Political Update on the Human Capital Project
Thanks to the First Amendment and the internet, the Center for Medical Progress’s Human Capital investigative journalism study of Planned Parenthood’s traffic in human body parts is getting the attention of the non-pro-life world.
On Tuesday, July 28, there will be 48 “Women Betrayed” rallies around the country calling for state and federal investigations of Planned Parenthood. Rumor has it that one or more presidential candidates may even attend a Women Betrayed rally. Click here to find a rally near you.
Independent-thinking opinion writers like Kirsten Powers and Kathleen Parker are enhancing their standing by writing about this expose, but the secular, mainstream mass media is still pretending the story doesn’t exist.
The airwaves are not filled with stories about investigations that typically occur when something happens that does interest the mass media. For instance, who else at Planned Parenthood besides Cecile Richards is paid $500,000 a year? How do corporations make their way around laws that prohibit the sale of body parts? And so on. Federalist editor Mollie Hemingway has a great list of story ideas for reporters, in case any assignment editors are looking for handles on this topic.
Despite the mass media stonewall, the public is becoming aware of the revelations. And that is causing things to happen.
On July 21, there was a Special Order on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Usually it’s hard to get more than 30 minutes of time filled with a Special Order. This one ran over an hour and a half. Here are the videos of each of the 27 Members of Congress who participated.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), opening and closing
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and closing statement
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
Half of the members of the U.S. Senate have expressed concern. A bipartisan (kudos to Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia) group of 50, led by Joni Ernst (R-IA), signed a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, asking her to comply with investigations being launched by states (nine different states, at last count) and to facilitate congressional review of the matter. Planned Parenthood, after all, is a very big (more than $500 million per year) HHS grantee.
The nine states that have launched investigations so far are Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana.
Legislation to put a moratorium on funding to Planned Parenthood was introduced last week in the House by Diane Black (R-TN). Four days later, HR 3134, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, had garnered 137 co-sponsors. What’s different about this bill is that, unlike previous legislation to defund PP, it would permanently stop all funding streams—not just funding from Title X, but also from Medicaid.
Senator Joe Lankford (R-OK) introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S. 1836, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act. “While the government investigates Planned Parenthood to determine if their practice of adapting their abortion procedures to harvest the organs of children violates federal law, they should not continue to receive taxpayer money,” Lankford said.
True, introducing a bill is no guarantee that it will be enacted into law. But momentum to get Planned Parenthood off the federal dole has never been greater.
Of course, certain other Members of Congress think their colleagues are asking the wrong questions. On July 21, four House Dems urged Attorney General Lynch NOT to investigate Planned Parenthood, but to investigate the Center for Medical Progress instead.
Notice: Nobody is denying that baby-carving and baby-parts-selling is going on. When the subject comes up in the conservative media, PP surrogates use the Hillary Clinton line of defense: Think of all the good research that is done with these organs!
Interesting, isn’t it, that that the only thing Planned Parenthood’s friends in Congress can do is persecute the messenger? Asking the Attorney General to investigate is today’s version of shoot the messenger.
As Kirsten Powers noted: So what? When Mitt Romney was caught by “secret video” making his 47% remarks, how that clip was obtained was not the focus of the wave of news stories after its release.
As if using a fake ID were worse than crushing a baby.
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Connie Marshner is a commentator and researcher on life and family issues in the Washington, D.C., area.
Thank you for this complete overview of this unfolding disgrace and the important links. The voices shouting to drown out the truth are creating much noise but little distraction.
The truth is before our eyes and is utterly damning.