The U.S. death toll exceeded 1,000 Thursday as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But the hardest hit, according to Planned Parenthood, was Planned Parenthood.
Bloomberg News reporter Steven Dennis observed Tuesday that the abortion giant was a sticking point in the bill meant to give a boost to workers and small businesses.
"One of the remaining snags in the stimulus package, I'm told: Democrats want abortion providers like Planned Parenthood to be eligible for aid under the small business portion of the bill," he said.
Other than that, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is a nonprofit organization — not a business — this would be the same "small business" that:
- Operates over 600 clinics in the United States
- Consists of up of 159 medical and non-medical affiliates
- Received $616.8 million in tax dollars in the last fiscal year
Late Wednesday evening the Senate voted on a bill that revised the House version — and removed most of the irrelevant add-ons Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., inserted in the House bill — including any chance of granting funds or loans to PPFA as a "small business." They weren't at all happy.
"While the Senate stimulus plan provides some much-needed resources for those impacted by #COVID19, the Trump administration and Republican leadership are ONCE AGAIN exploiting a public health crisis to target sexual and reproductive health care," they complained.
It wasn't just Republicans. The Senate vote was 96-0, a feat considered impossible even for a resolution naming a post office.
But PPFA wasn't finished. They listed a few of their major gripes they had with the Senate version, including:
- Expands the discriminatory Hyde amendment
- Allows [Small Business Administration] discretion to deny Planned Parenthood new nonprofit loans
- Drastically underfunds resources needed to protect our elections
The Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of federal funds to directly pay for an abortion. The third complaint that upset PPFA is that the House version would have permitted vote-by-mail and ballot harvesting, required extended early voting periods, called for registering to vote at the time of voting, and would have banned the voter ID laws many states have in place.
The abortion provider closed with, "GOP leadership from the White House to Congress to the states have made it abundantly clear: they'll continue to cater to anti-abortion extremists while threatening health care access for millions."
But that wasn't all of PPFA's COVID-19 crisis-related problems this week.
On Monday, the American College of Pediatricians, together with other professional medical groups representing more than 30,000 physicians, released a statement calling for an end to elective abortions during the coronavirus emergency.
"Elective abortion, both surgical and drug induced, also generates more patients to be seen in already overburdened emergency rooms. Most abortion providers instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms after the abortion. Approximately 5% of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage. Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage. Emergency room personnel — who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic — will be further strained to provide care to these women."
Also on Monday, The New York Times reported that at least two states — Ohio and Texas — ordered that all non-essential procedures be deferred until after the crisis to free up facilities, personnel, and personal protection equipment.
Both states determined that abortions, in most cases, are non-essential.
Throughout last weekend, the Ohio attorney general's office sent letters to abortion clinics throughout the state warning them to "immediately stop performing nonessential and elective surgical abortions."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement determining that elective procedures included "any type of abortion that is not medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother."
Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to have Paxton's order overturned.
"It's unconscionable that the Texas Attorney General is exploiting this pandemic to end abortion in the state," Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal nonprofit joining the lawsuit, said Wednesday, according to BuzzFeed News. "Abortion care is time-sensitive and essential health care that has a profound impact on a person's health and life, which is why it is protected as a constitutional right."
What's unconscionable and even outrageous is that an organization purporting to be concerned about health would utilize personal-protection equipment that is urgently needed elsewhere to save human lives in the midst of a global health crisis — in order to take lives.
The Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life nonprofit, reported that abortions make up 95 percent of PPFA's health care services.
Last year, according to its latest annual report, PPFA aborted 345,672 children. This year PPFA is the one being aborted — and they don't like it.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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