expect to get POTUS off his wildly pro-abortion ideals?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Olympia Maintains Abortion Funding in Budget, Despite Desparate Need for Budget Cuts
It seems the legislators in Olympia came to a budget deal yesterday evening, April 27. While some journalists have spoken of "painful cuts" the Democrats made, one cut they could have made that would have saved a lot of pain never happened.
They decided to continue spending $7 million a year in subsidies to the abortion industry.
Now technically these subsidies take the form of Medicaid insurance payments, not direct bailouts. But as we have documented on this blog, and is now well summarized on the campaign website to end tax-funding of abortion in Washington, this money ends up almost entirely in the hands of a handful of abortionists and abortion clinic operators making a quarter of a million dollars a year in some cases.
Most pro-abortion politicians claim they want to see the abortion rate go down. Well, there's nothing they could do that would reduce the abortion rate faster than to stop making abortion free.
What's even more shocking is that much of this money goes to Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (now of the Great Northwest), as well as other Planned Parenthood affiliates. But as we've exclusively exposed on this blog, Planned Parenthood is engaged in systematic and deliberate Medicaid fraud.
Under the 340B Drug Discount Program, they buy specially discounted drugs like oral contraceptives and the abortifacient morning-after pill, Plan B, for about $2 per unit, and then illegally bill Medicaid about $20 per unit, generating about $18 in illegal profits in each case. According to their public 990 tax forms, this is generating between $7 and $10 million in pure and illegal profit a year.
In fact, PPWW just released their shocking 2007 tax returns (stay tuned for further analysis), showing a record revenue of $37 million, total profit of $5 million, and $40 million now sitting in the bank!!!
Moreover, on this latest form, they seem to have changed their long-standing accounting practice whereby they broke out their profits from "sales of inventory". This change happened after we started our investigation and brought this illegal billing practice to the attention of authorities.
Perhaps the saddest part is that we have notified authorities, including Maureen Considine, director of Family Planning at the Department of Health and Human Services, of this fraud, but their response was that unless Planned Parenthood presents a signed affidavit of confession, they aren't going to investigate.
For those having trouble believing this, bear in mind that this fraud is exactly the same as the fraud being charged in the California by former Chief Financial Officer of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, P. Victor Gonzalez, in his False Claims case against his former employer to the tune of $180 million.
Let's just say: you haven't heard the last of this story.
They decided to continue spending $7 million a year in subsidies to the abortion industry.
Now technically these subsidies take the form of Medicaid insurance payments, not direct bailouts. But as we have documented on this blog, and is now well summarized on the campaign website to end tax-funding of abortion in Washington, this money ends up almost entirely in the hands of a handful of abortionists and abortion clinic operators making a quarter of a million dollars a year in some cases.
Most pro-abortion politicians claim they want to see the abortion rate go down. Well, there's nothing they could do that would reduce the abortion rate faster than to stop making abortion free.
What's even more shocking is that much of this money goes to Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (now of the Great Northwest), as well as other Planned Parenthood affiliates. But as we've exclusively exposed on this blog, Planned Parenthood is engaged in systematic and deliberate Medicaid fraud.
Under the 340B Drug Discount Program, they buy specially discounted drugs like oral contraceptives and the abortifacient morning-after pill, Plan B, for about $2 per unit, and then illegally bill Medicaid about $20 per unit, generating about $18 in illegal profits in each case. According to their public 990 tax forms, this is generating between $7 and $10 million in pure and illegal profit a year.
In fact, PPWW just released their shocking 2007 tax returns (stay tuned for further analysis), showing a record revenue of $37 million, total profit of $5 million, and $40 million now sitting in the bank!!!
Moreover, on this latest form, they seem to have changed their long-standing accounting practice whereby they broke out their profits from "sales of inventory". This change happened after we started our investigation and brought this illegal billing practice to the attention of authorities.
Perhaps the saddest part is that we have notified authorities, including Maureen Considine, director of Family Planning at the Department of Health and Human Services, of this fraud, but their response was that unless Planned Parenthood presents a signed affidavit of confession, they aren't going to investigate.
For those having trouble believing this, bear in mind that this fraud is exactly the same as the fraud being charged in the California by former Chief Financial Officer of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, P. Victor Gonzalez, in his False Claims case against his former employer to the tune of $180 million.
Let's just say: you haven't heard the last of this story.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The worst service ever!
Everett Planned Parenthood receives bad review from client.
"leaha l." calls out the Take Charge plan specifically and says she will "NEVER go back there again."
"leaha l." calls out the Take Charge plan specifically and says she will "NEVER go back there again."
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
It's About Life Conference April 19, 2009
Here's some photos from the It's About Life Conference with Fr. Pavone.
Go directly to the slideshow.
Also, Fr. Bloom has some of his pictures posted.
Go directly to the slideshow.
Also, Fr. Bloom has some of his pictures posted.
Monday, April 20, 2009
North Seattle's Newest Late-Term Abortion Clinic: "A Complete Disaster"
We just thought we'd share this new public review of Seattle's newest abortion clinic, which apparently does 24 week horror abortions. The review, by a "John Walters", is titled "A complete Disaster!! DO NOT GO HERE!!!" :
We wanted to do our part to help publicize this couple's experience.
Of course, we are most deeply sorry for this couple's baby that was killed. And for anyone thinking about an abortion, please contact a pregnancy resource clinic like Life Choices of King County at 1.877.668.2566.
I am so sorry if any women have to go here for an abortion. My girlfriend and I are very sorry too. Sure, the waiting room was ok, but everyone who worked there had no idea what they were doing. The lady answering the phone did not even know the number to the office; and the doctor, I would be suprised if he was a doctor. (I only hope the stuff they use was cleaned properly!) My girlfriend told me that the doctor wasnt very gentle either (she is standing over my shoulder while I write this) and that he said "just relax girl, its just like liposuction then you will be back to beautiful." Why would a professional say that to her? Is this a joke to him? Hell, I could spend all night writing about this, and maybe I should, but I have to take care of my girl. My only hope is that if anyone is thinking about an abortion, DO NOT GO HERE!!!
We wanted to do our part to help publicize this couple's experience.
Of course, we are most deeply sorry for this couple's baby that was killed. And for anyone thinking about an abortion, please contact a pregnancy resource clinic like Life Choices of King County at 1.877.668.2566.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Time to Ramp it Up: Call State House Budget Leaders Today!
Heed the call:
Last week, Life of the Party urged pro-lifers and fiscal conservatives alike to contact state house and senate budget leaders and tell them to cut the entire $9 million for what the abortion industry euphemistically calls "family planning" from the state budget. The government has no business funding the abortion industry under any euphemism.
That $9 million doesn't even include the $7 million spent on abortions; or the sex "education" programs in the schools, or the oodles of money that goes to Planned Parenthood to create the next generation of PP customers with their soul destroying sexualization programs.
Get the facts: Pro-Choice with my Money.
Understand the problem:
If you saw the front page of this morning's Seattle Times, you'll know that the Senate is planning on, among other things, closing the McNeil Island Correctional Complex, closing Green Hill School, (the state lockup for violent and gang-entrenched juveniles), downsizing the state prison population by 1,900 inmates, and dropping people convicted of low-level felonies and misdemeanors from probation.
What about the abortion industry?
The state is proposing a paltry $1 million cut this year in "family planning" funding in the first year of the budget, and complete elimination of funding for the program in the second year. However, the abortion industry is expecting funding for the second year to come from the Feds to cover that loss.
Cuts to Planned Parenthood? None. Rep. Larry Springer (D) told me personally he would "never" cut funding for Planned Parenthood. AG Rob McKenna (R) says he will "defend a woman's right to choose at every opportunity." Gov. Gregoire (D) dictated that pharmacists will be denied their First Amendment right to refuse to participate in the abortion industry.
When they have to pick between property rights and the "right" to abortion, which do you think they are going to side with? When they have to pick between civil rights and the "right" to abortion, where will their loyalties fall?
This is why it's called a culture of death. The government would rather put violent criminals on the street than stop the violent criminals in the quiet, manicured, and air-conditioned offices of death.
The death and violence feeds on itself.
This is why it's called the abortion distortion. Everything must bend and twist to accomodate the abortion industry and its blood lust. Nothing must get in its way; not a budget crisis, not public safety, not the loss of jobs. It is an insatiable beast.
This is a personal and particular plea to those citizens who cry, "keep the government out of our bedrooms." It's time to put your money where your mouth is. If you look at these numbers and don't think think the government is already in our bedrooms, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Now more than ever, we need to end funding for Planned Parenthood and cut off every tentacle of the abortion industry.
Last week, Life of the Party urged pro-lifers and fiscal conservatives alike to contact state house and senate budget leaders and tell them to cut the entire $9 million for what the abortion industry euphemistically calls "family planning" from the state budget. The government has no business funding the abortion industry under any euphemism.
That $9 million doesn't even include the $7 million spent on abortions; or the sex "education" programs in the schools, or the oodles of money that goes to Planned Parenthood to create the next generation of PP customers with their soul destroying sexualization programs.
Get the facts: Pro-Choice with my Money.
Understand the problem:
If you saw the front page of this morning's Seattle Times, you'll know that the Senate is planning on, among other things, closing the McNeil Island Correctional Complex, closing Green Hill School, (the state lockup for violent and gang-entrenched juveniles), downsizing the state prison population by 1,900 inmates, and dropping people convicted of low-level felonies and misdemeanors from probation.
The House, in its proposed budget, would cut probation time for violent felons and sex offenders; allow for home detention instead of incarceration in some cases; close the medium-security Naselle Youth Camp; and eliminate parole for nearly a third of all juvenile offenders.The move would save about $16 million over the next two years, legislative budget staff said.
What about the abortion industry?
The state is proposing a paltry $1 million cut this year in "family planning" funding in the first year of the budget, and complete elimination of funding for the program in the second year. However, the abortion industry is expecting funding for the second year to come from the Feds to cover that loss.
Cuts to Planned Parenthood? None. Rep. Larry Springer (D) told me personally he would "never" cut funding for Planned Parenthood. AG Rob McKenna (R) says he will "defend a woman's right to choose at every opportunity." Gov. Gregoire (D) dictated that pharmacists will be denied their First Amendment right to refuse to participate in the abortion industry.
When they have to pick between property rights and the "right" to abortion, which do you think they are going to side with? When they have to pick between civil rights and the "right" to abortion, where will their loyalties fall?
This is why it's called a culture of death. The government would rather put violent criminals on the street than stop the violent criminals in the quiet, manicured, and air-conditioned offices of death.
The death and violence feeds on itself.
This is why it's called the abortion distortion. Everything must bend and twist to accomodate the abortion industry and its blood lust. Nothing must get in its way; not a budget crisis, not public safety, not the loss of jobs. It is an insatiable beast.
This is a personal and particular plea to those citizens who cry, "keep the government out of our bedrooms." It's time to put your money where your mouth is. If you look at these numbers and don't think think the government is already in our bedrooms, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Now more than ever, we need to end funding for Planned Parenthood and cut off every tentacle of the abortion industry.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Abortion in the Case of Rape
"In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness, and tenderness leads to the gas chamber."Michelle at Life of the Party has an excellent post about abortion, "hard cases", and exceptions.
--Flannery O'Connor
The best part of her post is knowing that our friend Ed Mohs is alive because of faithful people who love no matter what the cost and laws based on justice and truth.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
"There's a very ugly smell in there."
An "ugly smell" was reported to be emanating from the Everett Planned Parenthood around noon on Friday April 3rd. Staff left in a hurry and appointments were cancelled as doors were locked at 12:15.
Speculation has centered on perhaps a backed up sewer or garbage disposal.
Read more....
Inquiries to Planned Parenthood have gone unanswered.
Speculation has centered on perhaps a backed up sewer or garbage disposal.
Read more....
Inquiries to Planned Parenthood have gone unanswered.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Spokane Falls Community College Claims Pro-life Speech Against Washington Law; McKenna's Office to Defend College
Not to be believed, but yes, SFCC "threatened Beth Sheeran and members of a Christian student group with disciplinary measures, including expulsion, if they chose to hold a pro-life event on campus to share information with other students because the message was 'discriminatory' and did not include a pro-abortion viewpoint."
Read the whole story from the ADF who is representing the students in their law suit against SFCC.
Here's the offending flyer the pro-life students wanted posted in a display case.
What these pro-life students went through, not only with the school administration but with their faculty advisory is outrageous.
Not only were they told that their "pro-life display was 'offensive' and 'discriminatory,' they were also required to also present the opposite point of view during the event.
But here's another whopper, "Defendant McKenzie (Director of Student Funded Programs at the College) also told SFCF’s (Spokane Falls Christian Fellowship) president that Washington is a “pro-choice” state, so SFCF could not use state money for “non-pro-choice” speech events.
And it gets worse, Ms. Kurtz, a professor of English at the College and SFCF faculty advisor, told Ms. Sheeran and SFCF members that the pro-life event violated state law according to Wash. Admin. Code § 132Q-30-242. (Verified Complaint of Plaintiff: pp 10-11) She capped that information off with a lovely, “You don’t want to be expelled, do you?”
How did this woman get selected as faculty advisor to a pro-life group?!
According to the student newspaper The Communicator, the CCS (Community Colleges of Spokane) will be represented by Wash. State Attorney General's Office representative, Jerry Cartwright. Yep. That would be Rob "I will defend a woman's right to choose at every opportunity" McKenna's office.
A preliminary hearing has been set for April 29 at 3:00 p.m. at the Federal District Courthouse in Spokane. Sheeran will have the opportunity to present her case at the hearing.
I think I know some pro-lifers who are going to be paying a visit to SFCC in the near future.
Read the whole story from the ADF who is representing the students in their law suit against SFCC.
Here's the offending flyer the pro-life students wanted posted in a display case.
What these pro-life students went through, not only with the school administration but with their faculty advisory is outrageous.
Not only were they told that their "pro-life display was 'offensive' and 'discriminatory,' they were also required to also present the opposite point of view during the event.
But here's another whopper, "Defendant McKenzie (Director of Student Funded Programs at the College) also told SFCF’s (Spokane Falls Christian Fellowship) president that Washington is a “pro-choice” state, so SFCF could not use state money for “non-pro-choice” speech events.
And it gets worse, Ms. Kurtz, a professor of English at the College and SFCF faculty advisor, told Ms. Sheeran and SFCF members that the pro-life event violated state law according to Wash. Admin. Code § 132Q-30-242. (Verified Complaint of Plaintiff: pp 10-11) She capped that information off with a lovely, “You don’t want to be expelled, do you?”
How did this woman get selected as faculty advisor to a pro-life group?!
According to the student newspaper The Communicator, the CCS (Community Colleges of Spokane) will be represented by Wash. State Attorney General's Office representative, Jerry Cartwright. Yep. That would be Rob "I will defend a woman's right to choose at every opportunity" McKenna's office.
A preliminary hearing has been set for April 29 at 3:00 p.m. at the Federal District Courthouse in Spokane. Sheeran will have the opportunity to present her case at the hearing.
I think I know some pro-lifers who are going to be paying a visit to SFCC in the near future.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monroe Planned Parenthood Abortion Mill Closes
Read the story about it in the Everett Herald here.
Of course Herald "reporter" accepts PP line without asking any questions. Incompetent fools.
Of course Herald "reporter" accepts PP line without asking any questions. Incompetent fools.
Photos from 2009 Everett Vigil to Planned Parenthood
Some great pictures from the Everett vigil and procession to Planned Parenthood were sent to me.
Here's some more of the Mass and the Knights of Columbus with Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Here's some more of the Mass and the Knights of Columbus with Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Boycott List
UPDATE: Seattle Coffee Works has agreed to no longer support NARAL!
(We've removed our post commenting on their relationship with NARAL.)
You can read more about what happened here.
Thank you Seattle Coffee Works!!
--------------------------
For some time now we've wanted to start a Washington state boycott list for all the companies and organizations in the state that support abortion.
At the top if the list is Rick Steves the travel author and his Europe Through the Back Door series of books and videos. If you've ever heard any of his shows on Europe you get the feeling he really, really hates the Catholic Church. And, surprise, surprise he's also on the Honorary Council of NARAL Washington. Funny how those two things always go together. (How about sending any books and videos of his you might have back to him with a vow to never watch his PBS show or buy any of his products ever again.)
Consider this the start of the list. We'll add names as we get them and tag them under Boycott.
(We've removed our post commenting on their relationship with NARAL.)
You can read more about what happened here.
Thank you Seattle Coffee Works!!
--------------------------
For some time now we've wanted to start a Washington state boycott list for all the companies and organizations in the state that support abortion.
At the top if the list is Rick Steves the travel author and his Europe Through the Back Door series of books and videos. If you've ever heard any of his shows on Europe you get the feeling he really, really hates the Catholic Church. And, surprise, surprise he's also on the Honorary Council of NARAL Washington. Funny how those two things always go together. (How about sending any books and videos of his you might have back to him with a vow to never watch his PBS show or buy any of his products ever again.)
Consider this the start of the list. We'll add names as we get them and tag them under Boycott.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Head of Washington NARAL to Retire
One of Gov. Christine Gregoire's closest advisors, NARAL executive director Karen Cooper, is retiring this spring.The governor and the head of the state's abortion lobby have worked together on many efforts to promote abortion here -- forcing pharmacists into the abortion business, reinterpreting state abortion law to allow for non-physicians to perform abortions, denying women any protections at all from the many abortionists who ply their ugly trade in our state, just to name a few.
Gregoire has long coddled the abortion industry as she needed their funding in her quest for power.
The number of children killed and tears cried by their mothers and fathers because of this duo is a number known only to God.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Sign the Pro-Life Petition
Sign the petition today!
Urge Washington State Legislature to regain justice for all citizens of the State of Washington, born and unborn, and to ensure the provision of adequate and honest education pertaining to fetal development (according to biology), and abortion and it's effects in schools, clinics, and hospitals in the state of Washington. Request for truthful and factual fetal development education in clinics and hospitals that perform abortions. We will support our fellow citizens and encourage them to make the best decision concerning their specific situation. We, the undersigned, do hereby request the involvement of the Washington State Legislature concerning this issue.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Prayer Vigil and Procession to Everett Planned Parenthood
A Pro-life Prayer vigil marking the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Roe versus Wade Supreme Court decision was held on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 2501 Hoyt Avenue, Everett, WA.
The program began with Morning Prayer followed by Mass and a prayerful walk to the local Planned Parenthood Clinic. Mass intentions and music selections focused on the unborn and their mothers. Officiating at Holy Mass was Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, Archdiocese of Seattle, and Fr. Brian Hersey, pastor of Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic parishes.
Patty Bellows, vigil organizer, said, “Our purpose is to ask Almighty God to change the hearts of those seeking an abortion and the conversion of the hearts of those who provide abortions.” At the conclusion of Mass, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction, a procession and recitation of the Most Holy Rosary was prayed.
During the Homily, Fr. Hersey told a story relating to Mother Teresa. A reporter once inquired of her, “How can you continue to bring children into this world?” Mother Teresa simply answered, “Bring them to me.”
Lunch was served by the Knights of Columbus Councils Everett #763 and Marysville #7863 and the Youth Ministry ClubSix56. Additionally, members of John F. Kennedy Assembly #1530 participated in regalia. Nearly 225 people attended this peaceful, powerful and prayerful vigil.
The program began with Morning Prayer followed by Mass and a prayerful walk to the local Planned Parenthood Clinic. Mass intentions and music selections focused on the unborn and their mothers. Officiating at Holy Mass was Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, Archdiocese of Seattle, and Fr. Brian Hersey, pastor of Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic parishes.
Patty Bellows, vigil organizer, said, “Our purpose is to ask Almighty God to change the hearts of those seeking an abortion and the conversion of the hearts of those who provide abortions.” At the conclusion of Mass, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction, a procession and recitation of the Most Holy Rosary was prayed.
During the Homily, Fr. Hersey told a story relating to Mother Teresa. A reporter once inquired of her, “How can you continue to bring children into this world?” Mother Teresa simply answered, “Bring them to me.”
Lunch was served by the Knights of Columbus Councils Everett #763 and Marysville #7863 and the Youth Ministry ClubSix56. Additionally, members of John F. Kennedy Assembly #1530 participated in regalia. Nearly 225 people attended this peaceful, powerful and prayerful vigil.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
More Photos from Washington State March for Life 2009
Check them out at the Gospel of Life Institute.
Monday, January 26, 2009
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.
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.
###
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Pelosi Supports More Transfer of Wealth to Planned Parenthood
Is this woman stupid or what?
As we've shown on this blog, (Remember we just do this in our "spare time". Imagine if we got paid to do this!) whether it's Plan B or old-fashioned birth control pills -- these transfers of wealth are nothing but cash cows for Planned Parenthood. Furthermore, they cost the state money in increased abortion and birth costs.
The only thing this will "stimulate" is more out of wedlock pregnancies, abortions, damage to women's health, expense to the state, STD's and neutered men.
As we've shown on this blog, (Remember we just do this in our "spare time". Imagine if we got paid to do this!) whether it's Plan B or old-fashioned birth control pills -- these transfers of wealth are nothing but cash cows for Planned Parenthood. Furthermore, they cost the state money in increased abortion and birth costs.
The only thing this will "stimulate" is more out of wedlock pregnancies, abortions, damage to women's health, expense to the state, STD's and neutered men.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
More from Olympia 2009 Pro-life Week
--Artistic and emotional pictures from Andrew St. Hilaire at The Transient Hour. 1/20/09
Here are the slide shows I took: (Send me links to your pics at the March or other events from the week.)
--Tuesday January 20th, 2009
--January 22, 2009
--Article by Adam Wilson blog in the Olympian. 1/20/09
--KOMO news video of March for Life Olympia. 1/20/09
--Video from the Olympian of the 36th Anniversary of Roe v Wade in Olympia, January 22, 2009 -- Includes Silent No More Awareness! 1/22/09
--Article in the Olympian on the March for Life. Washington DC. 1/22/09
Here are the slide shows I took: (Send me links to your pics at the March or other events from the week.)
--Tuesday January 20th, 2009
 |
| March for Life Olympia 2009 |
--January 22, 2009
 |
| Roe v Wade Day Olympia, Washington (Caution: some graphic photos are visible.) |
--Article by Adam Wilson blog in the Olympian. 1/20/09
--KOMO news video of March for Life Olympia. 1/20/09
--Video from the Olympian of the 36th Anniversary of Roe v Wade in Olympia, January 22, 2009 -- Includes Silent No More Awareness! 1/22/09
--Article in the Olympian on the March for Life. Washington DC. 1/22/09
Friday, January 23, 2009
Why Abortion is Legal in Washington
The myth goes something like this -- The enlightened people of Washington state, freed from the shackles of religion (especially all things Catholic), and in their infinite wisdom and goodness came together through the democratic process to support and embrace unlimited abortion for the good of all women. It was democracy's finest hour.
I think it should be fairly obvious to any unbiased observer that the "will of the people" has very little to do with the unbridled access to and promotion of abortion in this state. It should also be fairly obvious that most people do not want to support the killing of unborn children.
1) The abortion lobby has been able to buy the laws and politicians (the stupid or cowardly or power-hungry of both parties) unwilling to make any changes in our abortion laws.
2) Most people in the state are indifferent to, ignorant about or fearful to confront the problem of abortion.
3) Washington elites in business, government, media, law and education want abortion legal and they will lie, cheat and steal to keep it that way.
4) The people who have the will to change the state's abortion regime are powerless to bring about change through legislative means at this time, and
5) The Catholic Church leadership and groups within the Archdiocese of Seattle have been negligent in their duty to educate the faithful about the crime of abortion and, at some point decided that in exchange for financial largess from the state for their charitable works they would not fight the state on abortion.
Now we have the pictures to prove it.
This slideshow is from Tuesday January 20th, 2009. Look at all the people!
I think it should be fairly obvious to any unbiased observer that the "will of the people" has very little to do with the unbridled access to and promotion of abortion in this state. It should also be fairly obvious that most people do not want to support the killing of unborn children.
1) The abortion lobby has been able to buy the laws and politicians (the stupid or cowardly or power-hungry of both parties) unwilling to make any changes in our abortion laws.
2) Most people in the state are indifferent to, ignorant about or fearful to confront the problem of abortion.
3) Washington elites in business, government, media, law and education want abortion legal and they will lie, cheat and steal to keep it that way.
4) The people who have the will to change the state's abortion regime are powerless to bring about change through legislative means at this time, and
5) The Catholic Church leadership and groups within the Archdiocese of Seattle have been negligent in their duty to educate the faithful about the crime of abortion and, at some point decided that in exchange for financial largess from the state for their charitable works they would not fight the state on abortion.
Now we have the pictures to prove it.
|
| March for Life Olympia, WA -- 2009 |
This slideshow is from Tuesday January 20th, 2009. Look at all the people!
|
| Roe v Wade Day Olympia, Washington (Caution: some graphic photos are visible.) |
This slideshow is from January 22, 2009 the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The pro-choice crowd did not quite gather the four to seven thousand the pro-lifers did two days before.
If the media ever got around to reporting the truth about abortion instead of marketing it free of charge, and if the government's inordinate involvement in abortion, including the millions upon millions of dollars they shovel to the abortion industry each year, ever ceased abortion would be gone in a heartbeat.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Abortion Advodates to Rally in Favor of Roe v. Wade
From the "Radical Women" --
Rally at Olympia Capital Steps to celebrate the defense of abortion rights: Jan 22, 2009 at noon!
Celebrate the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion by joining with other defenders of choice on the steps of the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia, WA. Protest starts at noon!
In previous years, the right wing "March for Life" has gathered at the Capitol on the date of the historic Supreme Court ruling. This year, however, the Roe v. Wade Celebration committee took the offensive by reserving the spot for a rally to honor safe and legal abortion!
Radical Women is organizing a carpool from Seattle that will leave at 10am. For more information, please call 206-722-6057 or email rwseattle@mindspring.com. *************************************************************
See also, Washington General Administration Events Calendar.
I'll be at the "right wing" March for Life tomorrow (the 20th) with the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and also Life of the Party.
Hope to see you there!
Rally at Olympia Capital Steps to celebrate the defense of abortion rights: Jan 22, 2009 at noon!
Celebrate the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion by joining with other defenders of choice on the steps of the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia, WA. Protest starts at noon!
In previous years, the right wing "March for Life" has gathered at the Capitol on the date of the historic Supreme Court ruling. This year, however, the Roe v. Wade Celebration committee took the offensive by reserving the spot for a rally to honor safe and legal abortion!
Radical Women is organizing a carpool from Seattle that will leave at 10am. For more information, please call 206-722-6057 or email rwseattle@mindspring.com. *************************************************************
See also, Washington General Administration Events Calendar.
I'll be at the "right wing" March for Life tomorrow (the 20th) with the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and also Life of the Party.
Hope to see you there!
Over 7,000 Gather in Portland to Stand Against Roe v. Wade
"Take a look at these photos from yesteray's rally, where 7,000 pro-lifer's gathered. I think that might be me speaking. It's too far to tell. God provided the perfect sunny day and all the details went perfectly. The event started out with a moment of silence to commemorate the 50 million unborn babies lost to abortion since 1973. A loud recording of a giant bell ringing 50 times. Meanwhile, the stark contrast of angry pro-choicers yelled from across the street.
Dr. Rosenbloom, President of Oregon Right to Life pointed out that pro-life is the true movement of peace and one that is the most misunderstood because we are the most truly pro-woman than any other movement. It was a day sent from God"
And this note from VOCAL (Voice of Catholics Advocating Life) who supplied the photos.
And this note from VOCAL (Voice of Catholics Advocating Life) who supplied the photos.
Dear Advocates for Life,
History was made at Pioneer Courthouse Square this Sunday, when over seven-thousand cold, but warm hearted pro-lifers gathered for Oregon Right to Life's Annual Roe vs. Wade Memorial Rally.
There might not be any media coverage, so enjoy these pictures sent to me by Cheri Crocker of Salem. Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, spoke to Christan News Northwest before the event: "We see God's sovereignty in this.....Our board made the decision that we wanted to make it bigger and take it to the heart of downtown Portland. They need the message of life more than any other city in the state of Oregon.
We made this decision early in the year, but in retrospect, with the results from the election, I'm happier than ever that we made it."Coming into Portland did bring a little confrontation, but this too was expected and showed stark contrast to what the saving the pre-born children is all about. Maybe hearing the speakers made a small conversion in their conscience.
One sign said "God is invisible"...held by a young woman...let's pray that she "saw" him in those at the rally.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life Coming to Seattle, Olympia
Dinner Tickets - Fr. Frank Pavone
April 18-19, 2009
Fr. Frank will be at the Planned Parenthood Abortion Mill in Olympia on Saturday, April 18th 2009 at 3 PM. He will then preach at the 5 PM Mass at St. Michael Church in Olympia. If you would like to join Fr. Frank for dinner and hear him talk after Mass, you will need to purchase a ticket from the Knights of Columbus.
On Sunday, April 19, Fr. Pavone will preach during the morning Masses at Holy Family Church in White Center, (West Seattle) followed by a 5:30 dinner at the KOC Hall in Seattle.
Dinner tickets are very limited, and will go fast.
They will be sold for $25 each, beginning Tuesday, January 20. Contact Tom Hruska 360-561-5548 for tickets, or for more information.
April 18-19, 2009
Fr. Frank will be at the Planned Parenthood Abortion Mill in Olympia on Saturday, April 18th 2009 at 3 PM. He will then preach at the 5 PM Mass at St. Michael Church in Olympia. If you would like to join Fr. Frank for dinner and hear him talk after Mass, you will need to purchase a ticket from the Knights of Columbus.
On Sunday, April 19, Fr. Pavone will preach during the morning Masses at Holy Family Church in White Center, (West Seattle) followed by a 5:30 dinner at the KOC Hall in Seattle.
Dinner tickets are very limited, and will go fast.
They will be sold for $25 each, beginning Tuesday, January 20. Contact Tom Hruska 360-561-5548 for tickets, or for more information.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
New Pro-life Company...Right Here in Seattle!
Oh Lord, I hope the pro-aborts and the politicians leave these good people alone.
Fr. Euteneuer elaborates on the need to support this fledgling company.
Fr. Euteneuer elaborates on the need to support this fledgling company.
Friday, January 09, 2009
America's 'Choice' for Maximum Leader
Guest Editorial by Ed Mohs, Coordinator for the Fall '08 40 Days For Life Campaign Everett
President-elect Obama, the abortion president, will soon take office on January 20, 2009. Indeed, this will be an excruciatingly painful day for America. During his campaign, Mr. Obama voiced his full support for the killing of our unborn sisters and brothers by abortion. In fact, he even went so far as to say that a child who survived an abortion should be left to die, not resuscitated. Ouch!
An article by Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com, June 10, 2008, reported that President-elect Obama’s first priority as president would be to “sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” a statement made in a speech to abortion supporters of Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund.
The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is legislation Obama has co-sponsored that would end all state laws limiting or regulating abortion, including the federal ban on partial birth abortion. It would also terminate informed consent laws, waiting periods, and health safety regulations for abortion clinics.
According to the same article, the 2007 version of FOCA proposed: "It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman."
“America has made her ‘choice’ for maximum leader and it is not pretty", said Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president, Human Life International. In fact, it is one of the most devastating blows to American civilization that we have ever undergone, and I do not speak in hyperbole. He then quoted Mother Theresa: a nation that kills its children has no future.
I ask for God’s Mercy and love upon our undeserving nation. We proudly rejected God and have chosen abortion-president-elect Obama. Indeed, January 20, 2009 will be an incredibly sad day. Have mercy on us, Lord. We have sinned against you.
President-elect Obama, the abortion president, will soon take office on January 20, 2009. Indeed, this will be an excruciatingly painful day for America. During his campaign, Mr. Obama voiced his full support for the killing of our unborn sisters and brothers by abortion. In fact, he even went so far as to say that a child who survived an abortion should be left to die, not resuscitated. Ouch!
An article by Peter J. Smith, LifeSiteNews.com, June 10, 2008, reported that President-elect Obama’s first priority as president would be to “sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” a statement made in a speech to abortion supporters of Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund.
The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is legislation Obama has co-sponsored that would end all state laws limiting or regulating abortion, including the federal ban on partial birth abortion. It would also terminate informed consent laws, waiting periods, and health safety regulations for abortion clinics.
According to the same article, the 2007 version of FOCA proposed: "It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman."
“America has made her ‘choice’ for maximum leader and it is not pretty", said Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president, Human Life International. In fact, it is one of the most devastating blows to American civilization that we have ever undergone, and I do not speak in hyperbole. He then quoted Mother Theresa: a nation that kills its children has no future.
I ask for God’s Mercy and love upon our undeserving nation. We proudly rejected God and have chosen abortion-president-elect Obama. Indeed, January 20, 2009 will be an incredibly sad day. Have mercy on us, Lord. We have sinned against you.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Planned Parenthood of Western Washington to Reorg, Join with PP Alaska, PP Idaho
American Life Leauge Reports --
Major merger of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the Northwest
As of January 1, 2009, three Planned Parenthood affiliates have merged their operations. Planned Parenthood of Alaska, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, and Planned Parenthood of Idaho will now operate as one new affiliate – Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. According to the latest financial data filed by each of these affiliates, their annual income is:
Planned Parenthood of Alaska.................$ 2,653,590 (2007)
Planned Parenthood of Western Washington.....$ 28,946,766 (2006)
Planned Parenthood of Idaho..................$ 2,190,789 (2007)
Clearly, this is a situation where PP of Western Washington is expanding its reach. We have told you previously that the Planned Parenthood Federation wants to do away with all of its smaller affiliates. That desire is what led Planned Parenthood of Amarillo to withdraw from the federation and that desire is clearly at work here.
According to our records, the combined organization will operate a total of 27 clinics in the three states (28 when the new Juneau, Alaska site opens). This includes 20 facilities that do medical or surgical abortions. The initial announcement was that no clinics would close and no employees would lose their jobs, but it is normal for both to happen during the first year of operation following a merger such as this.
Planned Parenthood continues to cut costs and streamline its operations. With the merger of these affiliates, the number of Planned Parenthood affiliates falls to 99 – the lowest number since 1960. At its peak, Planned Parenthood had 191 affiliates in 1978, but that number has steadily declined through the years. When a merger happens, duplicate positions (presidents, executive directors, medical directors, etc.) normally get eliminated and PP saves money – and makes more profits.
In addition, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington pointed out in its fall 2008 newsletter that “the merge means multiplying the political clout of Planned Parenthood in the region by three. Our Government Relations, Media Relations, Public Relations, and Public Policy teams can apply the influence of the entire three-state region.”
In other words, the new affiliate can be expected to try to obtain more and more government money and get favorable laws and regulations passed in all three states.
Major merger of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the Northwest
As of January 1, 2009, three Planned Parenthood affiliates have merged their operations. Planned Parenthood of Alaska, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, and Planned Parenthood of Idaho will now operate as one new affiliate – Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. According to the latest financial data filed by each of these affiliates, their annual income is:
Planned Parenthood of Alaska.................$ 2,653,590 (2007)
Planned Parenthood of Western Washington.....$ 28,946,766 (2006)
Planned Parenthood of Idaho..................$ 2,190,789 (2007)
Clearly, this is a situation where PP of Western Washington is expanding its reach. We have told you previously that the Planned Parenthood Federation wants to do away with all of its smaller affiliates. That desire is what led Planned Parenthood of Amarillo to withdraw from the federation and that desire is clearly at work here.
According to our records, the combined organization will operate a total of 27 clinics in the three states (28 when the new Juneau, Alaska site opens). This includes 20 facilities that do medical or surgical abortions. The initial announcement was that no clinics would close and no employees would lose their jobs, but it is normal for both to happen during the first year of operation following a merger such as this.
Planned Parenthood continues to cut costs and streamline its operations. With the merger of these affiliates, the number of Planned Parenthood affiliates falls to 99 – the lowest number since 1960. At its peak, Planned Parenthood had 191 affiliates in 1978, but that number has steadily declined through the years. When a merger happens, duplicate positions (presidents, executive directors, medical directors, etc.) normally get eliminated and PP saves money – and makes more profits.
In addition, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington pointed out in its fall 2008 newsletter that “the merge means multiplying the political clout of Planned Parenthood in the region by three. Our Government Relations, Media Relations, Public Relations, and Public Policy teams can apply the influence of the entire three-state region.”
In other words, the new affiliate can be expected to try to obtain more and more government money and get favorable laws and regulations passed in all three states.
Washington State March for Life and Walk for Life West Coast 2009
Olympia March for Life 2009
Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, January 20, 2009 and plan on participating in the 31st annual Washington State March for Life in Olympia to witness that all life is sacred. The March will be followed by a Week for Life. Visit http://www.washingtonmarchforlife.org/ for more information.
If your group is planning on taking a bus to the Washington State March for Life, contact Aileen McEntee Carrell at 253-507-8812. If you have additional information or questions, contact Dick McEntee at 253-564-1497.
March for Life Buses
The Central Deanery Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women is sponsoring two buses to the March for Life in Olympia on January 20, 2009. The buses will arrive in time for riders to attend Mass at St. Michael's. Please see the flyer for more information. Space is limited. The deadline for bus reservations is January 13.
Please visit our Spotlight page for additional bus information and updates.
San Francisco pro-life events -- Walk for Life West Coast
Join tens of thousands of pro-life women, men, families, and friends as they take to the streets of beautiful San Francisco proclaiming that ‘Abortion Hurts Women’ and ‘Women Deserve Better than Abortion®’. Walk on January 24, 2009 and let the world know that there is an ever increasing voice for Life on the West Coast! Join Walk for Life West Coast in ever greater numbers as we challenge the belief that abortion is a good choice for women. Walk to proclaim that Life is a Choice —Life is the Best Choice!
If you would like to organize a group or would like further information, call 415/586-1576 or e-mail info@WalkforLifeWC.com
Please help promote this event by downloading and distributing the .pdf flyers: English or Spanish
Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, January 20, 2009 and plan on participating in the 31st annual Washington State March for Life in Olympia to witness that all life is sacred. The March will be followed by a Week for Life. Visit http://www.washingtonmarchforlife.org/ for more information.
If your group is planning on taking a bus to the Washington State March for Life, contact Aileen McEntee Carrell at 253-507-8812. If you have additional information or questions, contact Dick McEntee at 253-564-1497.
March for Life Buses
The Central Deanery Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women is sponsoring two buses to the March for Life in Olympia on January 20, 2009. The buses will arrive in time for riders to attend Mass at St. Michael's. Please see the flyer for more information. Space is limited. The deadline for bus reservations is January 13.
Please visit our Spotlight page for additional bus information and updates.
San Francisco pro-life events -- Walk for Life West Coast
Join tens of thousands of pro-life women, men, families, and friends as they take to the streets of beautiful San Francisco proclaiming that ‘Abortion Hurts Women’ and ‘Women Deserve Better than Abortion®’. Walk on January 24, 2009 and let the world know that there is an ever increasing voice for Life on the West Coast! Join Walk for Life West Coast in ever greater numbers as we challenge the belief that abortion is a good choice for women. Walk to proclaim that Life is a Choice —Life is the Best Choice!
If you would like to organize a group or would like further information, call 415/586-1576 or e-mail info@WalkforLifeWC.com
Please help promote this event by downloading and distributing the .pdf flyers: English or Spanish
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