Stand with Truth

Thanksgiving Eve, November 25, 2009

This morning I am again amazed at the glory of God reflected in His creation. Today’s sunrise painted brilliant colors and although winter’s hibernation loomed, the crisp air was full of life. All preparation is in anticipation of Spring and presentment of plenty. His promises are present for our tomorrows. In such I give thanks.  It seems illogical to experience such peace and joy while also feeling such deep ache, fear and anger. Such conflict often leaves me voiceless….read more here...

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Finally, straight forward proof of the dramatic loss of liberty accompanying Speaker Pelosi’s health care “reform” bill. The debate has always truly been about liberty - who gets to decide what and when.

Speaker Pelosi’s bill, H.R. 3962, requires all Americans to a purchase a minimum health care insurance plan. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this basic required plan will cost the average family $15,000 a year by 2016. Failure to purchase this insurance will result in a substantial fine.

Failure to pay the fine can constitute “felony willful evasion” which is punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison. (H.R. 3962, §7201).[i]

Long ago, much of America’s political establishment and much of America’s business community abandoned principle when dealing with health care issues. This abandonment ushered formularies, treatment tables, Marx and bureaucrats into the examination room.

Currently, government spending comprises 46 cents of every health care dollar. Private insurance pays 42 cents of every dollar and the patient represents only 12 cents of the dollar. It is obvious who has the power in this equation.

Large insurance interests are willing to sell out liberty and support health care “reform” if they have the additional guaranteed premiums from the healthy and government is the only power that can create a market through the force of law.

The insurance companies have threatened to oppose any bill that does not create this new government generated and mandated market. The companies argued that they would go bankrupt under the Democratic plan due to the requirement to provide coverage to high cost patients with pre-existing conditions. The companies claimed these new mandated premiums are necessary for solvency. Pelosi needs the votes and cannot afford a full scale war with insurance.

And so Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have offered the uninsured an offer they cannot pass up: buy insurance or go to jail!

And so now you have it - the most tangible example of the dramatic freedom Americans are in danger of surrendering.

With this plan the insurance industry can count on a government created and mandated market generating additional revenue while the left can have a dramatic increase in government power.

This is the common pattern of the leftist incrementalism. First, highlight an issue and generate a perceived crisis. Next, claim a simple solution to the crisis and build on the media’s default belief that all solutions, all resolutions and all answers are found in the beltway. If there is a problem, there must be a government answer. Third, motivate constituencies around the issue and buy them off with the sharing of government power and monies.

Those at the table often are willing to sell out when they consider some government action inevitable and do not arrive at the negotiation with any guiding principles. Government always has enough power and/or money to share.

As a result government expands and another part of the American economy becomes less dependent on markets and more dependent on government power. This converts a portion of the American electorate to supporting ever increasing government expenditures in order to protect their share of the government pie. This formula for power expansion is virtually unlimited when we are willing to borrow from tomorrow.

And in the future, when the bills cannot be paid, government can simply raise the fine on the working poor who choose not to have health care or, simply pull the plug on grandma.

Why Speaker Pelosi and Planned Parenthood Love Kathleen Sebelius.

As Governor of Kansas, now Secretary Sebelius received her greatest political support from Planned Parenthood and George Tiller. The support was well-earned as Governor Sebelius appointed a Kansas Supreme Court that worked to thwart legitimate investigations of the two abortion providers and also recruited and helped fund an Attorney General candidate who would refuse to pursue legitimate charges against Sebelius’s benefactors.

It is not surprising that the left would now look to Sebelius to usher in mandated federal funding of elective abortion. Planned Parenthood already receives over $300 million of federal tax dollars, however, the push is to expand the market for abortion on demand. This is why Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032 page health care “reform” bill contains public funding for abortion (§222, p. 110, line 17) and allows Secretary Sebelius to determine what abortions are covered. The bill also mandates a minimum $1 a month premium per enrollee for abortions. (§213, pg. 96). A House vote on this abortion measure is currently scheduled at 7:00 pm Eastern Time this Saturday.

Well, let’s take a quick look at what Governor Sebelius supported in Kansas. Late-term abortions on viable children were performed, for instance, because a prospective mother did not want to hire a babysitter when she attended the concert of her favorite rock band. Another example: a desire to compete in the current rodeo season was sufficient to justify the termination of the life of a perfectly viable unborn child just a few weeks before natural birth.[i]

These abortions were performed despite Kansas law that only allowed such abortions when two doctors find the mother “will suffer severe and irreversible damage to a major bodily function.”

So how did Sebelius help this happen? In the Spring of 2006 at the Democratic Governor’s Association, Sebelius stood with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and announced that Planned Parenthood, George Tiller and the Governor were teaming together to take out a “radical anti-choice Attorney General in Kansas” through spending millions of political dollars. Kansas has lax campaign finance laws and all the money could be spent independently without their “pro-choice mainstream” candidate from having to report any support from the abortion industry.

Further, the effort would receive support from the state’s major daily newspaper, the Kansas City Star. In the 2006 election the Star’s reporting, which included a failure to report the abortion political money flowing to Kansas, proved so valuable to the effort that the paper received Planned Parenthood’s “Maggie” Award, named after Margaret Sanger.

Why all of this focus on Kansas? Because Planned Parenthood was being investigated for criminal late-term abortion and if charges were eventually proven, federal law requires the loss of all federal funding.

The political effort succeeded. The “radical” AG was defeated and the Sebelius abortion industry picked AG assumed office and promptly dismissed all substantive charges and “cleared” Planned Parenthood.[ii]

Charges were eventually filed against Planned Parenthood by the defeated AG who went on to become a District Attorney. In fact, these charges are still pending. Sebelius, however, delivered again. As Governor, Sebelius appointed a majority of the Kansas Supreme Court, and they are appointed for life, without any confirmation process.

She appointed wisely. The Court’s lead writer on abortion is Justice Carol Beier who once worked for the pro-abortion National Women’s Law Center.

In January of 2008 the prosecution presented a key witness at a hearing in the Planned Parenthood case. The witness testified that a handwriting expert confirms that the documents produced by Planned Parenthood were manufactured. If this is true, it represents the commission of several felony crimes. Further, the witness in court pleadings has stated that Planned Parenthood apparently committed felonies to cover up misdemeanors. This testimony is devastating to Planned Parenthood.[iii]

And so, the Sebelius appointed AG[iv] went to the Sebelius picked court and obtained an order that the witness could no longer testify. The Kansas Supreme Court, in a one paragraph order without explanation or citing any legal authority and without notice to the prosecutor, simply silenced a witness to criminal activity. And so the only criminal case ever filed against Planned Parenthood sits in limbo.

Such is the world Governor Sebelius created in Kansas. Imagine what she will do with the nation and millions of mandated premiums for abortion services. Planned Parenthood’s investment in Sebelius has returned handsome dividends.

Hailing from Kansas I am naturally dubious of razzmatazz. I value straight forward speech and action and intuitively believe anything less is an effort at sleight of hand: the same Kansas instinct that caused Dorothy and Toto to pull back the curtain. Yet, when the curtain is pulled some behind such facades are not as good natured as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Rather, such efforts at revealing truth are met with vicious assaults. The lie for some is simply too precious.

Abby Johnson saw the truth - in a sonogram. The former Director of Planned Parenthood of College Station, Texas, witnessed an abortion on a sonogram. This revelation combined with a new business model in which Planned Parenthood was pushing abortion, compelled the Director to resign her position in October of this year. She now has joined forces with the local coalition for life organization to reveal the truth - if American justice will allow her to reveal the truth.

Planned Parenthood, which battles any legislative efforts to require mother’s to see a sonogram before an abortion, responded by suing Ms. Johnson. They want her silenced. Planned Parenthood claims that they must “protect patient privacy.” Yet, I am certain that it is not patient privacy which has the operatives at Planned Parenthood trying to use the force of law to pull their curtain back in place - it is the knowledge (or belief) that Americans would not support their organization of the truth is revealed - abortions on demand, failure to report child rape, “counselors” hired off the streets without experience and lack of patient follow-up to name a few.

I am also certain that Ms. Johnson would voluntarily agree not to reveal any patient identities. If patient privacy is a concern, Planned Parenthood should then walk away; but they won’t. We will just have to wait and see if a Texas judge is willing to trample the First Amendment in an effort to protect an industry; something which just might happen.

Battling Planned Parenthood in court is more similar to Alice in Wonderland rather than the Wizard of Oz - it only gets “curiouser and curiouser.” Rules are changeable and malleable taking on entirely new meanings to fit those who have the power to proclaim them - the media with newsprint and Judges with proclamations from the bench.

As a prosecutor, I battled Planned Parenthood for over five years. During this battle efforts were made to issue a subpoena for records with the names of patients removed. Patient privacy would be protected but the records were necessary in order to determine if Planned Parenthood was complying with Kansas late-term abortion laws. This resulted in a multi-year legal battle.

At one hearing, Planned Parenthood argued that privacy was still at issue even with the names redacted because the medical records contained the date of the womens’ last menstrual period and therefore the women could be identified. (This information is necessary to verify the gestational age of the fetus). When I responded by pointing out the obvious absurdity of this argument Planned Parenthood changed course - they then argued that a prosecutor must not ever be allowed any information that would allow a patient to identify herself from the record. The Johnson County, Kansas District Court Judge listened to this argument and later refused to honor a grand jury subpoena.

Such rulings place Planned Parenthood above the law. Certainly the woman herself knows she had an abortion. Preventing legitimate law enforcement efforts to obtain information to verify legal compliance in order to prevent a woman who already knows she had an abortion from identifying herself from her own medical records does not add anything to patient privacy but it sure prevents prosecution.

Although I won my legal battle in that the Kansas Supreme Court ordered Planned Parenthood to provide my office the redacted records and I charged Planned Parenthood with criminal charges: the men and women in robes hold the final card. As the case was preparing for trial, the Kansas Supreme Court, without notice and without stated legal justification, simply ordered the key witness to Planned Parenthood’s alleged crimes into silence by issuing a one paragraph order telling the key witness to alleged criminal activity that he can no longer speak. The Planned Parenthood charges are still pending and the gag order also still stands.

Planned Parenthood is sure hoping what worked in Kansas will work in Texas and that the rabbit hole will grow much, much larger.

To read more about Ms. Johnson and to see her interviewed click here

To visit the Coalition for Life website click here